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Medical Display
Living Room Displays
Our medical display shows that there were many difficulties to face in finding health care, especially prior to 1912. Until that time, there were no doctors in Maple Ridge. To visit the nearest doctor you would have had to go to New Westminster by boat until 1885 — after that date you could also go by train. In 1912, Dr. Garnet Morse arrived, and his primary duty was to care for men injured on the job, most of which were logging accidents. As logging took place out in the woods where access was limited, Dr. Morse had compact, portable injection and surgical kits that he could carry on horseback to ride out to accident sites.
Prior to 1912, mail order catalogs filled the gap by providing ingredients for medications that you could make yourself. Herbal remedies were also used, often with the advice of native healers who knew more about local plants and their uses. Some herbs were also sent by mail from the 'old country'.