Mystery curlers: can you identify these men from 1918?

The operators of the Lake Country Museum and Archives wants the public to hurry hard and help them solve a curling mystery 98 years in the making.

They're trying to find out the identities of four curlers in the photo above, playing a game or perhaps practicing on frozen-over Kalamalka Lake in 1918.

According to Lake Country Historical Society president Duane Thomson, the players look very casual — in fact, their matched stones are about the only professional-looking element to their game.

"The men don't have any sort of standard uniforms or footwear or even brooms," he told Radio West host Rebecca Zandbergen. "They're using kitchen-style brooms, corn brooms ... they were probably practicing for some bonspiel in Vernon or Kelowna."

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Thomson says curling was in its infancy in the Okanagan, having only been popular for about 10 years prior to when the photo was taken. 

Thomson says the person on the right may be George Goulding, the owner of the ranch where the photo was taken. Being 1918, he says most of Lake Country's young men would have been overseas fighting in World War I, and the men in the photos could be in their 50s. Aside from that, he says he has no leads.

Thomson says anyone who has an educated guess as to the identities of the men in the photograph should contact the museum.

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: Lake Country Museum and Archives trying to identify mystery curlers