The cairn was built many years ago of cut stone of varying types and colours. Atop is a pyramidal concrete cap which is beginning to crumble with age. Protecting the cap is (was) a steel or iron roof which has rusted through in a few spots, possibly explaining the condition of the concrete beneath. The stones and mortar in the rest of the cairn remain in quite reasonable condition, however. The cairn stands on a concrete base which has also held up quite well.
That town, Farwell, remained Farwell for several years, but ran afoul of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) when it arrived in 1885. The CPR claimed that the town hadn't a right to the land on which it stood so built their station and yards to the east of the original Farwell. After a protracted lawsuit, at the request of the railway the new town was named Revelstoke, after Lord Revelstoke, whose bank had supplied the funds required to complete the railway. Hence, when the first post office opened in the town it did so as the
Revelstoke Post Office.
Text from the plaque in question follows.
AT THE SECOND CROSSING
OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER THE
THE SITE OF FARWELL, LATER TO BE
NAMED REVELSTOKE, WAS LOCATED
ON THE 20TH DAY OF OCTOBER 1883
BY ARTHUR STANHOPE FARWELL
WHO CAME TO BRITISH COLUMBIA IN 1864
AND SERVED AS A CIVIL ENGINEER
UNTIL HIS DEATH AT NELSON, B.C.
IN 1908