When Horace and Alice Wrinch moved to Hazelton in 1902 they rented a house (see photo below) on the bench above the town from Arthur Nelson, a Gitxsan elder. Horace performed surgeries on the kitchen table in this house. Other times he went to a patient’s own home and performed a needed surgery there, taking with him a door to use as a flat and stable operating surface. While living here he planned and built the first hospital in the interior of northern British Columbia (excluding the small hospital at Atlin on the Yukon border), as well as a family home. He also established a nurses training school and set up a hospital farm to provide food for patients, the hospital staff and his own family. This is the house where it was all planned. (Photo: my own collection)
