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Trail Smoke Eaters

ice hockey team in British Columbia, Canada

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ7832733 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Trail Smoke Eaters are a junior A ice hockey team from Trail, British Columbia, Canada. They are a part of the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL).

History

The Smoke Eaters (aka Smokies) have existed as both junior and senior teams since the 1920s. The senior Smoke Eaters won two Allan Cup championships, 1938 and 1962, and two Ice Hockey World Championships playing for Canada in 1939 and 1961. The senior Smokies were the last independent ice hockey club to represent Canada in international competition before the Canada men's national ice hockey team was established in 1963.

The junior Smoke Eaters have competed in British Columbia since 1926. Originally, the ice hockey usage of "junior" referred to a general, age-limited, non-professional hockey concept that was distinct from senior and intermediate divisions. Later, the junior divisions in Canada were divided into two levels, Junior A and Junior B. In 1970, Junior A was split again into Major Junior and Junior A. The junior Smoke Eaters have competed in various levels of junior hockey, including Junior A and Junior B divisions. They have also competed for the national Junior Championship Memorial Cup prior to its usage as the Major Junior championship.

In 1931–32, the junior Smoke Eaters won their first of 22 Mowat Cups over a run of 29 seasons.

Editorial summary

“Trail Smoke Eaters” enters the record as ice hockey team in British Columbia, Canada. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Trail, Smoke and Eaters can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1938, 1962, 1939, 1961—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1926. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Trail, Smoke and Eaters.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Trail Smoke Eaters” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Trail, Smoke and Eaters provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7832733. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1962, 1939 and 1961.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Trail Smoke Eaters”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Trail Smoke Eaters primary sources, Trail Smoke Eaters archive and Trail research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Trail Smoke Eaters”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Trail Smoke Eaters” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.