Lyonel Doherty
Times-Chronicle
This is part 5 of the Fairview After Dark series hosted by Rebecca Rizzo from the Oliver Museum.
Ready for a hold-up?
Well, if you asked Steve Mangott that question in the early 1900s, the Fairview miner would have said no. But that’s the card he was dealt anyway after losing the love of his life.
Rizzo said Mangott came to Fairview from the United States in the late 1880s to find his fortune.
He soon struck up a romance with Miss Lizzie Hunt who was employed as a housekeeper at the Hotel Fairview. But she sadly lost her life in a devastating fire that destroyed the popular landmark. This left Mangott grief-stricken and a bachelor for the rest of his life.
In spite of the personal tragedy, he continued to work at the Morning Star Mine in the hills above Fairview.
Rizzo said he was required to periodically transport gold bars to Penticton for deposit. Since he’d heard the story of a previous hold-up at Camp McKinney, he had a vest made to hold the bars hidden under his coat while travelling. He rode his cherished mare under cover of night through what is now the White Lake area.
It was a clear moonlit night.
“He had not travelled far before he was abruptly stopped by a man who stepped out from behind a tree and ordered Steve to put his hands up,” Rizzo said .
“Steve did not comply and kicked his horse in the ribs, nearly running the man down. He claimed that he didn’t stop until he made it to the flats and could see that the man was no longer following him.”
Several years later, Mangott was travelling on a train to New York to visit one of his brothers when he struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger. As the conversation progressed, Mangott revealed that he was from Fairview. The stranger then asked if he was Steve Mangott. The miner replied that he was.
The man then asked him if he recalled the night that he was held up on his way to Penticton.
“Steve replied that he did, and the man revealed that he was the one that had held him up, explaining that if Steve had turned back, the man would have shot him,” Rizzo said. “The man then apologized if he had caused Steve any distress, explaining that it was a long time ago, and he had turned himself around since then.”
It was never recorded how Steve reacted to this news, but it was assumed the story had a happy ending.
Mangott eventually settled down to a quiet life at the mine and worked a small band of ore in a padlocked tunnel.
If you travel further up the hill to the Fairview gulch, you can see imprinted on what was once a concrete footing, the name of Steve Mangott.
