Imperial Hunter Hotel

I only stopped in for a quick lunch, and the owner was friendly enough to offer me the weekend menu. It’s a quiet, pleasant place to stay in a small town.

Years later, in 2019, my wife and I were driving from Kingston, Ontario, to our new home in Victoria. I wanted to see whether the Imperial Hunter Hotel was still standing, and whether the sturgeon that had fascinated me as a kid was still in the bar. It was, and it looked in better shape than I remembered, though smaller through adult eyes. It had been more than 100 years since the fish was caught and mounted. My first visit was around 1956, when I was about ten. Our family was driving from Port Alberni on Vancouver Island to visit my father’s relatives in Swift Current, Saskatchewan. We meant to stop in Calgary, but hadn’t accounted for the Stampede, and every motel we tried had a “No Vacancy” sign. As it got dark, we were getting desperate, with Mom and Dad in front and my brother and me huddled in the back. Maybe it was the big “Hotel” sign on the roof, if it was there in 1956, that caught our eye. We went into the bar and the bartender told us they had a room. What stayed with me most was the huge, worn stuffed sturgeon mounted over the bar. The room was basic, as I recall, with an iron bed and sink in the room and a washroom down the hall.

I had a blast here, and the prices were reasonable. It has a lot of personality, nothing like a cookie-cutter hotel, and the tavern is probably the liveliest in town. The staff were great, and I had my own bathroom. There’s no elevator, so stairs could be a problem for anyone with certain conditions. I’m glad I stayed here instead of at the other hotel.

The staff were pretty friendly, but the rooms were dirty, the showers disgusting, and the bedding needed washing. Please check the toilet, it probably still has pee from the last guest. I wouldn’t recommend sleeping here unless you can put up with a loud train every 20 minutes. The drinks are overpriced too, $7 for a beer is steep, and hand-washing dishes is a huge no. I’m shocked a health inspector hasn’t shut the place down.