Black Diamond City Recorded as presented to the Historical Society on October 10, 2002 Transcribed by Dalys Barney, Island University Library on June 12, 2020

Pamela Mar Nanaimo Historical Society. Thursday, October 10, 2002, at the society's regular meeting. Introducing author Jan Peterson, who has written a book on the first 50 years of Nanaimo which will be published shortly.

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Daphne Paterson Can you hear me? Anyway, to introduce one of our own, the author of the most recent book on Nanaimo, Jan Peterson. Jan is an import from Scotland to Ontario in 1957, and she moved to the Alberni Valley with Ray and their children in 1972. There she worked as a reporter for the Alberni Valley Times and is the author of four books on the history of and the area. One of them, you may remember, is on Cathedral Grove. Two of her books received awards from the B.C. Historical Federation. The Petersons retired here in Nanaimo six years ago. And after four years of meticulous research, her first work on Nanaimo will be launched…next month?

Jan Peterson This month.

Daphne Paterson This month!

Jan Peterson November 20th.

Daphne Paterson November 20th. As a note for all of us here, to me it's significant that Jan has made extensive use of the records now held by the Nanaimo Community Archives. And, to me, it upholds our belief in the value of the archival material in this community as being very well grounded. For those of you who are new here, it was the Nanaimo Historical Society who initiated the Nanaimo Community Archives. And we just spoke about the Heritage Summit, it was to the Heritage Summit that we took the proposal. So, one can also make good use of the Heritage Summit for good causes. Anyway, would you please welcome Jan Peterson, the author of Black Diamond City: Nanaimo in the Victorian Era.

[applause]

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Jan Peterson ...and a glass of water. Before I begin, I would like to thank a number of people that have been very helpful in my research. I don't know if I'm going to get a chance to do this in the future, so I wanted to do it here before the society. I wanted to thank Christine and her merry band of volunteers at the Nanaimo Community Archives because I couldn't have done this without them. They were absolutely wonderful. I remember when I began my research at the archives, they were over in the museum. And I don't know if any of you have ever been there, but it's one, two, three flights up. And I think the first day I was there, I almost collapsed by the time I got to the top floor. And it took me about four days to recover. And then I thought, "Oh, I'm never going to be able to do this!" But, I've got that little stubborn streak in me, and I went back and, anyway, we managed it. I had to rest between floors and made it there.

But the archives were totally unbelievable, because there was only two electrical plugs, and I was using a little, portable computer. And the other, one of the plugs on the wall was the computer for the archives. The other plug that was available was in the roof. So every time I went, Christine had to jump up on the table and plug me in! So it became quite an exercise in trying to get this done. And I must say, the new community archives is just wonderful. And it's on the ground floor, it's easily accessible. And it's just a joy to see people from around the world come into the archives and being appreciative of all the work that is done there. It's just unbelievable. It's really great.

When I booked this, when Jill asked me to do this talk, I think it was last January, and we kind of hoped that the book might be ready by now. And I'm sorry to say, it's not going to be ready until November 20th. So, I hope you all bear with me and come out and support it then.

Oh, I also have to thank Peggy Nicholls. Peggy has done an absolutely remarkable job on the lives of the Princess Royal pioneers and newcomers. And she has done a marvelous job. And I really commend her for her work. And, of course, to all the members of this society who have contributed to the archives. As you can see, I'm a real booster for the archives.

Anyway, there's another couple of things that I would like to say to you tonight too. When I submitted my manuscript to the publisher last November, I think it was, the history went right up to 1900. And we continued editing right through June, July, and August. And then about two weeks ago, he informed me that he was only going to do a portion of the book, and that the other part of the book would be published next year. So, we have taken the history up to 1886, when the train arrives. So the other portion will be included in the other part of the research I've done for my next book, which is going to be called The Hub City. I'm trying to do a trilogy. So the next one will go up to about, probably after the First World War, maybe the flu epidemic, and maybe up to 1920. So, I've got my work cut out for me in the next few months.

And another thing happened today. I got a call telling me that the Archives would not allow me to use any of the photographs from the archives. And this is a real blow, because , , any picture you see in any of the books are by BC Archives. And so they said, "Absolutely not." They will not allow it to be used.

What happened is the publishing community in British Columbia has been in ongoing battle with the British Columbia Archives. The authors themselves can submit requests for photographs, and they pay a fee for each of the photographs. Now, it turns out that what the British Columbia Archives want to do, they want to charge each of the publishers extra money for the use of their photographs. So, they're getting a double whammy. They're getting it from the authors and then they're getting it from the publishers. If the publisher does more than 5,000 copies, then the BC Archives wants a chunk of it. So the publishers are saying, "No way."

The archives are saying, "No way." So, I'll have to find other sources. And it's two weeks before we go into press. So, anyway, we'll manage.

07:20

Tonight, I'd like to take you back to 1852. One of the real treasures that happened during my research was the discovery of the Joseph William McKay journal. It is absolutely incredible. And we just uncovered it about a year ago. So, I have been researching this book for about four years, so I was able to include a portion of the journal in the book.

And his diary begins: "Tuesday, August 24, 1852, 9 p.m. - Received written instructions from James Douglas to proceed to Nanaimo and take charge of the coal mine there and advised to sell the coal to any vessel calling for $10 a ton.

Thursday, August 26, 1852 - Landed near the principal coal seam, traded large mats, some salmon, and potatoes.

Friday, August 27 - Commenced building hut.

Saturday, August 26 [28] - Traded salmon and potatoes, also 300 feet of cedar plank. Finished log hut.

September 3 - After a tedious passage of seven days from , the Muirs and McGregors and the blacksmith Camille Raymond arrived on the Cadboro. Their first order of business was to make a pig sty, then land four pigs and one sheep from the ship." The first farm animals had arrived in Nanaimo. It's amazing.

The first shipment of coal, of 480 barrels of coal, was made on September 9th. The Snuneymuxw had mined and loaded the coal, 20 barrels for two-and-a-half point Hudson's Bay Company blankets and some other goods. And so begins the history of Nanaimo as we know it today. That was 150 years ago. Why are we not celebrating this?

The Joseph William McKay journal, uncovered just last year, recorded the day-to-day struggle during the first few years of establishing the coal mining village of Nanaimo. McKay wrote of how the miners bartered with the Natives for food, how they trained the oxen for logging, and the importance of the salt spring at Millstone River. Salt was very important in the early days for preserving the game and the fish.

The journal also shed new light on the Christmas Hill murder. This was the trial of the two young Natives, one from Nanaimo, the other from Cowichan, who were accused of killing the Hudson's Bay Company shepherd Peter Brown and their subsequent hanging at Gallows Point. Their trial aboard the Beaver on January 17, 1853 was the first trial by judge and jury under English law. In Douglas' words: "The two Indians now in custody were brought to trial and found guilty of willful murder by a jury composed of the officers present. The two were hanged in the presence of the whole Nanaimo tribe, and the same appearing to make a deep impression on their minds." The Snuneymuxw mourned the death of the young brave and viewed his hanging as a great injustice. His widow was nicknamed the "Gallows Widow," and after a suitable period of mourning, she married her husband's brother. And this was a practice very common in the Coast Salish people.

The first two months were very difficult for Douglas as he anxiously waited to hear if the coal mining experiment at Nanaimo would be profitable. On October 27th, he asked McKay, "Anxious to hear if the miners had struck the seam of coal. My chief anxiety is to have that question solved, for as soon as that takes place, I will address the company on the subject of sending out an additional body of miners and such other assistance as may be required."

These were also difficult days for McKay as he dealt with the inter-tribal conflicts that surrounded the Snuneymuxw and their efforts to keep other tribes out of their territory. And he had to be prepared for, had to prepare housing for the new miners, while at the same time addressing every issue addressed by Douglas.

Oxen were brought to the village on September 1854. The animals were necessary for the logging operations there. A team of oxen yoked together could haul logs from the forest along a greased skid road. The animals were strong, slow, and stupid, and required constant supervision. At first they roamed freely about the village and often wandered into the woods until a fenced pen was made to contain them. The Snuneymuxw young men were sent to find the strays. Then came the hazardous task of breaking in the oxen to perform the heavy work. And the animals required shelter, so a shed was built. Finally, the oxen were trained to haul logs. And just this very small act must have seemed like a giant step forward for those poor people back then.

Today, Nanaimo is the second-oldest community in British Columbia. In the early days, it helped pay the bills for most of the development that took place on . There was more money in coal than in furs. Also, without Nanaimo's coal, the shipping companies on the coast would still be importing coal from Great Britain. Our biggest market was San Francisco, and that city needed all the coal that we could supply.

I think James Douglas liked Nanaimo, and he hoped the coal mining industry here would be a success. Perhaps it would secure his place in the hierarchy of the Hudson's Bay Company. His experiment at Fort Rupert had been less than successful, so it was important his reputation be restored by this new endeavour. Douglas is a very interesting character. He sat supreme in Victoria as governor and Hudson's Bay Company chief factor. And he carried his role in the company with due pomp and circumstance. He gave every appearance of being pompous and overbearing. "Old Square-toes," as his detractors nicknamed him, had a fondness for gold- braided military uniform, and was often seen strutting around Victoria accompanied by a sword- bearing bodyguard. Perhaps the uniform was meant to throw fear into the Native people.

The development of the coal industry in Nanaimo was at the expense of the Snuneymuwx. Before the arrival of the Europeans, they had roamed the countryside, sailed the gulf, fished the rivers of the Island freely without impediment. They had no fear of the Hudson's Bay Company men as they had traded with them at Fort Langley where they had a summer village. At first they helped mine the coal, and then they loaded it on the ships, and they traded the labour for goods. On December 23, 1854, Douglas signed a treaty with the Snuneymuwx, the last of the 14 treaties signed on Vancouver Island between 1850 and 1854. Eleven were near Victoria, two at Fort Rupert, and one in Nanaimo. But the issue of land ownership would come back to haunt government for many years to come, and is still being addressed today.

Then the missionaries arrived. Jean Barman called them "the foot soldiers of the government's attempt to manage the Natives." The first church to be built was the Ebenezer Wesleyan Methodist Church at the general location of the Globe Hotel. And this was followed by St. Paul's Anglican Church. Missionaries like Methodist Thomas Crosby and Anglican Reverend John Booth Good fought between themselves for the souls of the Snuneymuwx. Some Natives were baptized and became members of both churches. There seemed to be a bit of a hierarchy here, the chiefs all belonged to St. Paul's, because that's where the mine managers belonged. And the others belonged to the Methodists. So there had to be a little class distinction there.

The miners who arrived from Great Britain helped fulfill the Hudson's Bay Company's agreement to settle the colony. They came on the Harpooner, the Norman Morison, the Tory, the Pekin, and the Princess Royal. One can just imagine their expectations of the new job awaiting them, for a rosy picture had been painted and rewards promised. They could not have imagined the grim reality of the wilderness called Vancouver's Island. In particular, Staffordshire miners could not even have visualized the horrific voyage they would have on the Princess Royal. As you read the ship's log of the voyage, you will feel as distressed as they were over this long journey from London, England. They left London in early June and arrived in November, on November 27th, just over five and a half months at sea. Douglas considered this was a fast voyage.

The first census taken in 1854 showed there were 151 White people in Nanaimo, and 232 in Victoria. Half the population was under 20 years old, and only 15 over 50, and no one over 60. This was a colony of young people. At the time of Confederation, the population of Nanaimo had increased to 729. And by the turn of the century, the population was 6,500 in Nanaimo.

On May 7, 1855, the Hudson's Bay Company purchased 6,193 acres of Crown land at the price of one pound sterling per acre. That's roughly about $29,000 for all of this area. This included Cameron, Newcastle, and Protection Islands. In addition, another 1,074 acres were reserved: 724 for public use, 100 for roads, 250 acres for the future benefit of the Natives. And I think of that 724 for public use, part of this was Bowen Park here. But that's another story in another book.

17:13

What made the story of Nanaimo so special was its people. Mark Bate served as mayor for 14 years, devoted himself to the future of the city. Robert Dunsmuir, an indentured miner who became the richest man in the province. Or the young Orcadian, Adam Grant Horne, the Hudson's Bay Company storekeeper, who blazed the trail across Vancouver Island and opened up relationships with the Nuu-Chah-Nulth of the West Coast. And he forged friendships with other Natives on the Island.

Dr. Alfred Benson is not forgotten, and we only have to look to the mountain on our west to remember his association with the community. He was viewed as an honest, kind-hearted, and upright man, always ready to do good. Others thought he was rather slovenly. Perhaps because he liked to have one trouser leg tucked in, the other out. I love the story about how when he was having dinner one day with Douglas, the governor turned to him and asked him why so many of the Hudson's Bay Company men were bald. Douglas was obviously expecting a medical answer from Benson. Instead Benson replied, "Because they send all their furs home." [laughter]

Black Diamond City also documents the political representatives who served Nanaimo during the colonial government. They were almost all from Victoria and knew little about the constituency they served. In 1856, Douglas was ordered to introduce an elected assembly, one of the stipulations mandated in the original Hudson's Bay grant. To be eligible to vote, you had to own 20 acres of land. This would have disenfranchised nearly everyone in Victoria, and certainly in Nanaimo. As a result, most of the first House of Assembly were all Hudson's Bay Company staffers. It was not until after Confederation that Nanaimo residents really took an interest in their politics. But by this time, they were no longer indentured. They owned property, they could vote. And after incorporation in 1874, they were more interested in what happened in the community and began demanding more attention from the provincial authorities in Victoria.

Excuse me, I have to have a drink.

This was a company town until the turn of the century. In the beginning, the Hudson's Bay Company controlled everything from the work, to the houses the miners lived in, to the store where they bought their goods. And after the Hudson's Bay Company sold the town and its coal to the Vancouver Coal Mining & Land Company, they were really just trading one company for another. And it wasn't until incorporation all the improvements made in the village were actually made by the company and not the colonial government.

The first Chinese began working in the mines around 1867. Their arrival added a new dynamic to life in Nanaimo. At first the newcomers were viewed with suspicion, as they looked and they dressed differently, and the language and culture was foreign. Miners petitioned against hiring them in the mines. But they were cheap and they worked hard. And mine operators just loved them.

In 1869, Robert Dunsmuir began prospecting for coal and discovered a seam at Diver Lake in the Wellington District, a discovery that resulted in a major expansion of the coal industry here. The story goes that he was walking through the bush one day and came upon the root of a fallen tree which looked rather peculiar. On examining it, he found coal sticking to the upturned root. He formed a company and before long, coal was being loaded from a wharf at Departure Bay.

Dunsmuir has been described as a diminutive, fine-boned, quick to anger, bantam cock of a man who possessed a relentless capacity for hard work. Others called him a robber baron because of the low wages he paid his miners. He liked control, and he did not like having partners. And he was even reluctant to share power and authority with his sons, Alec and James. He used to say, "I know I can bring the undertaking out more successfully by not having too many voices on the matter." Alec and James were never given shares in the company, nor did they receive salaries. Their only compensation was living expenses as needed. "Take what you want, but just don't take too much," their father told them.

I have to tell you this cute little story about Michael Manson. Michael Manson came from the Shetland Islands, and as probably a lot of you already know, he opened a store on Haliburton. But when he first came to Nanaimo, he went over to Dunsmuir and he was looking for a job. And, I guess, Dunsmuir heard his accent and he says, "Where ye from?" Dunsmuir asked.

"The Shetland Islands," Manson replied.

"Ay man ye will ken weal how to handle they mules." At that time, Dunsmuir was loading coal from Wellington Mines to Departure Bay with mules, loading them onto the trucks and taking them down to wharf there. So it was really quite funny. Anyway, Manson didn't like the terms that Dunsmuir proposed, so he actually went to work for the Vancouver Coal Company. But it was a cute little story. When two Scots get together, the first thing they say is: "Where ye from?" Because they know that the person who answers will know exactly where they're from in Scotland. It's the first time I've actually seen a Dunsmuir narrative in the actual Scotch. He was from Scotland, and he probably was a very broad Scot, so it was kind of cute to hear this.

There were three attempts to incorporate. The final one succeeded. The first election for mayor and eight councillors was held on January 18, 1875. There were 14 candidates for council and two for mayor in this election, and 217 people cast their vote. Mark Bate was elected by 17 votes over his rival, businessman James Harvey. Friends of Bate carried him on their shoulders through town in celebration and he awarded everyone with a champagne supper at Peck's Hotel on Victoria Crescent.

Nanaimo has always been blessed by a large number of hotels. There were about 40 before the turn of the century. And these were not just hotels and saloons as we know them today. They were also boarding houses...

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...a place where they went for a beer after a day in the mine. I know something about this. My grandfather was a miner, my great-grandfather was a miner, and all my uncles were miners. And when they got out of the mine at the end of the day, the first place they made for was the pub for a pint. It would seem to be a, sort of, a release from the mine, a transition between the mine and the home. So, I kind of understood that.

In 1879, the City introduced a ward system. There were three wards: the North, Middle, and South Wards. The first city clerk was former school teacher Charles Newton Young. He was paid $87.50 a month. The city fathers must have thought this was too generous because two weeks later they reduced his salary to $720 a year, a reduction of $27.50 a month. Samuel Gough, who had spent 17 years in the mine, became city clerk in 1880. He was paid even less than Young, only $400 a year. But he did have a fringe benefit, he got 10% on all collectible taxes, and he also received another $5 for lighting and cleaning the council chambers. Each year, Sam had to be reappointed, as council did not recognize its employees as being permanent. This changed in 1898, when Sam finally became a permanent employee. He was very loyal to Nanaimo.

City council could now enact its own bylaws and regulations. The so-called "nuisance bylaws" make for very interesting reading today. The sanitary committee was the first to be appointed to deal with such things as sheep, pig, and cattle running at large in the city. City workers spent more time rounding up cattle and other animals found roaming the street than they did on city works.

There were other bylaws that in light of today's attitudes seem just a little wacky. But you have to remember that Nanaimo was still a frontier town, without paved streets, sanitation, water, or electricity. So it was important to maintain public order. The Public Morals Bylaw ruled on such items as: bathing, indecency, houses of ill-repute, swearing, drunkenness, gambling, begging, sale of liquor or tobacco, and cruelty to animals. On the subject of bathing - no one could bathe or swim in Millstone River or in the harbour within the city limits between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. without a proper bathing suit covering the body from neck to knees. If you were so covered, you could swim at any time. Council felt it necessary to state that no person could indecently expose any part of his or her person in public. And the call of nature was definitely considered an offense.

The city is indebted to George Norris and his newspaper, The Nanaimo Free Press, for chronicling the day-to-day happenings of city council in early Nanaimo. His editorials are of great interest. They could be about education, more than likely they were about the conditions of the roads, and you could always expect a critical comment about the actions of the provincial government. Norris considered all were fair game and worthy of space. A subscription cost $4 a year, or 50 cents a month. In the early days of the newspaper, it was not unusual to see an entire column taken up with jokes or unusual stories on the front page.

As Dunsmuir's coal mine grew, so too did the town of Wellington. Travel between the two towns became easier when Joseph Ganner began a stagecoach service in 1878, when a post office was established there and he got the contract to carry the mail. The twice-a-day service continued until the arrival of the railway. Joseph Harper also offered a stagecoach between Departure Bay and Nanaimo, for which he charged 25 cents return. Or you could take a Sunday drive. You could rent a horse and buggy from Fred Wilson's livery stable at Departure Bay for $2.50 a day.

27:26

Transportation between the Gulf Islands was usually by canoe. Thomas Degnan used his dugout canoe to carry people and freight between Nanaimo and Gabriola Island. In stormy weather, the crossing was very dangerous rounding Jack Point, and it often took hours travelling through rough water. Island farmers petitioned the government to open a passage through "The Gap" that was about half a mile from the point. In 1883, a canal was made through Biggs Portage, the present location of the Duke Point ferry terminal. This water passage not only shortened the distance to Gabriola, but it also made it much safer journey as boats could glide through the canal into the quieter waters of Nanaimo Harbour. The canal was enlarged in 1888, to allow larger vessel to use the waterway. But as the boats got bigger, the passageway became too shallow, and eventually it fell into disuse.

With incorporation came changes to the harbour and its administration. A lighthouse was built at Entrance Island in 1874. Robert Gray of Gabriola Island became the light keeper there. He kept very careful logs of ships entering and leaving the harbour, but he was often frustrated by some of the bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo coming from Ottawa. On one occasion, he noted, "Received a note and form from William Smith, Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries, accusing me of not returning forms previously sent to me which I never received, so I could not return which I did not get."

As the town grew, the number of ships using the harbours of Nanaimo and Departure Bay increased. Until this time, all transportation to Victoria had been by sea. However, a wagon road of sorts wound its way down the east coast from Comox to Victoria. But the trail was at the mercy of the weather and it often blocked by trees. It took four days to drive cattle from Victoria to Nanaimo. Legislation was passed, hoping to improve the road situation - maybe we should let Campbell hear about this - with the help of farmers and landowners. Anyone over the age of ten, and anyone with real estate could work six days on the public highway and earn six shillings and three pence a day. Or, if you had large acreage and a cart or a wagon, or a horse and oxen, that was equal to two days' labour, or twelve shillings and six pence a day. So that's how we got our roads improved.

The arrival of the & Nanaimo Railway in 1886 was, perhaps, the defining moment in the history of Nanaimo. But the E&N Railway was not built overnight. It took years before the deal was finalized. Black Diamond City documents the long road to completion from the deal made at Confederation to the contracts awarded for the building of the railway. Even by today's standards, the deal struck between the government and Robert Dunsmuir to build a railway was insane. The E&N Land Grant included almost all of the southeast side of Vancouver Island, from Goldstream north of Victoria to Crown Mountain, near Campbell River. The Settlement Act of 1884 that transferred the land to the Dunsmuirs was the first land grant in the province and it contained some of the finest timber in the world. Hundreds of Nanaimo residents petitioned against the act, claiming it gave Dunsmuir a monopoly over almost half of Vancouver Island.

The first passenger train pulled into the Nanaimo station on February 28, 1886. When Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald drove the last spike at Cliffside Station at Shawnigan Lake, he praised Dunsmuir for having the pluck and energy to bring the project to completion. The rail line was extended to Wellington the following year. There were skeptics about the future success of the railway. Some believed it would never pay operating costs and claimed the railway could not compete with water transportation. However, it was not long before many of the steamships were withdrawn from Victoria's Nanaimo route and nearly all traffic, passenger and freight, was carried over the railway.

There's one thing I found was very interesting. The people of Wellington and Nanaimo complained bitterly that the train ran in the wrong direction. Even back then, it was going in the wrong direction! Can you believe it? We're still arguing about the same thing today.

Nanaimo had its own sawmill on Millstone River. It began as a Hudson's Bay Company sawmill, then was purchased by Chauncey Carpenter when the Hudson's Bay sold its holdings here. The small sawmill managed to satisfy the local market. The logging camp was about seven miles up the river. Eric Duncan worked at the sawmill. His wage was $30 a month with board. But when the mill was idle, board was deducted at a dollar a day. Carpenter somehow managed the payroll so that at the end of the month, his workers never received more than $10.

The city has also had a very rich cultural life from the very beginning. The Christmas ball of 1854 was held in a 12-by-12-foot building that had been whitewashed in and out. For the Scottish miners and their families and the recent arrivals from the Princess Royal, this would have been a very special event for one another. But there was not enough room for everyone, and they crowded around the doors and the windows. Christmas trees were brought in from the forest. Paper decorations hung from the hall. Fish oil lamps and a fireplace provided the only light. It must have been a very special occasion.

In 1864, a philharmonic orchestra was formed with Mark Bate and Thomas McLean on violin, Thomas Hindle on cornet, Joseph Lawlese on flute, and John Holden on violincello, and pianist Thomas Parker. The small orchestra was in great demand for special events, and on some occasion, its size grew as musicians arrived from Victoria. This was followed by the Nanaimo Junior Brass Band. It was founded in 1872, and after a name change in 1889, became what everybody knows as the Silver Cornet Band. And this band played at events in New Westminster, Victoria, Vancouver, and even performed in Seattle. The band fundraising moonlight cruise was particularly popular in Nanaimo, especially when it could counteract the Sunday closing bylaw so patrons could have a drink while they listened to music.

Over the years social events were held in various venues. The first residents used the large hall near the Methodist Church, which was down by the Globe Hotel. Then in 1864, the Literary Institute Hall was built and it became the community's social centre. But the granddaddy of all the venues was the Nanaimo Opera House that opened in 1889. And what a grand building it was. Here for the first time local and visiting performers had a popular building in which to stage theatrical performances.

This three-storey brick building served two purposes. It operated as a hotel on the upper two floors, with the theatre facility on the ground floor. And it was a rather grand building with a beautiful mirrored rotunda, a royal box, as well as upper and lower galleries, and an orchestra pit. Many of the musical productions staged in the opera house were lavish affairs. And you only have to look at the photographs in the Nanaimo Museum to see how lavish some of these productions really were. And one of the performers was Pauline Johnson, the well-known poet daughter of the Mohawk chief and an Englishwoman, who, dressed in her buckskins, performed there several times. Her most memorable evening was September 28, 1894. This was the same evening the Royal Hotel burned to the ground along with the fire hall and Stephenson's store. Pauline Johnson described this event as "her escape at Nanaimo."

Keeping law and order in Nanaimo was not always easy. Under the Hudson's Bay Company, the town took care of its own offenders. Prisoners were locked up in the cell at the Bastion or were punished as befitting the crime. Later criminals were shipped to Victoria to await justice, until the skippers of the vessels refused to carry such an explosive cargo. Adam Grant Horne's vacant store became the first courthouse and jail. Horne had been posted to Fort Simpson at this time in 1864. A new courthouse and jail was eventually constructed on Front Street in 1874. The whitewashed, high board fence that surrounded the new facility disappointed some citizens who delighted in attending the public hangings. However, the screams of one man being hung on one occasion was clearly heard over the fence outside. There was some revulsion to public executions, but it depended on who was being hanged. The man designated as the official hangman travelled across the country, officiating at such sentences. Nanaimo had its own share of public hangings, mostly were Natives, until the Dominion Act of 1886 prohibited the exercise.

Nanaimo in 1886 was a well-established community with a thriving coal industry and was well positioned to face the future with a stable work force. Miners were no longer indentured to the company, they were free to work and live where they pleased. They could own land, build their own homes, there were schools, and there was a hospital for the family. It's my hope that Black Diamond City will add to your knowledge of Nanaimo during its formative years. And I look forward to the next episode in Nanaimo's history.

Thank you very much.

[applause]

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...[seeing] the Commercial Inlet and the rocky face, the [inaudible] at Comox, it's just absolutely incredible how this town has changed. I think the only thing that's standing today that existed back then is that rock face at Cameron Island. It's the only piece of rock that's the same. The rest has all been changed and transfigured. It's really amazing. Your ancestors did a marvelous job.

Any questions from anybody?

David Hill-Turner Well, Jan I have to say, we do miss you at the museum as you stopped on your way to the archives for your breath on the second floor.

Jan Peterson Oh yes. You know, they even put a seat there. And I always used to think they put that seat there for me. [laughter]

David Hill-Turner Jan's corner. But, you know, we're all looking forward to this book and I'm sure everybody is going to have it on their Christmas list here. And next year. And I guess the year after that too.

Jan Peterson I hope so.

David Hill-Turner So there you go folks. It's Christmas shopping for the next three years taken care of.

Jan Peterson If I live long enough!

David Hill-Turner Well, you have to finish it first. But you'll need one of these. We're glad to help you in your [jottings] as you...

Jan Peterson Thank you very much.

David Hill-Turner Well, we thought if we give you a letter opener, you might use it against the archives in Victoria, you know.

Jan Peterson Ah ha! You got that feeling did you?

David Hill-Turner Anyway, thank you very much Jan.

Jan Peterson Thank you very much.

[recording ends]

38:35