Volume 36, No. 2 BRITISH COLUMBIA Spring2003 $5.00 HISTORICAL NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation Courtesy Eileen Sutherland Above: Port Essington on the Skeena. Page 6.

Murdered by a scab The British land claim at Nootka Worries about BC’s archives Summers on the Skeena ENCLOSED: subscription BC Tree Fruits challenged forms for (1) the Prince George conference, (2) free A significant inspector of fisheries workshops prior to the conference, and (3) a free day The Orpheum celebrates 75 years tour to Fort St. James following the conference. British Columbia Historical News British Columbia Historical Federation Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation PO Box 5254, Station B., Victoria BC V8R 6N4 Published Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Under the Distinguished Patronage of Her Honour The Honourable Iona Campagnolo. PC, CM, OBC Editor: Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Fred Braches PO Box 130 Honorary President: Helen B. Akrigg Whonnock BC, V2W 1V9 Phone 604.462.8942 Officers [email protected] President: Wayne Desrochers Book Review Editor: 13346 57th Avenue, Surrey BC V3X 2W8 Anne Yandle Phone 604. 599.4206 Fax. 604.507.4202 [email protected] 3450 West 20th Avenue First Vice President: Jacqueline Gresko Vancouver BC, V6S 1E4 5931 Sandpiper Court, Richmond BC V7E 3P8 Phone 604.733.6484 Phone 604.274.4383 [email protected] [email protected] Second Vice President: Roy J.V. Pallant Subscription Secretary: 1541 Merlynn Crescent, North Vancouver BC V7J 2X9 Joel Vinge Phone 604.986.8969 [email protected] 561 Woodland Drive Secretary: Ron Hyde Cranbrook BC V1C 6V2 #20 12880 Railway Ave., Richmond BC V7E 6G2 Phone/Fax 250.489.2490 Phone: 604.277.2627 Fax 604.277.2657 [email protected] [email protected] Recording Secretary: Gordon Miller 1126 Morell Circle, Nanaimo BC V9R 6K6 Publishing Committee: Phone 250.756.7071 [email protected] Tony Farr Treasurer: Ron Greene 125 Castle Cross Road, PO Box 1351, Victoria BC V8W 2W7 Salt Spring Island BC V8K 2G1 Phone 250. 598.1835 Fax 250.598.5539 [email protected] Phone 250.537.1123 Past President: Ron Welwood Copy editing: Helmi Braches 1806 Ridgewood Road, Nelson BC V1L 6G9 Proof reading: Tony Farr Phone 250.825.4743 [email protected] Layout and Production: Fred Braches Editor: Fred Braches Web master: Christopher Garrish PO Box 130, Whonnock BC V2W 1V9 Phone 604.462.8942 [email protected] Subscription $15.00 per year Member at Large: Melva Dwyer For mailing outside Canada add $10.00 2976 McBride Ave., Surrey BC V4A 3G6 Please send correspondence regarding Phone/Fax 604.535.3041 subscriptions to the subscription secretary in Member at Large: Arnold Ranneris Cranbrook. 1898 Quamichan Street, Victoria BC V8S 2B9 Some back issues of the journal are Phone 250. 598.3035 [email protected] available—ask the editor in Whonnock. Single copies of recent issues are for sale at: Arrow Lakes Historical Society, Nakusp BC Committees Book Warehouse, Granville St. Vancouver BC Historical Trails and Markers: John Spittle Books and Company, Prince George BC 1241 Mount Crown Road, North Vancouver BC V7R 1R9 Gibson Coast Books, Gibsons BC Phone 604.988.4565 [email protected] Galiano Museum Gray Creek Store, Gray Creek BC W. Kaye Lamb Essay Scholarships Committee: Robert Griffin Royal Museum Shop, Victoria BC 107 Regina Ave., Victoria BC V8Z 1J4 Phone 250.475.0418 [email protected] This publication is indexed in the CBCA, published by Micromedia. Publications Assistance: Nancy Stuart-Stubbs ISSN 1195-8294 2651 York Avenue, Vancouver BC V6K 1E6 Production Mail Registration Number 1245716 Phone 604.738.5132 [email protected] Publications Mail Registration No. 09835 Writing Competition—Lieutenant-Governor’s Award: Member of the British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers Helmi Braches PO Box 130, Whonnock BC V2W 1V9 The British Columbia Heritage Trust has pro- Phone 604.462.8942 [email protected] vided financial assistance to this project to support conservation of our heritage resources, gain further knowledge and increase public understanding of the complete history of British Columbia. Our Web site is hosted by Selkirk College in Castlegar, BC

While copyright in the journal as a whole is vested in the British Columbia Historical Federation, copyright in the individual articles belongs to their respective authors, and articles may be reproduced for personal use only. For reproduction for other purposes permission in writing of both author and publisher is required. Volume 36, No. 2 BRITISH COLUMBIA Spring 2003 $5.00 HISTORICAL NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation

2 A Working Man’s Dream: The Life of Frank Rogers WANTED

by Janet Mary Nicol The British Columbia Historical Federa- 6 My Skeena Childhood tion is looking for a volunteer to take by Eileen Sutherland over as editor of BC Historical News start- ing in September. 14 Was John Meares BC’s Most Successful Real Estate Agent? Previous editing experience could help by John Crosse but more essential are interest in local 16 A Palace of Entertainment: history, sustained dedication, and a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Vancouver’s Orpheum turns Seventy-Five It’s the editor who creates the journal, by Chuck Davis sets its standards, and decides its contents. 21 We Can’t Dispose of our Own Crop: Challenges to BC The editor needs imagination, judgement, vision, and the courage to make deci- Tree Fruits and the Single Desk Marketing System sions. by Christopher Garrish This is a challenging task but also a re- 26 The Demolition of the BC Archives warding and unique learning opportunity. by Reuben Ware Interested? Call Editor Fred Braches for 28 Alexander Caulfield Anderson more information at 604.462.8942, or send an e-mail: An Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries by Rod N. Palmer

32 BOOK REVIEWS KEEP YOUR SUBMISSIONS COMING & 38 REPORTS YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS UP TO DATE Peter Corley-Smith by Robert D. Turner Yes, there are uncertainties around the BC Sudies Conference by R.A.J. (Bob) McDonald editorship but that should not cause Lardo vs. Lardeau by Greg Nesteroff anyone to hesitate submitting manu- scripts for future publication, nor 40 ARCHIVES AND A RCHIVISTS should anyone hesitate to extend their School Archives Program in Mission BC by Valerie Billesberger subscription. 41 STEAMBOAT ROUND THE BEND by Ted Affleck We know that there will be a succesor. The Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise We only don’t know yet who it will be. I am confident that a new editor 42 TOKEN HISTORY by Ronald Greene will be selected long before the fall, The British Columbia $10 and $20 Coins but I invite you, our readers, to help finding more canditates. 43 WEB-SITE FORAYS by Christopher Garrish If you think that someone would be 44 FEDERATION NEWS interested or could be the one to do the job, please let me know. Don’t be bashful submitting your own name. “Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past.” Suggestions, enquiries, and applica- tions will be kept confidential. W. Kaye Lamb, 1937 the editor

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 1 A Working Man’s Dream The Life of Frank Rogers by Janet Mary Nicol

Janet Mary Nicol is a N 18 April 1903, as a heavy rain fell, the banite knows the houses on his own street.” teacher, writer, and longshoremen’s union led more than Longshoremen formed a union in 1888 and had former union organizer, eight hundred mourners to the old city been on strike ten times by the century’s turn, yet living in Vancouver. O cemetery above the blue inlet and overlooking their basic rights were far from assured. It was this mountains around Vancouver. They came to bury world Rogers first entered at age 24. union organizer Frank Rogers, placing an anchor- A fedora shading his eyes, Rogers walked to shaped wreath with the word “martyr” inscribed work, we can imagine, along a wood-planked This spring marks the at his grave. The funeral was the largest gathering sidewalk, dressed in grey pants with wide suspend- 100th anniversary of the of trade unionists the city had experienced. Rogers ers and a long-sleeved white shirt. Passing hotel death of labour organizer was only thirty years old when he was shot late at saloons, shooting galleries, and warehouses, he Frank Rogers night on a waterfront picket line a few blocks turned off Gore Street, crossed the CPR tracks from his rented room. He died two days later in and joined a long queue of men standing on the hospital. A strikebreaker hired by the Canadian wharf beside a moored sailing ship. The head ste- Pacific Railway was arrested for his murder but vedore selected men for the day’s work at 35 cents later acquitted in court. Rogers’s murder remains an hour. If Rogers made the cut, he fell in with unsolved. the chosen gang, unloading cargo from the ship’s Many aspects of Frank Rogers’s life are a mys- hold, ropes and pulleys creaking. A foreman’s whis- tery. No photos exist of him, and details of his tle directed the gang’s movements. The Alhambra personal life are sketchy though his exploits as a hotel saloon, situated in Gastown’s oldest brick union organizer made the front pages of local structure still known as the Byrnes Block, was a newspapers. His next of kin are not recorded in popular place for waterfront workers after a ten- official documents and his funeral, which was paid hour shift. Surely Rogers would be there, leaning SOURCES for by union members, was not attended by fam- against its bar, holding a beer, and talking union. BOOKS ily. Longshoremen moved exotic, difficult, and dan- Armitage, Doreen. Burrard Rogers immigrated from Scotland to the gerous cargo. They unloaded bales of silk off ships Inlet, a History. (Madeira United States as a young man. He was a seaman from Asia to train cars heading for New Yo r k . Two Park: Harbour Publishing, in the American navy and merchant service. In workers were needed to lift a single sack of sugar. 2001). Bennett, William. Builders of 1897 he followed hundreds of eager male adven- “There were a lot of men who couldn’t stand up British Columbia. turers to Vancouver, most en route to the Klondike to that kind of work,” according to retired steve- (Vancouver: Broadway in the last great gold rush of the continent’s his- dore Harry Walter in an oral account, “Man Along Printers, 1937) tory. Rogers chose to stay in the city, moving in the Shore.” “[Sugar] was worse than lead and lead Griffiths, Hal. The Early People’s History. and out of rented rooms in its oldest section, was tough too.” Handling sulphur could be haz- (Vancouver: Tribune Gastown, and working seasonally at the Burrard ardous and so was exposure to dust from wheat. Publishing Company, Inlet docks. Over the next six years Rogers helped “A lot of grain boys died from that wheat,” re- 1958). build the longshoremen, fishermen, and railway tired longshoremen Frank McKenzie remem- Griffiths, Hal and G. North. A Ripple, a Wave: The Story unions. He appeared like a shooting star to the bered. “Used to use handkerchiefs around their of Union Organization in city’s labour movement; his entrance coinciding mouths and nose[s].” the BC Fishing Industry. with a burst of new organizing and his death fol- “At first we had nothing,” Axel Nymen recalled (Vancouver: Fishermen lowed by its temporary collapse. of his time in the longshoremen’s union. “It was a Publishing Society, 1974). International Longshoremen’s The working port attracted a diverse and un- ship side pick.” The foremen arbitrarily selected and Warehousemen’s conventional group of labourers: “all of that breed men for a day’s work and assigned tasks unevenly. Union, ILWU Local 500. of men the world nails to its crosses,” observed an “We had a union with the general cargo people,” Man Along the Shore: The anonymous writer in a March 1911 British Co- Alex said, “but it all went haywire when they shot Story of the Vancouver Waterfront, As Told By the lumbia Magazine article. These workers including the president of the Fishermen’s Union [Frank Longshoremen Themselves, French, Swedes, Punjabis, Asians, and First Na- Rogers].” 1860s-1975. (Vancouver: tions, “knew the harbor and its ships as a subur- n.p., 1968).

2 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Left: Salmon Fishing on the Lower Fraser. Rogers helped unite more than four thousand immigrant European and Japanese as well as a few hundred First Nations fishermen in seven union lodges along the rivers and inlets of BC. BC Archives A-03941 Archives BC

Mike Vidulich was a young fisherman when the rivers and inlets of BC. An old farmhouse he met Frank Rogers on the picket line in 1900. served as key union headquarters in Steveston, He described him to labour historian Hal Griffiths then a distant village from Vancouver on the Fraser as “stocky” and “quite short but broad in the shoul- River. ders, with a strong, open face and dark hair be- Rogers sensed which groups would withhold Jamieson, Stuart Marshall. ginning to grey at the sides.” “He was a good their labour, as reported in the Daily World: “Sec- Times of Trouble: Labour speaker, but quiet, not like Will MacClain [an- retary Rogers said that there would be 1000 white Unrest and Industrial other strike leader] who used to shout and storm Conflict in Canada, 1900- fishermen and all the old-time Japanese who 1966. (Ottawa: when he spoke,” Vidulich recalled. “Rogers was would not go out at all.” First Nations groups Information Canada, an organizer, one of the best the fishermen ever supported the strike but the vast majority of re- 1968). had. The canners could never buy him.” Vidulich cent Japanese immigrants, organized separately in Leier, Mark. Red Flags and said Rogers wasn’t ambitious for himself but com- Red Tape: The Making of a a benevolent society, were less sure, knowing they Labour Bureaucracy. mitted to the rights of the rank-and-file workers. had few employment options in a racially antago- (Toronto: University of “He believed in unions and socialism,” he said. nistic province dominated by citizens of British Toronto Press, 1995). Cannery employers took a different view, call- origin. With the help of a translator, Rogers Marlatt, Daphne, ed. ing Rogers an outside agitator and socialist from Steveston Recollected, A worked hard to convince Japanese fishermen to Japanese-Canadian History. the United States who wasn’t even a fisherman withdraw their labour. (Aural History, 1975). by trade. But their accusations were no match for During the first three weeks of picketing all McDonald, Robert A.J. a socialist’s passion. were united. Strikers in patrol boats carrying a Making Vancouver, 1863- Rogers was hired by the Trades and Labor Con- 1913. (Vancouver: UBC white flag with the number “25” in red, effec- Press, 1996). gress of Canada in the winter of 1899 to organize tively cleared the Fraser River of strikebreakers. Phillips, Paul. No Power the Vancouver local of the BC Fishermen’s Un- The canners in turn threatened to evict strikers Greater: A Century of ion. When the salmon season opened the follow- in Steveston bunkhouses and withhold food. The Labour in British Columbia. ing July, fishermen voted to strike against can- (Vancouver: British union retaliated by organizing Vancouver shop- Columbia Federation of nery owners for union recognition and a uni- keepers to donate bread, potatoes, and tents. Japa- Labour, 1967). form price on fish at 25 cents each. Rogers helped nese strikers were permitted limited fishing and Working Lives Collective. unite more than four thousand immigrant Euro- the union urged all citizens to purchase their catch Working Lives: Vancouver, 1886-1986. (Vancouver: pean and Japanese as well as a few hundred First as a show of support. New Star Books, 1985). Nations fishermen in seven union lodges along Newspapers

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 3 The British Columbia But on 20 July Japanese fishermen broke from with “British ways.” While Rogers was in cus- Federationist. Vancouver the strike, agreeing to 20 cents a fish and return- tody the union settled and its members were back Trade and Labor Council. (1911-1915). ing to work. Asamatsu Murakami defended this fishing 19 July, still without gaining union recog- The Independent. action in the book Steveston Recollected, A Japa- nition. (Vancouver, 1900 - nese-Canadian History. “We are settled fishermen,” Meanwhile, the Vancouver Trades and Labour 1903). he said, “and if we are left without any link with Congress set up a defence fund and faithfully The Province. (Vancouver, 1899 to 1903). the company, each family will be as helpless as brought food to the nine strikers in the New Vancouver Daily News troops without provisions.” Murakami said those Westminster county jail. Four months later all but Advertiser. (Vancouver, who defied the union had their nets cut, sails torn, Rogers were tried, acquitted, and released from 1899-1903). and their life threatened. “At 6 AM,” he recalled, their prison ordeal. Rogers was last to be let go Vancouver Sun. (Vancouver, 1978). “two white men came to the wharf and spoke to on $10,000 bail with his trial held over to the The Voice. (Winnipeg Trade K. Maeda on his boat. He could not speak any next spring, at which time charges were dropped. and Labor Council. English and they beat him up.” “I am going off for a week’s recreation now,” he 1903). The government agreed to call out the militia told a Daily World reporter after his release. The Vancouver World. (Vancouver, 1899 to 1903). to protect the returning Japanese fishermen so reporter observed Rogers was as keen as ever in the canneries could re-open. This was the third speech but crunched up slightly in appearance. “I ARTICLES Anonymous, Picturesque time in the province’s history the militia was used am going to have a little sport shooting and then Vancouver, The in a labour dispute. It was likely no coincidence shall come back to work here for the winter,” Beachcombers, that Rogers was arrested and jailed in Vancouver Rogers said. Vancouver: British overnight on picket-related charges just before Rogers returned to the rank and file of the Columbia Magazine, March 1911, p. 206. the militia arrived in Steveston on 22 July. As a longshoremen’s union and kept a low public pro- Griffin, Hal. The Story of testament to Rogers’s leadership, strikers were at file until the winter of 1903 when railway work- Frank Rogers, The a loss until he was released on bail the next day ers walked off the job 27 February after a clerk Fisherman, 16 December and travelled the fifteen miles to Steveston by stage was fired for organizing employees into the United 1960, page 9. Mouat, Jeremy. “Frank along forest-lined Granville Street. The union stub- Brotherhood of Railway Employees. The CPR Rogers”. (Directory of bornly continued negotiating for another week vowed to spend a million dollars to break the Canadian Biography, 1901- despite the show of force. They settled at 19 cents picketers, employing special police and spies. Also 1910, Vol. 13, pp. 889- a fish and did not win union recognition, return- undermining strikers were the railway craft un- 890. University of Toronto Press, 1994). ing to work 30 July. Though their gains were in- ionists who refused to strike in support of less tangible, for a short time a diverse group of workers skilled workers. But across western Canada, work- had felt a collective strength. The union mem- ers in other unions boycotted “scab” freight. bership elected Frank Rogers president. Rogers helped organize a sympathy strike of No clues indicate a woman in Rogers’s life. longshoremen as the dispute moved into spring. Romance did find his political ally, William The fateful night of 13 April began innocently MacClain. With Rogers’s help, MacClain was the enough. Rogers finished eating a late supper at first socialist to run (unsuccessfully) for office in Billy Williams’ Social Oyster and Coffee House BC in 1899. He married local woman Mary Ellen and stepped out onto Cordova Street around 11:20 Dupont the same year. She volunteered by PM, breathing in fresh night air cleansed by an MacClain’s side as he helped lead the fishermen’s earlier rainfall. Turning on Water Street, he met strike—a role that cost him his job as a machinist up with two acquaintances, also labourers, Antonio with the CPR. The couple left the province some- Saborino and Larry O’Neill. All were heading to time after the dispute ended, possibly moving to nearby Gastown lodgings. As the trio approached MacClain’s previous residence in Washington Abbott Street, they saw figures in the darkened State. distance beyond the railway tracks. Interested in The next summer, union fishermen were ready the CPR picket activity, the men decided to in- to strike again. The canners pounced, arresting vestigate. Rogers 12 July with eight other fishermen on Less than an hour earlier a fist fight had oc- picket-related charges. The press noted with alarm curred between CPR strikebreakers and strikers. some of the accused men were well known in the The strikebreakers fled to the moored steamship, city and had families. Justice Drake was less sym- Yosemite, a makeshift sleeping quarter provided by pathetic, calling all the strikers “thieves” and “rob- the CPR during the labour dispute. Two of the bers”, making special reference to one black and strikebreakers had lost a hat and umbrella and were two Chilean strikers as “foreigners” not familiar returning to the tracks just as Rogers, O’Neill,

4 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 and Saborino appeared. The men were accompa- Tuesday night following the funeral, union OTHER SOURCES nied by a pair of armed special police hired by members and sympathizers crowded the old City Death Certificate (Frank the CPR. Also in the vicinity was a lone strike- Hall auditorium to protest Rogers’ murder. Speak- Rogers); 1903/04/15; Age - 30, Reg.# 1903- breaker in a small office shed, who spotted Rogers ers condemned the CPR and called on the gov- 09-119361, Microfilm # standing near the tracks directly beneath a light ernment to forbid employers from arming strike- B13094 (GSU# 192712) and pulled his gun. As shots rang out in the dark, breakers. The VTLC posted a $500 reward for Henderson Directory of the two special policemen responded by firing Rogers’ murderer. Vancouver. (1897-1903) Marriage Certificate their guns several times. Two CPR strikebreakers were charged. One (William MacClain); 19 Rogers was hit by a bullet almost immediately was released and the other, James MacGregor, a August 1899, Vancouver. and fell to his knees. O’Neill and Saborino ran strikebreaker brought in from Montreal by the B11372, GSU# 1983529, for cover, then seeing Rogers fall, they rushed to CPR to work as a clerk, was tried three weeks 1899-09-04611. Ralston, Keith. “The 1900 his aid and pulled him back to the street. Passers after the shooting in a New Westminster court. Strike of Fraser River by helped them carry Conviction depended Sockeye Salmon the wounded Rogers to on a key witness, strike- Fishermen.” (M.A. Thesis, the Great Western Ho- breaker William F. University of British Columbia, 1965). tel on Water Street. Armstrong, who had Vancouver Mountain View Rogers was laid out on been one of the men Cemetery Records a table until a hack ar- returning to the tracks (Frank Rogers); records state that Rogers died at rived and he was driven with two special police. 30 years old, single, union to the old city hospital At the preliminary leader, American and that at 530 Cambie. hearing Armstrong tes- 30 April 1978 a commemorative stone Rogers survived the Mary Nicol Janet tified MacGregor ad- was placed at his grave at night bandaged with mitted to firing the fa- 33rd and Cambie; Home the bullet still lodged in his stomach. The next tal shot from the office shed in the direction of 1, Range 2, Block 2, Plot morning he told the police: “I did not have any Rogers. However at the trial, Armstrong changed 18, Lot 11. trouble or row with anyone that night, neither part of his testimony, which cast doubt on his Vancouver Trade and Labor Council Minutes. See: 16 did Larry O’Neill, nor the other man who was entire statement. MacGregor was acquitted by a April 1903. And 18 with me, that I know of. I do not know who shot jury 7 May, due to lack of evidence. A news re- February, and 18 August me, but I think it must have been someone off porter observed the accused had not been the 1904 where members the Yosemite or some of the special police. I had least anxious throughout the trial. The CPR had refer to unpaid funeral bill. had no trouble with anyone for some time past. I hired a top lawyer to defend MacGregor, and some Coroner’s Report, BC did not see anyone else going down on to the say the employer paid MacGregor to leave town Archives, B2379, 46/03. wharf with us. When the shots were fired there after the trial. The coroner’s report concluded Report by W.J. were others [people] who came running to the Rogers was “murdered by person or persons un- McGuigan, Coroner, dated 16 April 1903 states end of the street. I do not know where they came known.” in part, “Body well from.” Rogers told news reporters he would re- The union movement was outraged justice was nourished. Apparently cover as he was young and strong. The doctor not served. For a time, employers in the city held aged thirty five.” later disclosed the wound was inoperable. Rogers the upper hand and when the UBRE strike ended died the next afternoon, 15 April. two months after Rogers’s death, the union failed Members of the VTLC executive recognized to achieve recognition or employer guarantees to “the high esteem in which the late brother was hire back strikers. Other unions involved in sym- held by organized labour in this city and that the pathy strikes were dismantled, including the long- cause has lost a useful and ardent worker and faith- shoremen’s. ful champion of unionism.” They arranged a fu- Trade unionists acknowledge Frank Rogers’s neral service at the Labor Temple and burial at contribution, hopeful the province’s first—but not Mountain View Cemetery. An anonymous “inti- last—labour martyr will be remembered. In 1978 mate friend” of Rogers told a Daily World reporter: a local labour history group placed a commemo- “His was a daring soul, but he evidently was born rative stone at Rogers’s grave. It reads, “Frank under an ill-omened star, as he seemed to get into Rogers / Murdered by a Scab / In Strike against trouble very early—and on a number of cases in- CPR / Died April 15, 1903 / Union Organizer nocently.” And the editor of Winnipeg’s labour and Socialist.” This epitaph tells us how Rogers newspaper characterized Rogers as a “warm un- died. His life tells us what he dreamed for work- ionist.” ing people.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 5 My Skeena Childhood by Eileen Sutherland

Eileen Sutherland was HE Royal BC Museum in Victoria has a Spokeshute (“a fall camping place”), where the born in Prince Rupert. series of displays commemorating the im- Ecstall River flows into the Skeena near its mouth. She is interested in the portant industries in BC—forestry, min- The upriver First Nations people came down author Jane Austen, T ing, and fishing. The fish cannery exhibit consists each year to meet and trade with the coastal tribes. social history, and of a small part of the processing line of a cannery, Cunningham founded a settlement, which he archeaology. From 1988 to 1991 she was where the cans of salmon jiggle along on a con- named Port Essington. He granted a portion of president of the Jane veyor belt to have lids put on, and then go into a the land as a reserve for the First Nations people, Austen Society of steamer box to be cooked and vacuum-sealed. in the hope they would stay and trade with him. North America The walls of the exhibit are rough boards, with a The rest was divided into lots and sold to settlers. (JASNA) and for 18 floor of planks. The designer could not replicate He built a store, and eventually a hotel and town years she was regional the fishy smell, the slime on the floors, the cold hall, a cannery, a sawmill, and a sternwheeler co-ordinator of the draft that swept the whole building, and the con- steamship to carry goods and passengers upriver. Vancouver group of the stantly dripping water everywhere in an operat- A little town grew up with these structures at its Society. ing cannery. However, for a visitor it is a good centre. In time, there were four churches, other She has not been back indication of what an old cannery building had stores built by Japanese owners, and the cannery to the Skeena for twenty years or more, looked like. One wall of the exhibit has a small stores. Four canneries operated at one time, but but still thinks of the window, and the painted “view” from it is of a only one of them lasted into my childhood. This North Coast as “home.” river, a couple of islands, and wooded hills be- was the Anglo-British Columbia Packing Com- yond: this was exactly the view over the Skeena pany (ABC), owned by the Bell-Irving family, River from the windows of my childhood home who purchased the Skeena Commercial cannery in Port Essington. when its own British American (BA) cannery In the early 1860s, Robert Cunningham, a burned down in 1926. former missionary and Hudson’s Bay Company In its heyday, the turn of the century, Essington trader, decided to start trading for himself. The was a lively, booming place, nicknamed the “Me- site he chose was a historic Native camp called tropolis of the North.” The town stretched out a

Right: At Port Essington the Ecstall River (to the right) flows into the Skeena River.

6 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 couple of miles along the shores of the rivers. Since the land was mostly rock or muskeg, the streets were boardwalks following the contours of the land, built up on posts, sometimes ten to twenty feet high, other times just above the ground. The “streets” were given pretentious names: Dufferin, Wellington, Lorne, and so on. There were several hotels by that time, a restau- rant, a pool room, a small hospital, and a perma- nent population of several hundred people. In the fishing season, this number more than dou- bled as fishermen and cannery crews arrived in early spring. It was in the winter, however, that most of the social events took place, as the people made their own entertainment. House parties, dances at the tion was divided between “town” and “cannery” Above: Donald, Charlie, town hall, community concerts, a Christmas party and lived at opposite ends of the main street. These and Eileen Moore. for the children, and other amusements occu- groups did business with each other but didn’t pied almost everyone. At various times there were get together much otherwise. There were no four newspapers, but none lasted very long. The housing restrictions in the town, but the groups town was not incorporated, but a mayor and kept distinctly to themselves, with no social mix- council were elected (with great ceremony but ing. I never heard of any fights, or racial slurs, or no power); there was a parks commissioner, but derogatory names. The segregation seemed to be no parks. voluntary and mutually acceptable. The coming of the Grand Trunk Pacific Rail- A few years after their marriage in 1917, my way just before the First World War was expected mother and father came to Essington, where Dad to provide the final cap to Essington’s good for- had a job as bookkeeper at the ABC Packing Co.’s tune. However, the ultimate decision sited the BA Cannery. They remained for over twenty years, railway on the opposite side of the Skeena, and at first year-round, when Dad had the job of care- the town’s prospects gradually diminished, as taker during the winter months, and later, from Prince Rupert became the major city of the north around 1928, spending the winter in Vancouver, coast. and the fishing season—about April to October— By the time of my childhood, there was a var- in Essington. I never went to school in Essington. ied ethnic population in the town. About half My older brother Don was not doing well in the the “Indians” lived in permanent homes in the local one-room school. He and his special friends reserve area; the rest stayed in houses on the hill didn’t pay much attention and the teacher lacked behind the cannery for the fishing season, and strong discipline. Mom and Dad decided to move returned upriver to their home villages, Kispiox, to Vancouver for good schooling for all of us. We Kitwanga, and Kitwancool, after Labour Day, for spent most of the year in Vancouver and the sum- the children to start school. The Chinese can- mer in Essington—two entirely different ways nery workers were contracted labour, with a of life. The boat trip north, at the end of May— “boss” who made all the decisions. They lived in Dad had gone earlier when the cannery opera- a big dormitory building behind the cannery, with tions started—was like coming home, and we their own cook and mess hall. The Japanese were happily took up our Essington amusements again. mainly men with families who lived in several Our house was built on the top of a little hill— different sections of town—around each store, a big, square, two-storey building made to seem and in neat rows of houses at our end of town. In even larger by wide verandahs on front and side, a small settlement ten minutes or so walk along and attached sheds and out-buildings at the back the Ecstall River, a group of Finns had their homes of one side. It looked down on the cannery prop- and a steam bath hut. There was one Swedish erty at the foot of the hill and beyond. The house and one Norwegian family, both with several had been built in the 1880s or 1890s for one of All photographs are near-grown up children, and quite a few families the cannery managers, and like the homes of all from the author’s with British backgrounds. The “white” popula- important people in town it was above and iso- collection.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 7 Right: Two “collectors” towing fishing boats to the fishing grounds.

lated from all the others as much as possible. age two at a time only part way up—and arrived In our time the house was considered too big breathless at the top. and old-fashioned for the current manager, who There was just enough flat land at the top of chose instead the largest and highest of three the hill around the house for a small yard where houses built on a hill behind the cannery build- we played—a bar for swinging and chinning our- ings. (The other two were occupied by the fore- selves, a heavy rope hanging from a large spruce man, Stan Kendall and his family, whose daugh- tree, knotted at intervals for climbing and with a ter Fredda was my constant companion, and two big loop at the end for swinging. Down the bank bachelors, senior cannery employees). Our hill behind the house (we always spoke of “down the was covered with tall evergreens, cedars, firs, bank” instead of “down the hill”), a long—30 spruce and hemlock, and densely overgrown with feet or more—rope was fastened high up one of salmonberry and blueberry bushes. A steep trail the big trees near the water. There was a loop in led down behind the house to the rocky shore of the end, and the boys could take the rope up the the Ecstall River, and one went down in another hill to a place where they could put one foot in Below: Panoramic view of direction to the Japanese houses below, and sev- the loop, hang on tightly, push off, and swing Port Essington looking eral floats for their boats. Fifty-two steps led up away out over the rock and the river, gradually accross the Skeena. The to the front entrance of the house. We went down “dying down” until they came to a stop at the ABCP Co takes centre these stairs two at a time whenever we went out, foot of the tree. It looked wonderful, but I was stage. and came up as fast as we could, but I could man- too scared to try it. ABCP Co. cannery building and wharf.

Path leading to the houses of the “Indians” Kishimoto store Boiler house Cannery mess house

8 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Left: The company store at the end of the wharf. On the hill to the left is the house in which the author lived with her family.

On rainy days—and there were lots of them— When the house had been built, it was the the wide verandahs made excellent places to play. fashion to have a fairly small parlour and a much Mum had clothes lines strung on the side veran- larger dining-room. In one corner of the living- dah, but we could ride kiddie-cars and tricycles room was a cast-iron stove with an open front, back and forth for hours, and play on swings hung the metal equivalent of a fireplace. Shortly after from the ceiling. my parents moved to Essington, they were vis- Three bedrooms were upstairs, all with a mini- ited by Henry Bell-Irving, the head of the can- mum of furniture. The walls were covered in old, nery firm. Somehow the conversation turned to faded, and in some places water-stained papers, stoves or heating, and Mum happened to say how and the floors were a dark oiled wood, with a much she liked a real fireplace. In a few weeks, braided rag rug beside each bed. Both the up- this open stove was sent up to her by Mr. Bell- stairs and downstairs hallways had wood-burn- Irving. We all enjoyed it. Almost every evening ing stoves, but I don’t remember them ever lit. we sat around reading, watching the flames, and What I remember is the downstairs rooms kept soaking up the heat. The room was furnished with warm, and the halls and bedrooms cold. Dad had a small square table in the centre—great for pil- cut a hole in the bathroom floor over the kitchen ing up books and newspapers (we were all avid stove and boxed it in with boards and wire screens, readers) or playing crib or other card games. The which provided a constant source of warm air. table was also necessary because it sat under the low hanging gas light and prevented anyone walk- BA netloft at the left wih the dark roof. ing into the lamp. We had no electricity and this gas light was our main light. We also had half a dozen coal-oil lamps that we could carry from room to room, and upstairs to the bedrooms. Essential repairs were done to the house, but not much in the way of decoration. It was an ideal home for a family with children. We didn’t do any damage, but we didn’t have to be too careful—there wasn’t much that could be bro- ken or damaged. My earliest memories are of pro- cessions around the house—my older brother Don on a large tricycle, my other brother Charlie on a scooter, and myself on a small kiddy-car— around the table in the middle of the living room, BA store and office Bunkhouse for workers into the dining room and around the table there

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 9 a couple of times, into the kitchen and to the sweets; there was always dessert, often sliced or- pantry at the back, in one door and out the other, anges and bananas, or apple cobbler. I could pick and then back to start again, with appropriate enough blueberries from the bushes on our hill loud noises. All the time Mum was busy trying in half an hour, whenever Mum asked for them to get a meal, or clean up. As we grew older, we and blueberry pudding was always a favourite. changed to larger or more complicated vehicles, We drank evaporated milk mixed with water but it was a delightful game that kept on for years. and were quite accustomed to its taste, until we Charlie was less than two years older than I, but moved to Vancouver and tasted fresh milk. That Don was six years older—he was soon off with turned us against canned milk a bit. We made his own friends rather than playing at home with delicious cocoa with undiluted canned milk, and Charlie and me. had melted butter and brown sugar on our break- The kitchen at the back of the house was long fast porridge instead of milk. For a year or two a and narrow, with a big black stove at the centre, Japanese farmer kept cows a short distance down literally and emotionally. Fuelled by wood and the Skeena River. He brought milk into town to coal, and later by oil, the fire was kept going al- sell, in pails hung from a yoke over his shoulders. most all the time, banked down at night. The fire But the cows grazed in a meadow with skunk heated the oven at one side, the “warming oven” cabbage, and the milk had a strange taste, so we at the top, and a tank of water beside the stove. really preferred the canned. When we came in cold and shivering, we stood Across the back end of the kitchen was the with our backs against this warm tank or sat in pantry, a long narrow section with two doors usu- front of the oven with the door open. ally standing open. At one end were the sink and We had good meals, although the foods avail- washtub; at the other was a wall of open shelves able lacked variety. Almost all fruits and vegeta- for dishes, small staples, pots and pans, and all the bles came from cans, except fresh root vegeta- other necessities for cooking. In the middle was bles, and apples, oranges, and bananas. A couple a work table, and on the floor beside this were of times a week we had a piece of salmon from several sacks of sugar, flour, oatmeal, etc. It was in the cannery, poached and served with an egg the pantry one day that a calamity occurred that sauce. Every Friday, a butcher from Rupert turned into a hilarious story passed on to our brought meat to sell in Essington. We had no children and grandchildren. Mum was busy with refrigeration, but a “cooler”—a box nailed to the preparations for the next meal. Charlie and I, in north side of the house just outside one of the our pre-teens, were hanging around, putting in kitchen windows—kept things fairly cool. Mum time. He began to boast how strong he was, how baked bread, cookies, gingerbread, and other he could lift…could lift…that sack of flour on

Right: The cannery end of the main street. The windows on the right are from Kameda’s store. To the left is the post office and the three buildings behind are probably bunkhouses for Japanese workers.

10 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 the pantry floor. It was probably 25 pounds, and took the place of doz- I promptly said he couldn’t do it. He marched ens of Chinese work- over, grabbed the sack firmly around the middle ers (who were given and, giving a great heave, triumphantly put it over other jobs in the can- his shoulder. nery), and was always What we didn’t know was that the flour sack referred to as the “Iron had been opened, and the top edge folded back Chink.” The machine in place. There, before my eyes, Charlie suddenly cut off the head, tail disappeared in a cloud of white. We were horri- and dorsal fin of each fied. Mum took a deep breath, and very quietly fish, slit up the belly, and firmly suggested we go and play somewhere scraped out the entrails, else. We scuttled outside, and got rid of most of and partially cleaned the flour dust. It was a long time before we could the cavity. see anything funny in what had happened, and I The fish next went don’t think Mum ever did get any amusement along another moving out of it. We knew it must have been a lot of belt between two rows work for her to clean up, but it was years later of “washers.” These when I realized that not only was there a pile of were mostly Native flour all over the floor, but on the open shelves women, wives of fish- every dish and plate, every glass and bowl, every ermen, who stood in small container and bag had to be washed clean front of tables and of dust—and without the help of a vacuum sinks, with constantly cleaner. But now we think it’s a funny story. running cold water, and thoroughly scrubbed Above: The company store. As we grew older, Charlie played with two each fish inside and out. The women wore rub- boys his own age, and I was with Fredda almost ber gloves, oil-cloth aprons, boots, and heavy every day. When the cannery was running, we sweaters to keep warm, and had their hair gath- usually began the day with a tour around it to ered up into caps or scarves. The cleaned fish were see how things were going. I can still remember put back onto the moving belt, and went through my child’s view of the cannery: very cold and another machine, which cut them into sections wet at one end, very hot and scary at the other. the same size as the height of the can. The next We were surrounded by restrictions and cautions: stop was at the “fillers,” another group of women, “don’t get in anyone’s way, watch where you are mostly Japanese, again well wrapped up against going, look out, don’t touch.” Older and braver, cold, and with long aprons to try to keep their we realized how fascinating it was. clothes clean. Since the fish were moving along We started at the far end of the wharf, looking the “line” at a steady rate, both washers and fillers down at a scow filled with fish. The fishing boats had to work fast to keep up. In front of each filler stayed out on the fishing grounds for several days, was a stack of empty cans, replenished when they and “collectors”—bigger boats with lots of stor- got low, several chunks of salmon, and a pile of age space—brought in their fish each day to the cut-up pieces. So quickly it looked impossible, cannery. Men with pike-poles (long poles with a the filler picked up an empty can, jammed in a sharp, curved steel prong at the end) poked the section of salmon, filled any spaces with the small prong into the gills of each fish, and flipped it pieces, and pushed it all down firmly. Then the onto a conveyor belt with mesh baskets. When filled can was put on a tray beside her. When the each basket got up to the wharf level, just before tray was full, a man punched her card and took it turned over to start down again, it would tip the tray to the next stage. Washers were paid by the fish onto the wharf floor. Often there were the hour, but fillers were paid per tray of filled so many they formed a big slithering pile. But cans and had to be quick and skilful to make a usually another worker or two with pikes lifted good wage. each fish again by the gills and tossed it onto a The male worker, a “lineman”, took each tray bench or table where each fish was guided, head and shook one row of cans at a time onto an- first, into a noisy, powerful block of machinery, other conveyor belt. Here the cans were weighed, the “Smith Butchering Machine.” When it was had a measured amount of salt added, and a cover introduced about 1905, it was so efficient that it placed on top—all by machine. The cans then

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 11 jiggled along the belt into steam ovens—“retorts” She would broadcast approximate times of ar- (which we stayed well away from)—where they rival at the half a dozen canneries in the Skeena were carried in a long sinuous path that took area. The tides affected the order of docking. A them several hours to finish cooking. As they were heavily loaded boat could manoeuvre into some finally spilled out at the far end, they went through docks only at high tide, and had to get into the another machine that crimped and sealed their estuary, go to several canneries in turn, and get lids on; then into a cold water bath, and finally out again before the tide dropped too much. If the cans were labelled and packed in boxes. The the boat arrived at night after we had gone to labelling was another job that looked impossi- bed, it was a bitter disappointment. Otherwise ble—a wad of glossy labels was fanned a bit to we were on the watch for hours. The first indica- expose the ends, which were swabbed with a tion would be the sight of the Cardena rounding brush of glue; a Chinese worker picked up a can the point at the river bend. Then the Union with one hand, a label with the other, and rolled whistle sounded—one long blast, two shorts, and the can into the label, smoothed it down, and another long—and she would come steaming in put the can into the box, almost faster than I can and tie up. It seemed as if the whole town came tell about it. down to the wharf. Any man who was handy At the end of each day, the whole cannery took the lines and fastened them to cleats at the area, especially the front where the fish were edge of the wharf. It was interesting and exciting worked on, was hosed down and all the slime to watch the freight loaded on pallet-boards hung and bits of fish were swept through cracks be- from the booms, winched out of the hold, and tween the boards, or down a hole left for the swung ashore. Boxes and barrels and bales of all purpose, into the water below. Flocks of scream- kinds were sorted at once into piles—some for ing gulls snapped up each bit, and on the beach the cannery store and the other stores, and odds crows salvaged anything edible that had come and ends for individuals. Then some freight would ashore. Twice a day tides came in and washed be loaded on board. In no time, the whistle would away anything the birds missed. No matter how blow, the gangplank be hoisted on board, the lines many times we saw it all, it was fascinating to cast off, and the boat would slowly and majesti- watch, and we spent a lot of time just wandering cally turn and sweep on her way. It was over for through the cannery. another week. “Boat Day,” when the steamer arrived, was the One day Fredda’s father borrowed a rowboat highlight of the week. The Union Steamships was and she and I went for a row. We sat side by side the company that serviced the coast, calling on the middle seat, one oar each. We had both weekly at logging camps, fish camps, private floats, rowed before and we soon got accustomed again and canneries all the way from Vancouver to to the rhythm. All went well and we were enjoy- Rupert, and on to Alaska. The boat we knew ing ourselves, so we got ambitious and decided best was the Cardena. It was a challenge for the to row out into the river and go in front of the captains to get into the Skeena River and estu- cannery wharf before turning to shore again. The ary. The one or two deep channels shifted as the tide was falling and we misjudged the strength of river changed course over the years. Captains of- the flow. Rowing at our full strength we couldn’t ten had to “feel” their way, listening to sand scrap- make any headway for several minutes, and if we ing against the hull; in fog they could judge their relaxed for a moment we drifted quickly back- position using the whistle and listening for the wards. To make matters worse, we had acquired a echo: if they could hear the echo in three sec- small but fascinated audience at the end of the onds, they were a quarter mile off shore. We chil- wharf, who shouted encouragement and laughed dren were severe critics of the landings: a good at us. At that, pride came to our aid, and with the captain could ease his boat (we never used the utmost effort we got ahead, turned towards shore term “ship”—all were boats) alongside the wharf; and out of the force of the current, sheltered by others got close, had lines thrown ashore, and the wharf. Cheers from the group of spectators. pulled the vessel in. We were scornful of this, but We could then relax and take our time making high winds, swift tidal currents, and fog could our way to shore, to tie up the boat. It was quite make difficult conditions. Additional hazards were a little adventure—we had mixed feelings: we fishing boats and nets drifting in the river. were proud, but a little scared. The boat usually arrived sometime on Friday. During my childhood, badminton was a popu-

12 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 lar adult game, played in the net loft of one of the Japanese boathouses. Young men connected with the cannery, nurses from the hospital, and others enjoyed playing in the evenings several times a week. Mum and Dad played quite often and we went to watch, and to take a turn playing when the grown-ups wanted a rest. In my early teens, we discovered badminton lines painted on the upper floor of the cannery, now no longer in operation. Over them were skylights and the raft- ers in the centre had been raised. We were de- lighted to find this old forgotten court, and Dad agreed to move the fishing nets stored there. Our group of five or six friends now played almost every day; the game was especially welcome as something we could do rain or shine. The ceil- ing was low, and we had to develop fast low serves and volleys, and a new rule: “If it hits the rafters, take the shot over.” Visitors had a hard time ad- justing to the low ceiling, but we found we were cornmeal and fried them in butter—they were Above: After the fires. What was left of Port the ones at a disadvantage in a regular court— delicious. Essington. the long high shots away over our heads were a Rainy days did not deter us. Dressed in rain- challenge we weren’t used to. coats and rubber boots, we roamed around the Dominion Day, the first of July, was a big cel- town, with five or six other teen-aged friends. ebration. The “Indian band” played rousing tunes Many days, at one home or another, we played as they marched from the centre of town along card games for hours, with fierce competition the main street to the BA Cannery store. Here and great gales of laughter. There was always some- they had a rest and were treated to soft drinks, thing to see or do. then played and marched back again. After that In the early 1940s, the BA fish camp and store there were all sorts of races and contests for all were closed, my family moved away, and our con- ages, a baseball game against a visiting team, and nection with Essington came to an end. Disaster later a dance in the community hall. During the came many years later. 1961 had been an excep- night we occasionally heard a late reveller hap- tionally dry year. Bright June sunshine glinting pily singing his way home. off a broken piece of mirror set fire to one of the Fishing was a favourite pastime for fine days. houses. Strong winds whipped up the flames and Our equipment was simple: we had a line, wound drove sparks to kindle new fires all through the around a stick to keep it from tangling, with a town, fed by stores of gasoline and ammunition, hook on a short piece of line tied to the end, and racing down the dry wooden sidewalks. Most of a lead weight. Bait was usually a small piece of the men were away fishing and the women were salmon begged from the cannery. We fished from busy with children and chores. By the time help the big rocks behind our house, or from the can- arrived, it was too late to save the town. In the nery wharf. We didn’t always have luck in our late evening it was all over—only a few isolated fishing, but caught something just often enough houses remained. The town could never recover. to keep us interested. The common catch was A few years ago my brother Charlie hired a either bullheads (small ugly fish with a big head boat to go and see what remained. Buildings and and horns, no use to us and always thrown back boardwalks were gone. The site of the town was immediately), flounders (also thrown back until covered with bush and young hemlock trees, we found we could sell them to the Chinese cook perhaps thirty feet tall. The whole impression was for a nickel apiece), and Dolly Varden trout. We of lush growth, which had completely taken over. didn’t catch the trout often, but they brought great There were still rotting piles in the long curved excitement, and we took them triumphantly bay that had once held four canneries, but no home. We learned early to clean and prepare them sign of wharfs or buildings. Essington was gone, ourselves, and then Mum coated them with but not our thoughts and memories of life there.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 13 John Meares BC’s Most Successful Real Estate Agent? by John Crosse

Marine Historian John N THE spring of 1790 the fur trader John land. Bodega had also the testimony of Vianna, a Crosse presented this Meares landed from an East Indiaman at Port- Portuguese merchant and of two American fur paper at the Northwest smouth and hotfooted it to London. He had traders, John Ingraham and Robert Gray, who Coast Fur Trade I an urgent mission to fulfil. Far on the other side had been present at the time. Symposium at Fort of the world a Spanish naval officer had seized Vancouver, only just arrived, had no counter, Langley in August 2002. four of his ships. Notified in Macau of this out- and contented himself with affirming that he was rage, he was determined to seek redress from the only here to accept from Spain whatever land British government. He had powerful friends. Meares had acquired. In vain Bodega y Quadra Through Richard Cadman Etches he was soon argued that Maquinna had never sold anything presenting his memorial to the British House of to Meares. After a lengthy exchange of letters the Commons. The then prime minister, William Pitt two agreed to refer the matter back to their re- the younger, in need of a campaign platform, spective governments. Bodega y Quadra departed, called out the British fleet, and, in what became and Vancouver made ready to leave. known as the Spanish Armament, cowed the Just as he was about to do so, there arrived in Spanish government into submission. the bay a Portuguese trader, the Felice Aventureyra, Among the claims Meares made was that he on board of which, as supercargo, was a certain had been dispossessed of some land and build- Robert Duffin, who had been with Meares in ings at Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound, a 1788 and also the mate on one of Meares’s ships Mowachaht village now known as Yuquot. Meares seized in 1789. Duffin told Vancouver a very dif- claimed not only that he had been deprived of ferent story. this property, but also of two other pieces of land, He averred that Meares had bought the whole one at Tofino and the other at Neah Bay, on the of the land that forms Friendly Cove for eight or south side of the entrance to the Strait of Juan de ten sheets of copper, and that the building erected Fuca. He demanded restitution. there was a substantial one, consisting of three Thus was concocted the Nootka Convention, bedchambers, a mess room for the officers and signed in Madrid in October of that year. In this proper quarters for the men. The building was Spain agreed to restore to Britain the buildings raised some five feet above the ground, the un- and land so precipitously seized in l789. derpart serving as a warehouse and workshop. But what was this land, and what were the There were also several outhouses and shops, and buildings? Nobody really had time to check. the buildings had been in good repair when they Captain George Vancouver was dispatched from left. This building had been designed to house England to find out and take possession. And the workforce required to build the Northwest Spain for its part sent its commandant at San Blas, America, a small schooner that Meares intended Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, to make to use locally. restitution. Duffin made a sworn statement to this effect, All this took time and it was not until the sum- but Vancouver apparently made no attempt to mer of 1792 that events started to unfold. Bodega notify Bodega y Quadra of this new, important, y Quadra arrived early and had plenty of time to and conflicting bit of information. Had he done settle in and make himself comfortable before so the outcome of the Nootka Settlement might turning his inquiries to the land claim. By the well have been very different. time Vancouver arrived he had uncovered suffi- Both Vancouver and the British Government cient information to present Vancouver with some pooh-poohed Bodega y Quadra’s evidence, say- unpleasant evidence. To the best of his determi- ing it came from unreliable Native, Portuguese, nation, Bodega y Quadra could find no record and American sources, and seized on Duffin’s evi- of a land purchase, and what building had been dence as being far more trustworthy. But were Opposite page: John Meares. Detail of an erected was quickly demolished. Chief Maquinna they correct? Spain never had any opportunity engraving by C. Bestland. emphatically denied ever having sold Meares any to dispute Duffin’s claims. Bodega y Quadra was

14 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 never notified of Duffin’s last minute additions, and therefore had no op- portunity to verify his statement. Bodega y Quadra, far out of reach on the other side of the world, was left ignorant of the new evidence being pre- sented by the British ambassador in Madrid. Had he known, Bodega y Quadra would have been able to counter Duffin’s assertions, for Duffin was not quite such a reliable witness as Vancouver had assumed. Duffin, as I have said, had been First Mate of Colnett’s Argonaut when she first arrived off Friendly Cove in 1789. Martinez had lured the Argonaut into port, but Colnett, smelling a rat, had given orders for Duffin to anchor. But Duffin did not do so, with the result that both ship and crew were arrested. Martinez claimed that under the Papal Bull of 1493 Spain had exclusive right to all territories of the Pacific. Colnett, Duffin and the Argonaut and her crew were taken as prisoners to Mexico and only released after nearly a year. Colnett blamed Duffin for all his misfortunes and never afterwards had any use for the man. He refused to take him aboard again when he regained possession of his ship, and Duffin was left to find his own Archives PDP-05179 BC way back to Macau via Acapulco and the Manila Galleon to the Philip- pines, fortuitously reappearing at Nootka at just the right moment, un- doubtedly well primed by Meares beforehand. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bodega y Quadra would certainly have known of Duffin’s deficiencies, Howay, F.W. (ed.), The Journal of Capt James Colnett as they were readily apparent in his relationship with Colnett while at San aboard the Argonaut, 1789-91, The Champlain So- Blas. Had he also known of Duffin’s sworn deposition to Vancouver, he ciety, Toronto, 1940. Facsimile edition, Green- most certainly would have forwarded his own appraisal of Duffin’s charac- wood Press, New York, 1968. ter to his government in Madrid. Ingram, Joseph, Joseph Ingraham’s Journal of the Brigan- In point of fact, all Duffin’s tale jibes ill with his boss’s own description tine Hope…, 1790-92, Imprint Society, Barre, of Friendly Cove, written in Meares’s account of his voyages, published in Massachusetts, 1791. (For Robert Gray & Joseph November of 1790, i.e. only weeks after the Nootka Agreement was signed. Ingraham’s letter to Bodega y Quadra, 3 August Ample time indeed for any minister of state to read not only Meares’s very l792, see pages 217 –222). different account from his memorial, but also before Vancouver could re- Lamb, W. Kaye (ed.), George Vancouver, A Voyage of port back with Duffin’s wild tale more than two years later. Discovery …, 1791 – 1795, Hakluyt Society, Lon- In his book Meares never says that he purchased any land from Maquinna, don 1984. (Page 679 – Robert Duffin’s sworn let alone the whole cove. Only that he was granted a spot of ground on testimony; on pp. 107-109 – Grenville, Dundas, Stephens correspondence 1793). which to build a house. This was in exchange for two pistols—somewhat different from Duffin’s 8 or 10 sheets of copper, and very different from Manning, W.R., The Nootka Sound Controversy, American Historical Association Annual Report 1904 Duffin’s “whole cove.” Duffin said Maquinna wanted to move his people (1905): 279-478. away and leave Meares’s shipwrights to build the little craft in peace. But Meares specifically stated that he hired Indians to fell the timber and cut Martinez, Estevan, “Diary of 1789 Voyage to Nootka,” translated by William L. Schurz, unpub- the planks and that he paid them to do so. Maquinna must certainly have lished typescript, Bancroft Library (Two copies agreed to this. exist of this document in BC Archives and UBC Meares’s description of his building is also different from Duffin’s. While Special Collections. the ground floor is similar, his upper floor had only space for eating and Meares, John, Voyages…, 1788-1789, Lographic Press, chambers for the craftsmen. A breastwork to protect the site, with a cannon London 1790, Israel/Da Capo reprint 1968. for defence, surrounded the whole. Mears (sic), John, Authentic Copy of the Memorial to Ingraham and Gray’s evidence to Bodega y Quadra was that when Meares W.W. Granville …, J. Debrett, London 1790, Ye departed at the end of the 1788 season, the cedar planks of the house were Galleon Press reprint 1986. loaded aboard one of Meares’s ships and the roof given to the American Norris, John, “The Policy of the British Cabinet in John Kendrick for firewood. the Nootka Crisis,” English Historical Review, LXX, George Vancouver could not permit himself the indignity of accepting 1955,pages 562-580. just the tiny triangle of beach that was all that Bodega y Quadra would Palau, Mercedes (ed.), Nutka 1792: Viaje a la Costa offer him. But Spain was in no position to bargain. After a third round of Noroeste de la América Septentrional por Juan Fran- negotiations the British flag was finally hoisted over Nootka in 1795. Thus cisco de la Bodega y Quadra … Año de 1792, we are here today.
Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de España, Ma- drid, 1998.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 15 A Palace of Entertainment Vancouver’s Orpheum Turns 57 by Chuck Davis

Chuck Davis has been AUDEVILLE was already dying when crowds below. Ladies had their own lavish lounges, writing on Greater Orpheum Circuit, based in New York with attendants, while men lolled about in smartly Vancouver historical City, opened the New Orpheum Thea- outfitted smoking rooms. events for 30 years. He V tre in Vancouver on 7 November 1927. The forty- Benjamin Marcus Priteca, the man who de- is the author of more year-old circuit controlled more than fifty thea- signed the theatre, was born in Glasgow, Scot- than a dozen books. tres across Canada and the United States, and hun- land, on 23 December 1889. He took architec- dreds, even thousands, of vaudeville performers. tural training in Edinburgh—beginning as an But now movies had begun to share the bill with apprentice at age 14 and earning the degree of the singers, jugglers, magicians, acrobats, and com- “Master Architect” by age 20—and received a ics that had made vaudeville so popular in both travelling scholarship to study architectural forms countries for more than fifty years. The advent of in the United States. He decided to stay there. sound in film, which had been around for a few By July 1909 he had settled in Seattle, where he 1 By 1928 there were four months but first caught the public’s imagination immediately went to work as a draftsman with theatres left in the in 1927—the same year the Orpheum opened architect E.W. Houghton. (Priteca’s drawings are United States presenting with Al Jolson’s feature “The Jazz Singer”—, superb.) Then, in 1911, the 21-year-old Priteca live variety only. pounded another nail into vaudeville’s coffin. met Alexander Pantages, a Seattle resident and 2 Oddly, Priteca ventured into other design areas, Vancouver’s New Orpheum, like thousands of theatre owner. The young architect was deliver- too: he designed a body theatres around the world, began a transition to ing some illustrations he had made to a local ar- for the Locomobile car, “photoplays,” and by the mid-thirties was virtu- chitectural firm and met Pantages there. Pantages and crafted a raked grill ally vaudeville-free.1 The form hung on for a few was fuming over a theatre design he considered and windshield for the Paige, forerunner of the years more: on 8 November 1935 a stage show at to be inadequate, and that led to a discussion of Graham-Paige the Orpheum, a Major Bowes Radio Amateurs theatre design with Priteca. automobile.) production, featured a group called “The Pantages was impressed by the superior qual- 3 In fact, Priteca had been in Vancouver before. The Hoboken Four,” one of whose members was a ity of Priteca’s drawings, and the stocky little now vanished second 19-year-old Frank Sinatra. entrepreneur commissioned the young architect Pantages Theatre on The Orpheum Circuit, like its counterpart the to design his next theatre, the San Francisco Hastings Street was Pantages Circuit, was known for the lavish style Pantages. The site presented challenges, but Priteca Priteca’s first venture into Vancouver. That of its theatres, but tickets into these palaces of overcame them, and the theatre opened in De- 1,800-seat theatre, which showbiz were cheap: some 1,800 of the theatre’s cember 1911. Pantages was so pleased with the opened 17 June 1917, 3,000 seats were available to adults for 50 cents results he commissioned Priteca—now all of 22— was later called the for evening admission, or you could reserve one to design all his theatres from that time on.2 But Majestic, then the Beacon, and finally the of the remaining 1,200 seats for 80 cents. And Pantages wasn’t the only source for Priteca’s thea- Odeon Hastings. for your 50 cents—or 25 cents in the afternoon— tre work. During his career he worked for four Architectural writer you got a movie and eight or nine vaudeville different theatre chain clients, and designed more Miriam Sutermeister says performances, some with very large casts. Chil- than 150—some say 200—theatres, including it “was considered at the time to be the most dren’s tickets were cheaper still. Vancouver’s Orpheum. When Priteca designed richly embellished and Wages in 1927 were low, it’s true, but, to pick the Orpheum he had been engaged in similar efficient theater of the one example, the “lathmill men” who were sought work for more than fifteen years.3 Pantages chain.” Its in one advertisement for 40 cents an hour “and Priteca referred to the elaborate style of Van- demolition in 1967 outraged Vancouverites. better” that year could have attended an after- couver’s Orpheum and other theatres as “con- The architect of the noon show in the new theatre for the equivalent servative Spanish Renaissance.” But he borrowed earlier 1907 Pantages, of 38 minutes’ work. from a dozen different places: the ornate ceiling also on Hastings Street, The Orpheum was the biggest theatre in of the Orpheum lobby, for example, is appar- which is still there and being restored, was Canada when it opened. It was also one of the ently based on one he saw and admired in India. Edward Evans more opulent: paintings and hangings adorned The organ screens are Moorish North African; Blackmore. every wall; imported chandeliers dazzled the the ceiling arches in the auditorium are Gothic;

16 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Chuck Davis’s book The Orpheum: A Palace of Entertainment will be a picture-rich history of the theatre, along with many stories con- nected with its 75 years of actvity. The book will appear later this year. Vancouver Civic Theatres Civic Vancouver the ceiling itself and its dome and the chande- was a German-born Vancouver entrepreneur liers are Baroque, and the wall coverings imitate named Joseph Langer. Information on Langer is those of nineteenth-century France. also difficult to find. There’s nothing on him in The man who designed his theatres to both the City of Vancouver Archives, nothing in the dazzle and welcome was not lavish with his cli- Special Collections Division of the Vancouver ents’ money. “When Mr. Pantages asked me to Public Library, precious little elsewhere. We know design him a theater,” Priteca once said, “he told he came to Vancouver in the 1920s and built sev- me that any darn fool could design a million- eral suburban theatres—the Victoria Road Thea- dollar theater for a million dollars, but that it took tre, the Kitsilano, the Windsor, the Alma, and the a smart man to design a theater that looks like a Kerrisdale, then sold them to raise the money to million dollar theater and cost half that much.” build the Orpheum. The Orpheum Circuit, in We know, thanks to the 5 December 1926 is- its usual practice, leased the theatre from its owner. sue of the Journal of Commerce, that Priteca was in Most of what we know about Langer comes from Vancouver on 3 December, with his associate a solid little booklet on the Orpheum’s history architect F.J. Peters and an Orpheum vice presi- written by Doug McCallum (not the mayor of dent, to look at bids made by local construction Surrey) and published in 1986. Langer was, ap- firms. The winning bid was put forth by North- parently, rather flamboyant and liked being taken ern Construction Co. Ltd. and J.W. Stewart, the around the city in a maroon limousine driven by oldest construction firm in the city. We have also a chauffeur in maroon livery. learned that because the bids were so much higher The magic of what Priteca created for thea- than had been anticipated for that aspect of the tre-goers in the Orpheum was captured poign- work that Priteca and his associates decided to antly in a Denny Boyd tribute to long-time 4 scale back some of the more elaborate features Orpheum manager Ivan Ackery. In that column he had planned. Boyd paid simultaneous tribute to the building The 1927 cost of the Orpheum is difficult to over which Ackery had presided for so many years. 4 pin down. I’ve seen figures ranging from $500,000 Boyd begins, with a comparison that would have Published in the Sun, 31 mightily pleased the architect, by remembering October 1985, the day to $1.25 million. The man who put up the money after Ackery died.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 17 his first view of India’s Taj Mahal and writes: I think the only other time I felt such a ham- mer blow of awe, was when I was seven and I approached the box office of the Orpheum Theatre for the first time with a King George V dime in my sweaty little fist. If you grew up in Vancouver through the mean, bleak ‘30s, movies were the common escape and a dime was the key. If you lived in a 2 ½-room flat, your family on relief, that dime took you up the lushly carpeted stairway of the massive Orpheum foyer into the world of imagination where animals spoke, Tarzan roared, children squealed with laughter and bad guys always got it before the closing credits.... The rose-red carpeting led to the dramatic split stairway to the upper foyer, light cascading down from the chandeliers and the wall sconces. There were balustrades and ornate arches, pillars and col- onnades, coffered and domed ceilings.... During the Great Depression, with sound movies and radio adding to its grief, the movie industry had to redouble its efforts to fill its huge theatres. The Orpheum, like many theatres in North America, was kept open by cutting staff, reducing ticket prices and bringing in double features. It even closed its doors for a time in 1931. Then in 1935 the Orpheum got a new man- ager who gave it new life. His name was Ivan Ackery. He was born “Ivor,” but said so many people called him “Ivan” that he decided to go along with them. Movie theatre managers in the 1930s were more than just administrators. They frequently chose the films they would show, they were expected to promote them—and, boy, did Ackery promote them—, and they devised spe- Vancouver Civic Theatres Civic Vancouver cial attractions to make their theatres stand out and bring customers in. Ackery was so good at influenced by the elements that would mark his later career: spectacular all of this, and he was good for so long (35 years), events, lavish surroundings, elegantly attired staff, and personal attention. that it’s fair to say he is the single most influential He had found his niche. person in the Orpheum’s history. By 1923 he was the head usher at the Capitol Theatre in Vancouver. Five Bristol-born Ackery had his first taste of show years later Famous Players bought several theatres in Vancouver and Ackery business 7 May 1921 as an usher in Calgary’s was made manager of one of them. “All the big shots’ sons were promoted brand-new Capitol Theatre. The Capitol was on to the management of these new theatres we owned,” he wrote in his the Pantages Circuit, and was, like the others, an autobiography, “and I was the only ‘little’ fellow promoted from the ranks. elaborately decorated and opulent show house. I had been made doorman at the Capitol earlier in the year, but now was to “The manager,” Ackery recalled in his autobiog- manage the newly-acquired Victoria Road Theatre at Victoria and 43rd at raphy Fifty Years on Theatre Row, “wore a tuxedo a salary of something in the neighborhood of $25 a week.” In 1930 he was and the assistant manager a frock-tail coat; the promoted to be the manager of a more prestigious theatre, the Dominion cloakroom attendant wore a white uniform as on Granville Street. did the matron of the ladies’ rest room. Every- From the very beginning of his career as a theatre manager, Ackery thing was spotless.” showed a flair—no, a genius—for promotion. When his theatre was broken The young Ivor was already beginning to be into and robbed one night, he dragged the little safe that had held the

18 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 receipts onto the sidewalk, its door sagging open, reflected eleven years later, “it came as a sorry 5 Priteca died at 81 in and propped a sign against it plugging the thea- and sudden end to the career I’d devoted my life Seattle 1 October 1971, too soon to see that one tre’s current movie, a crime picture. to and expected to carry on in until old age and of his greatest creations, By 1924 he was manager of the Strand, one of ill health rendered me incapable.... There’s no jus- Vancouver’s Orpheum the city’s showcases. “It was a grand theatre, the tice and little sense in putting a healthy, experi- Theatre, would—unlike third largest in the city, and I was extremely enced individual to pasture just because he’s had many other of his creations—survive and proud.” The first thing he did as manager of the a birthday.... Still, the company had been won- thrive. Strand was to get Scott’s Cafe to bake a huge derfully good to me, and I was always proud to cake, a gigantic confection that stood as tall as a be associated with it and with the fine men I man, to celebrate the theatre’s fourteenth birth- worked with over the years, who gave me so much day. Every patron was given a slice of cake dur- encouragement.” His last day was 28 December ing “Birthday Week.” The famed Fanchon and 1969, two months past his 70th birthday. He died Marco shows, huge and elaborate productions at St. Paul’s Hospital 30 October 1989, the day famous in their time, were brought in and Lily before his 90th birthday. Laverock booked the Ballet Russe de Monte He was still around, however, to take part in Carlo into the theatre. the mid-1970s campaign to save the Orpheum.5 Ivan was edging into the Big Time. And in Famous Players had announced that it intended 1935 he stepped into it. In the summer of that to either sell the Orpheum or gut it and install a year he was informed he was to become man- multiplex cinema as they had done earlier with ager of the Orpheum Theatre. “It was such a thrill the Capitol. By December 1973 Famous Players for me, and I can remember how excited my had granted the City an option to buy the mother got.” His mom’s excitement was justi- Orpheum for $3.9 million. In return, the City fied: the Orpheum was the largest theatre in would give the company permission to redevelop Canada, and her son was now running it. “I recall (i.e., convert to a multiplex) the Capitol. The es- how tickled I was because I’d be getting a $10 a timated cost of renovation of the Orpheum after week raise!” purchase was $2 million. Famous Players was getting a lot for that extra A number of people, including Rhonna ten bucks a week. “At the Strand,” Ivan recalled, Fleming of the Community Arts Council, im- “I’d had to fill 1,600 seats and deal with a staff of presario Hugh Pickett (who had, at 14, been at about 25. At the Orpheum I was looking at al- the very first show held at the Orpheum 7 No- most twice that number of seats and much more vember 1927), and Vancouver’s mayor Art Phillips staff, and I had two important obstacles to over- were involved in the campaign to raise funds to come—the Depression and the Competition.” buy the theatre as a home for the Vancouver Sym- For the next 35 years Ivan Ackery was to prove phony Orchestra. that nothing could dampen his promotional fer- The VSO, which had often appeared at the vour and his love of the Orpheum Theatre. He Orpheum, was ensconced in the Queen Eliza- was the first Canadian to win the Quigley Award, beth Theatre, but had never been happy with the given annually to the North American theatre acoustics there. “The worst seat in the Orpheum,” manager who did the most for his theatre’s pro- said one musician, “is better than the best seat in motion. In one famous instance (of dozens) he the QET [Queen Elizabeth Theatre], acoustically paraded a cow down Granville Street with a big speaking.” sign on its flanks, marked with an arrow pointing Tours of the theatre were organized, lotteries to the cow’s udder. “There’s a great show at the were held, and benefit performances featured Orpheum Theatre,” the sign read, “and That’s No notables such as Jack Benny and Buddy Rogers. Bull!” Most events were well attended, and $432,000 In 1969 Famous Players, now controlled by was raised. The campaign was successful, with Gulf & Western Industries, a United States cor- funds from the federal and provincial govern- poration, introduced a policy of compulsory re- ments, the City of Vancouver, and private and tirement at 65. Ivan had turned 65 five years ear- corporate donors combining to buy the theatre lier, on 30 October 1964. from Famous Players. Overnight, he was out. After 48 years in the The Orpheum remained closed for a year-and- business, and an unparalleled record in getting a-half while Thompson, Berwick, Pratt directed crowds into theatres, he was gone. “For me,” he the renovations. Architects Ron Nelson and Paul

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 19 6 It had been discovered that in some areas of the theatre, particularly under the balcony, certain instruments couldn’t be heard. Someone sitting here might not hear the piano, while someone over there couldn’t hear the cellos. 7 That mural was painted, panel by panel, by Tony Heinsbergen in his Los Angeles studio. Then the panels were shipped to Vancouver and pasted onto the ceiling. The orchestra conductor shown in the mural is architect Ron Nelson; the little cherubs in another corner are Paul Merrick’s children (now all in their 30s); and the tiger in the mural is an affectionate nod to Heinsbergen’s wife, Vancouver Civic Theatres Civic Vancouver whom he called his “little tiger.” The eighties, was still active as an artist in Los Ange- Orpheum’s largest Merrick were in charge of the rehabilitation. Rec- chandelier, suspended les. Merrick went to Los Angeles and asked ommendations were made to extend the stage from the auditorium Heinsbergen to get involved in the Orpheum’s over the orchestra pit (which resulted in the re- dome, is a dazzling rehabilitation. He did. The next time you’re in masterwork imported moval nearest the stage of more than 100 seats), this beautifully appointed palace of entertainment from Czechoslovakia for remove the proscenium arch and install a perma- the theatre’s opening. A look up to the huge mural surrounding the cen- nent orchestra shell. Backstage, the stage loft (from local hotel recently tral chandelier. That’s Tony Heinsbergen’s work.7 which backdrops could be lowered for shows) offered $65,000 for it, The first performance of the VSO in the newly but was turned down. was to be abandoned in favour of two additional 8 8 shaped Orpheum was Saturday, 2 April 1977. The orchestra appears to floors for rehearsal areas, dressing rooms, a lounge have missed the But the orchestra is not the only user of the reno- and a library. “It was assumed,” said a study at the opportunity April 2002 vated theatre. It’s busy more than 200 nights a time, “that shows requiring a large stage, a stage to mark its 25th year with special events, comics, speakers, and anniversary at the loft or an orchestra pit could be accommodated more. The Vancouver Bach Choir, the Vancouver Orpheum. at the QET.” Chamber Choir, and the Vancouver Cantata Sing- After half a century, the Grand Old Lady of ers all make their home there. And, in one of the Granville Street needed a lot of repairs. There more interesting of its features, the theatre is also was broken plaster to recast, gold leaf to be re- the site of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. newed, carpet to be replaced, lobbies and other Photos of more than a hundred artists, impresa- public spaces to be repainted. The absorbent rios, management and the like are on display in acoustic material that had been installed for mov- the StarWall, counterparts of the stars in the ies was taken out, unsuitable for a concert hall. sidewalks out on Granville Street, the famous New acoustic panels were installed over the stage StarWalk. to better reflect the sound of the orchestra.6 One Free tours of this gorgeous building are given of the most delightful stories associated with the regularly. After 57 years the Orpheum is still busy, redecoration of the theatre concerns an artist still beautiful and—most important—still named Tony Heinsbergen, who was an associate here.
of the original architect, Marcus Priteca. Paul Merrick had gone to Seattle to get more infor- mation on the late Mr. Priteca, and discovered to his delight that Tony Heinsbergen, now in his

20 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 We Can’t Dispose of Our Own Crop .... Challenges to BC Tree Fruits and the Single-Desk Marketing System by Christopher Garrish

O read the records of the Royal Com- ciation (BCFGA). It was, after all, BCFGA mem- Christopher Garrish mission on the British Columbia Tree- bers who determined the policy of and elected recently completed his MA in history at the Fruit Industry one must wade through the executive for the BCTF at their annual con- T 3 University of Saskatch- twenty-two boxes and literally hundreds of files vention. ewan. His thesis ex- at the British Columbia Archives in Victoria. The It must be kept in mind, however, that the plored the impact of subject matter ranges from the mundane to the single desk was never an attempt to abolish the changing land use very useful, yet, it is the files that deal specifi- law of supply and demand, to institute a mo- patterns upon the co- cally with the upstart Canadian Fruit Growers’ nopoly, or to establish artificial price levels. At operative marketing Association (CFGA), and its un-elected leader, all times in their history the growers had to structures of the Alfred Beich, that are the most interesting. It is contend with supplies from other producing Okanagan fruit industry. here that one is presented with some very can- regions on the continent, and to do so with only did views from a significant cross-section of a minimum of tariff protection. Compounding growers in which personalities come to play as matters was the flawed settlement philosophy 1 Associated Growers was great a role as competing philosophies concern- of the Valley, wherein many growers had been founded out of Vernon in ing co-operative marketing. It is the transcripts left on land of only marginal capacity. The sin- 1923 following the visit of these meetings, at one time confidential, that gle desk offered the possibility to growers of of Aaron Sapiro, a Californian and the great form the basis of this article and shed light on a uniting their economic power within institu- evangelist of co- period of great soul searching within the tional and corporate structures that would pro- operation, to the Okanagan fruit industry. vide stability for the orchard unit, and give them, Okanagan on a tour designed to bring a For Okanagan fruit growers, the first three as a whole, most of the benefits of the modern broader awareness to 4 decades of the twentieth century had been char- agricultural corporation. growers on their ability to acterized by economic turmoil, crises of pro- By the early 1950s, the fruit industry had again influence their terms of duction, and the paramountcy of the individual found itself operating within very turbulent con- trade through co- operative organization. over the collective health of the industry. The ditions; wartime price restrictions had been re- 2 A single desk-marketing dynamics of this situation inevitably proved to moved in 1949, exposing growers to intense system is one in which be both socially and financially harmful, as well competition, while freezes in 1949–1950 and producers are compelled, as unsustainable over the long run. With the wan- 1955 had caused significant damage to the trees, generally through legislation, to sell their ing effectiveness of yet another marketing lowering grower returns by as much as fifty per- product through a single 1 agency—Associated Growers —in 1925-1926, cent in some cases. The economic uncertainty agency (in this case BC growers found themselves forced to seek mar- engendered by these events lead to the emer- Tree Fruits). The agency ket stability in the form of provincial legisla- gence of two distinct counter-movements acts as sole selling representative for these tion. It was believed that only legislation could within the industry; a reformist “Ginger Group” producers when ensure fairer treatment as a “single desk” and centered within the BCFGA’s Penticton local, negotiating the delivery “orderly marketing” would check unnecessary and the rebel Canadian Fruit Growers Associa- of the product to the and cutthroat competition amongst local grow- tion (CFGA), a loose coalescence of dissidents market. The purpose of a single desk is to increase ers, while directing the flow of produce to mar- generally operating along the geographic mar- returns to farmers by kets in quantities that would avoid unnecessary gins of the industry. Ironically, it would be the removing middlemen, gluts.2 Only in 1939, after a decade of court efforts of the Ginger Group to unseat the in- and eliminating challenges, was BC Tree Fruits (BCTF) desig- cumbent BCFGA leadership, by calling for an destructive local competition. Orderly nated as the sole selling agent for the Okanagan industry-wide investigation that would present marketing represents the fruit industry. Although BC Tree Fruits’ author- dissidents with their greatest opportunity to free regulated movement of a ity was derived from the Tree Fruit Marketing themselves of compulsory single desk selling. The commodity to market in Scheme, an agreement negotiated under the eventual appointment of Earle Douglas a way that will avoid gluts or scarcities. This is Natural Products Marketing Act, the reality was MacPhee, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce at especially important for a that BC Tree Fruits was administered as a branch UBC, to head a provincial Royal Commission crop as highly perishable of the British Columbia Fruit Growers’ Asso- in December of 1956 gave dissidents a legiti- >>>

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 21 Right: Executive of the BCFGA and other delegates at the 1953 convention in Vernon.

as fruit, as growers demonstrated on a number of occasions between 1908 and 1939 the consequences of rushing a crop to market; prices crashed, and overall returns were diminished. 3 Profound changes reshaped the face of the Okanagan fruit industry in the early 1970s when the provincial government removed the compulsory aspect of the single desk. Since 1974, the BC Fruit Marketing

Board, which used to Courtesy Christopher Garrish routinely designate BC Tree Fruits as the sole selling agent, has become mate venue in which to pursue their agenda Beich, who were determined to test the strength dormant, while before other growers. of the BCFGA. A delay in the proceedings of ownership of BC Tree Fruits has been assumed Shortly after the 1958 BCFGA Convention, the Royal Commission the previous year had by the four large co- the Oliver local met to present its report of the been interpreted by the dissidents as a sign that operative packing houses proceedings to the membership—a meeting that there was truly something amiss with the mar- that now dominate the was subsequently related to the Royal Com- keting system, and that an opportunity to have industry. The BCFGA has been reduced to the role mission in a private hearing. A relatively rou- the shackles of compulsory co-operation re- of an advocacy group. tine gathering, it was to be punctuated by what moved had arrived. These dissidents began a 4 Ian MacPherson, the local’s President called a rather “amusing in- preliminary campaign of spreading falsehoods “Creating Stability Amid cident.”5 A letter, written by Alfred Beich, a lo- and rumours to aggravate discontent amongst Degrees of Marginality: Divisions in the Struggle cal grower with a long history of agitation and growers. It was related to the Royal Commis- for Orderly Marketing in involvement in the Oliver area, was read aloud sion during the course of another private hear- British Columbia 1900- wherein he indicated that he was resigning from ing that the appointment of the Commission- 1940”, Canadian Papers in the local and that the BCFGA would no longer er’s assistant to the post of Provincial Rural History, Volume (VII), Gananoque, be representing him. This was, of course, essen- Horticulturalist, the appointment of the Man- Langdale Press, 1990. tially impossible under the structure of the in- ager of BC Tree Fruits to a separate Royal Com- 5 Arthur Garrish to E.D. dustry and the nature of the three-party con- mission on Education, combined with the res- MacPhee, Proceedings of tract, but Beich was making a principled stand. ignation of an Executive in the BCFGA, had all the Royal Commission Investigating the Tree-Fruit The response, according to Gordie Wight, an been interpreted as signs of a sinking ship. All of Industry of British Oliver grower in attendance that night, was a which was pure conjecture on the dissidents’ Columbia, 13 March 1958, loud cheer from the crowd upon word of the part, as they conducted a sort of phony war Box 5, File #15. British resignation. Beich’s maverick status within the against the BCFGA, relying on circumstance and Columbia Archives. 6 Oliver Chronicle 27 BCFGA and involvement with the Farmers grower discontent to mobilize support for their February 1958. Union, a radical farm group that had tried to position. 7 Joan Lang, “A History of organize growers in the Valley on the basis of The first direct challenge to the BCFGA came the Fruit Growing language following a large influx of German im- with word that the previously unheard of Ca- Industry in the West Kootenay District of migrants after 1945, had not won him many nadian Fruit Growers Association had formed a British Columbia 1905- followers amongst those who supported the cur- local in Salmon Arm. The fact that the CFGA 1950,” Unpublished M.A. rent marketing system. first emerged in the north was not surprising. Thesis, University of Recent events within the industry, however, That end of the Valley had been hit hard by the Victoria, 1996. had been bolstering the resolve of dissidents like 1955 freeze, and, as Gordon DesBrisay, a Gov-

22 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 ernor on the Fruit Board, testified in a private with the group, nevertheless his CFGA appeared 8 Oliver Chronicle, 27 hearing, the Salmon Arm local had no tonnage, to be on the verge of collapse. The only person February 1958. Editorial Wally Smith. Arthur their packing costs were as high as $1.95 when that still seemed to be taking note was MacPhee Garrish was my a box of apples was selling for around $2.00 and, who felt duty bound to meet with the CFGA grandfather. simply put, their position was impossible and in light of its claims to represent three hundred 9 Garrish to MacPhee, 13 they were lashing out. News of this first CFGA growers. March 1958. 10 E.D. MacPhee to local received only sporadic coverage through- Of great concern to MacPhee was the possi- Gordon DesBrisay, out the Valley. The Oliver Chronicle, whose read- bility that his investigation might lend undue Proceedings of the Royal ers were the most familiar with Beich, ran an credibility to the CFGA. He was unsure whether Commission Investigating article that week critiquing the motivations for they were “a little dissident group who are al- the Tree-Fruit Industry of British Columbia, 13 6 the creation of the Association. The reception ways going to arise in any situation and to whom March 1958, Box 5, File that the CFGA received to the east in the one does not give an opportunity for public ap- #17. British Columbia Kootenays was alltogether different. Growers in pearance.”10 If indeed they were a group repre- Archives. 11 the Creston area had endured a particularly senting a significant percentage of the grower Gordie Wight to E.D. MacPhee, Proceedings of rough period since the single desk had been in- population they were entitled to a public hear- the Royal Commission troduced in 1939. Okanagan growers dominated ing. In attempting to resolve this, MacPhee met Investigating the Tree-Fruit the marketing system, and the pooling returns privately with the Executive of the BCFGA and Industry of British Columbia, 13 March 1958. were based on their lower costs of production— leaders of the Ginger Group. Both the Presi- Box 5, File #16. British Kootenay growers simply could not economi- dent of the BCFGA, Arthur Garrish, and the Columbia Archives. cally exist under this regime.7 By 1958 these President of BC Tree Fruits, Gordie Wight, were growers had become a fertile group for dissent Oliver growers who had a long history of con- and outright rebellion on the single desk. The frontation with Beich at the local level. And both vast majority of members that Beich would men were completely dismissive of Beich and claim to have would be found around the his abilities to organize a credible challenge to Creston area, as growers’ failure to attain a divi- the BCFGA. When asked if he thought any re- sion of marketing upon geographic lines was sponsible growers were joining the CFGA, leading them to embrace the CFGA, even if this Wight responded: “I think most of them rather move entailed a policy split with Okanagan laugh about it when you ask them what they 8 growers. are going to do…. Of course in our area—most Below: The reformist In dealing with the Salmon Arm local the people know Beich so that to some extent elimi- “Ginger Group” centered industry leadership in Kelowna called in the nates his factor.”11 within the BCFGA’s three to four members that comprised the group Both men maintained the opinion that with Penticton Local. Photo- to discuss their position. In relating this meet- the collapse of the Salmon Arm local the CFGA graph from an undated ing to MacPhee, BCFGA President Arthur had been effectively broken. Wight further ques- (1959?) cutting from the Garrish—my grandfather—conceded that he tioned Beich’s claims to have the support of 75 Penticton Herald. could sympathize with Salmon Arm’s position. Many had bought their orchards “after the War when things were rosy,” but following the fall- out from the 1949-1950 freeze they found it heavy going and this was an inevitable reaction.9 Despite the deceptively reformist approach of Beich’s platform with the CFGA—control from the grassroots, elections on a regional basis by mail ballot, and open accounts of tree fruit in- dustry officials—it was made clear to the rogue local that central selling could not operate in the way being proposed. In short order, the Salmon Arm group announced that they had not realized what they were getting themselves into with the CFGA, and opted to fold after only two weeks in existence. Beich, in typical fashion, responded through the media that BC Tree Fruits had worked out some secret deal Courtesy Christopher Garrish

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 23 growers in the Oliver–Osoyoos area, believing his overbearing attitude and open opposition the number to be closer to two. To the question to the growers’ requests.… He’s a very capable of whether the Royal Commission should worry Chairman, but where we differ is that he’s not about making the CFGA a more credible or- down to the farmer’s level. He used to be but 16 ganization through a public hearing than it now he’s above it. He’s getting arrogant. might otherwise be, Garrish responded by re- He also pointed out that it might be internal lating Beich’s current agitation with the CFGA industry problems that were allowing the CFGA to his activity in the Farmers Union. “I said to to potentially appeal to so many growers. The them then that Beich could kill the Farmers United Co-op packing house in Penticton had Union far more effectively than I ever could, misread their crop and paid out too much to and I proposed to leave it to him to do it. As far their growers. In separate meetings with the as I’m concerned, he’s the kiss of death for any Commissioner, both Corbishley and Garrish organization.”12 agreed that United’s troubles stemmed from Gordon DesBrisay was from the Penticton managerial problems. To compensate, United an- area and admitted that he was not as familiar nounced that it was going to be a poor crop with Beich as Garrish and Wight, but knew of year in the hopes of getting their growers con- him through reports to the Board that he had ditioned to either no returns, or even potential been bootlegging fruit to the Coast. Although red ink. Since this forecast had come out so early DesBrisay admitted that he didn’t “understand in the season, it became the yardstick against the man’s type of mentality,”13 he disagreed with which all other growers in the Valley began to both Wight’s and Garrish’s assessment of the determine what their returns for the year might CFGA. While he did not feel a public hearing be. The discontent this spawned was precisely was warranted, he did recommend to MacPhee what the Ginger Group feared Beich and his that Beich be questioned in a private meeting followers might tap into. Based on this advice MacPhee ultimately de- 12 as to exactly what it was he was doing. DesBrisay Garrish to MacPhee, cided to hold a private meeting with the CFGA March 13, 1958. further added that Beich was “…a man who 13 DesBrisay to MacPhee, wants to be elected to office and he can’t make in June to find out what they were advocating March 13, 1958. his neighbours elect him so he is seeking an- and telling growers. When he finally met with 14 Ibid. other method of trying to get a position of the dissidents it would prove to be the only 15 Herb Corbishley to E.D. 14 meeting between the two sides. Under ques- MacPhee. Proceedings of power within the industry.” the Royal Commission DesBrisay was of the opinion that if Beich tioning it was revealed that not only was the Investigating the Tree-Fruit felt that the Commission was listening to his CFGA an unincorporated association, whose Industry of British views, it was possible that a lot of wind would very name was in doubt, but it was revealed that Columbia, 27 February they were operating without a constitution or 1958. Box 5, File #13. be taken out of the CFGA’s sails. British Columbia The Penticton Ginger Group were the only by-laws. The CFGA was turning out to be noth- Archives. ones who felt that the CFGA constituted a real ing more than a shell that Beich and other dis- 16 Ibid. sidents were using to push their own political 17 Canadian Fruit Growers’ threat to the industry—which was due in large Association to E.D. part to the overlapping constituencies that both agenda. In all likelihood, had these individuals MacPhee, Proceedings of groups appealed to. Herb Corbishley, the de facto achieved their objectives it was quite possible the Royal Commission leader of the Penticton group, was especially that the CFGA would cease to exist even in Investigating the Tree-Fruit name! MacPhee, therefore, attempted to estab- Industry of British concerned over Beich’s manipulation of the lan- Columbia, June, 1958. Box guage division amongst growers. He felt that lish where exactly the CFGA stood. Beich’s re- #6, File #6. British the CFGA was attempting to pick up where sponse was that he envisioned it operating as an Columbia Archives. the Farmers Union had left off by claiming there alternative to the BCFGA within existing in- 18 British Columbia. dustry structures. To the dissidents it was no dif- Department of was a clique of growers organizing and in of- Agriculture. Report of the fice, while the “foreign element” was being ferent than a two-party political system whereby Royal Commission on the marginalized.15 It had of course been the Gin- the two associations would compete for control Tree-Fruit Industry of ger Group’s main argument that the Executive of the Fruit Board and BC Tree Fruits. British Columbia. E.D. The merits of this proposal where at best du- MacPhee had become complacent and was not doing (Commissioner). Victoria: enough for growers. Corbishley testified: bious, as single desk selling could never survive Queen’s Printer, 1958. This may not be in line with a lot of growers’ the different policy objectives of two separate 19 Ibid. and opposing associations. Once orderly mar- 20 thinkings, but there are a lot that have lost Ibid. keting was dismantled to accommodate the 21 Ibid. confidence in Mr. Garrish, mainly because of

24 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 CFGA’s desire to “sell to anyone that would buy,”17 it could not be easily re-instituted again. There would be no turning back if the CFGA ever achieved any form of power within the industry, so MacPhee tried to determine where the CFGA stood on the issue of central selling. Only one of the half dozen growers represent- ing the CFGA that day, claimed outright not to support the concept, as even Beich claimed that he supported it in theory. In light of this seem- ing contradiction, MacPhee asked if any of them had ever done any marketing of their own. Apart from admissions of illegal bootlegging to the Coast, not a single person testified that they had ever done any commercial marketing, and not one of them had been growing in the Valley before 1940. This was the new vanguard of grow- Courtesy Christopher Garrish ers opposed to central selling seated before the Above:E.D. MacPhee and Arthur Garrish at the 1985 BC Federation of Agriculture Commission that day; they were, as a group, convention in Victoria. unaware of the industry’s history and guided by individual opportunism. They did not realize or wasting or extravagance.18 The BCFGA, which MacPhee believed had accept that the prices they received from boot- borne the brunt of the growers’ criticisms during the investigation, was legging bore a direct correlation with the pres- not the undemocratic beast it had been portrayed as and had done much ence of the orderly marketing system, a system to aid the work of the Commission.19 If there was a centralization of they did not understand. If the BCFGA had not power occurring under Garrish it was not something that could be rec- been actively regulating the flow of produce to tified through legislation, and there still remained the fact that growers markets on the Coast it is unlikely that boot- had just re-elected him for the eighth time as president that January.20 If legging would have been as profitable as it was. there were any major imbalances that had to be corrected with the ut- The remainder of the hearing consisted of most haste it was the reluctance of the industry leadership to better pub- MacPhee querying the dissidents on how they licize its actions on the behalf of growers. The only references MacPhee proposed to dispose of the six million boxes of made to the actions of dissidents were indirect. He identified the Creston apples the Okanagan produced annually. To each area as a “special problem,” but suggested that if those growers were to question he posed the dissidents allowed them- withdraw from BC Tree Fruits, as Beich would have it, they would be selves to be caught in an inconsistency with their committing economic suicide.21 He also encouraged the Executive to platform. Their inability to comprehend the costs deal with rumours as soon as they started, be at it at the local level, in the and challenges of erecting a marketing struc- press, or at the packing house. ture coloured the rest of the hearing. From of- fering discounts to wholesale purchasers, to con- In the end, the Canadian Fruit Growers’ Association would appear to be structing branch warehouses, MacPhee chal- nothing more than a footnote within the broader history of the Okanagan lenged all of the dissidents’ assumptions. By the fruit industry; an organization hardly worthy of mention, other than as a end, MacPhee made it clear to those assembled minor irritant during a period of economic volatility in the lives of many before him that he expected them to make it growers. In light of later events, however, the CFGA’s importance can be abundantly clear to growers exactly what it was found in its role of a cautionary tale for the Okanagan fruit industry. As they were proposing and the exact costs in- the BCFGA entered a new decade that would bring new challenges from volved. urbanization, the fruit industry would endure a repetition of the events When the final report was presented to the that defined the grower unrest of the 1950s. Unfortunately, where the provincial government that November, Canadian Fruit Growers Association had failed, dissidents would achieve MacPhee had come down strongly in favour of success in the early 1970s as the provincial government abandoned its the industry leadership—the Canadian Fruit responsibilities to the fruit industry in enforcing the principles of the Growers’ Association was finished. The head of system of single desk selling. What the CFGA did was demonstrate how the Royal Commission commented that what a small minority of growers could wield influence far in excess of their he saw in the fruit industry were aggressive and numbers, and ultimately change the course of the industry.
progressive organizations, with no evidence of

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 25 The Demolition of the BC Archives by Reuben Ware

FTER last fall’s demolition of the ORGANIZATIONAL DISCONNECTION OF THE OVEREMPHASIS ON DISPLAY AND ARCHIVAL BC Archives, much was written FLOW OF GOVERNMENT ARCHIVES FROM EXHIBITS TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE EXPAN- Aabout the deleterious effect on gov- RECORDS MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS TO THE SION OF ARCHIVAL HOLDINGS AND IMPROVE- ernment archives, records management, pri- BC ARCHIVES COULD MEAN LESS AVAILABIL- MENT IN ACCESS TO THEM. vacy, freedom of information, and similar ITY TO RESEARCHERS. LOSS OF PROFILE FOR ARCHIVAL PROGRAMS. issues. These are serious issues to be sure, Government records have always been WE HAVE GONE FROM A FLAGSHIP ARCHIVES and the developing situation needs to be one of the main types of archives used at TO ONE THAT IS PART OF A MUSEUM MAN- monitored closely. But there also needs to the BC Archives and, in this, there was sym- DATE. be attention given to impacts of this action metry with the actual mandate of the BC These two factors—shift in emphasis and on the various types of users of the BC Archives as the government archives. loss of profile and mandate—are related and Archives, including historians and histori- Records management was a natural exten- raise a variety of issues for the historian. It is cal researchers. This article only highlights sion of this; indeed it was a required exten- not just that expenditure of resources on some of the factors that touch sion if researcher needs for access to gov- exhibits rather than expanded holdings will upon historians as users of the archives. It is ernment archives were to be met. Improv- reduce resources available for researcher not exhaustive and is a call for a more thor- ing the flow of archival government records services. It is a wider, deeper issue with the ough treatment by those directly affected. and access for users motivated the Archives future of archives as historians now know SCRAPPING THE COMMUNITY A RCHIVES A S- to play a leading part in the development of them at stake. SISTANCE PROGRAM. records management programs, and since The BC Archives has now entered into The first blow at the BC Archives and the mid-1980s this involvement has had a museum and exhibit world with a far dif- province-wide archival services was the direct benefit for historical research. But ferent mindset than that of research and his- hacking of the Community Archives As- management of the records life cycle is now torical documentation. The emphasis on sistance Program (CAAP) from the 2002- truncated, thereby making it more difficult public programming and revenue genera- 2003 budget. When the Provincial Archives to assure the identification and preservation tion threatens to turn the Archives into a of BC and the Records Management of government archives. Over time, this may tourist kiosk. Historians want to see and Branch were integrated in 1989, one of the have a profound and negative effect on his- research the entire series of records (for ex- top priorities was to develop local and com- tory and historians. ample land settlement subject files or land munity archives in BC through a funding DISCONTINUATION OF TRANSFER OF RECORDS registry deeds) or they want a specific file program. The Provincial Archives could not TO LOCAL ARCHIVES. or document on a specific topic or item; do everything nor acquire everything; it In the recent issue of the AABC News- they do not want merely an exhibit of types needed a strong and vibrant archives com- letter (Volume 13, no.1, “Provincial Archi- of deeds and a physical reconstruction of a munity. This idea was fundamental to the vist Report”), it was stated that the Crown land registry office. Or, they want a photo- expansion of archives available to the users Trust (the term used for the integrated graph of the specific family being researched, and researchers. In its ten years CAAP Royal BC Museum and the remnant of not a selection of settler family photographs strengthened acquisition and preservation the old BC Archives) had placed several re- framed as part of an exhibit or Web site. by private and local archives and helped build patriation programs on hold. The repatria- The museum notion turns primary source a stronger archival base throughout the Prov- tion program involved transferring archival documents into secondary, interpretive pres- ince. holdings from the BC Archives to com- entations. The kiosk approach makes both The loss of this program will negatively munity archives, and it was an important broad-based survey research and specific affect the quality of archives resources avail- extension to the Community Archives As- item search difficult, if not impossible. In able to historians. Its quick restoration is nec- sistance Program. It could be a method to their place, we are given “info-tainment;” essary to the nurturing of a province-wide increase resources for archival holdings and mass access, but access manipulated by archives network and without it research to expand availability to them. At this point, Crown Trust selection; slick video presen- resources for historians are lessened. it is important to clarify the status of this tation of an officially sanctioned “cultural program. Will it be continued and will funds memory.” be available to support the repatriations? And In the words of the director of the ar- are the records being imaged or digitized chives under the Crown Trust, the archive before their transfer to local archives? will be in the Cultural Precinct’s Living

26 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Landscape and part of its “showcase for business, poorly supported and based on and nurtured its implementation. The suc- displaying…the culture(s) and history of our deep misunderstandings of archives and their cess of such a plan was not only important province.” But an archives is not a show- role in society. Others offer up the possibil- to the growth of community archives; it case, it is a storehouse. It is neither bombast ity of fundraising under the aegis of the was fundamental to the expansion of archi- for politicians nor glitter for troupes of for- Crown Trust as a justification, or at least a val resources and access to them for users of eign tourists. Rather it is a holding place mitigation, of the Museum takeover. But all kinds. The BC Archives should have been for the preservation and use of the evidence surely a way could have been found for the a major partner in the plan and accepted and memory of past activities and contexts. BC Archives to benefit by fundraising and responsibility for major areas of acquisition. It is not a cultural precinct; it is a sanctuary sponsorship on its own so that non-gov- The lack of a provincial acquisition plan of functions and documented actions. Ar- ernment records, community archives pro- was an egregious shortfall, and a very sad chives are not a “Landscape.” They are the grams, and researcher services were directly one because it was unnecessary. It is espe- bedrock, subsoil, and geological substance benefited. My question is, did they even try? cially unfortunate that those responsible for for all the landscapes. Conflating the nature, I conclude with an issue concerning the this shortfall over the past ten years now role, and services of archives with the ex- ability to adapt to changing situations and blame it on an overemphasis on govern- hibit mentality is a disservice. needs and to re-allocate resources as required. ment records. Rather than take responsi- I suggest that these two approaches are Some now suggest that the archives can re- bility for their own short-sightedness and mutually exclusive and pose many ques- dress the imbalance between government failure to allocate the resources to develop a tions for the historian. There are questions and non-government records and reverse province-wide archives system and to im- about how historian approach their sub- the “downsizing” of the acquisition of prove the acquisition of non-government ject and how archives are available and pre- manuscript collections. This criticism of past archives, they imply that somehow the fault sented—questions about the role of the BC Archives programs belies a misunder- lies with government archives and records historian in society. Is the historian to be standing, or misstatement, of the intention management. And they now suggest that another type of exhibit curator or Web site of the Community Archives Assistance Pro- the Crown Trust will fix this by acquiring fashioner? One thing for sure, more show- gram (CAAP) and its effort to build a net- archives related to society’s under-repre- case “goo-gahs” will mean less hard-core work for non-government records. This sented groups. This in itself is fine, but in- archival resources, in their contextual com- effort had three essential components: (1) a sufficient. What is necessary is a coordinated pleteness, available to historians. long-term funding program to develop lo- provincial strategy that has a detailed plan, cal archives as full partners with the BC participation by the archives community, and LOSS OF A CRITICAL MASS OF STAFF AND Archives, (2) a common database or union is funded. RESOURCES THAT COULD BE ALLOCATED list of holdings, and (3) a provincial acquisi- BC history and its practitioners deserve OR RE-ALLOCATED AS ARCHIVES, NOT tion plan. a full-fledged, fully coordinated archives sys- MUSEUM PRIORITIES, DICTATE. The funding program did much good, tem. Doing what has been done to archives It should deeply concern historians that but there is much that still needs to be done programs in the past year is NOT the way the Province’s main public archives has lost and it needs to be re-established. The auto- to get such a system. The program confu- the ability to plan for and concentrate re- mated union list was also built and is part of sion evident in the Cultural Precinct, tan- sources and staff on its own initiative. It can BCAIN, the BC Archival Information Net- gled explanations of past practice and poor no longer focus its critical mass on preser- work, (See, ). This is a gateway to archives chives” in Victoria to lead us to this system on services for the users of these records. and archival resources in British Columbia. all make it less likely that we will see one.
Some argue that now the archives will It includes access to archival descriptions find new groups of users and revenue that on the BC Archival Union List, informa- it never had before. This is a big stretch, and tion about archival institutions, and links to the revenue part is a kind of recurring Treas- Web sites. ury Board mania unsupported by market But what is lacking in this provincial ar- Reuben Ware is a former director of records surveys or studies of potential user groups, chives network is a coordinated acquisition management at the BC Archives and he held not to mention surveys of the needs of cur- a similar position in Nova Scotia. strategy with a specific plan identifying sub- rent users. The Cabinet presentation of the jects, persons, groups, regions, and time- In a letter published in ACA Bulletin of CEO of the Royal BC Museum given at November 2002 titled: “Change at the BC frames of BC’s history that are important the outset of this amalgamation is replete Archives: The death of the life-cycle?”he for acquisition. This plan should go on to with “business case” terminology and one expressed his concerns about the disman- assign responsibility for each type of record gets the idea that “business” is somehow tling of the BC Archives. to a certain archives or groups of archives. what this is about. But if we get “business” He kindly agreed to write this article for Once CAAP was running, the BC Archives over this amalgamation, we get only bad historians, historical researchers, and should have led the development of this plan readers of British Columbia Historical News.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 27 Alexander Caulfield Anderson An Ideal First Inspector of Fisheries Rod N. Palmer

Rod Palmer is a retired LEXANDER Caulfield Anderson is well salmon). He correctly concluded that Pacific Fisheries and Oceans, known to British Columbia history en- salmon return to their natal stream to spawn and Canada biologist and thusiasts for his exploits with the Hud- that they die after spawning. In reference to the fishery manager, with an A son’s Bay Company but little has been written latter phenomenon he stated, “long incredulous interest in the history of about his service as Inspector of Fisheries for fisheries research and of a fact so opposed to natural habits of the fish management in British British Columbia. As the first fisheries inspector elsewhere, it was only after careful observation Columbia. appointed for the province, Anderson had a sig- that I became convinced of its reality”. He was nificant impact on the development of fisheries in error, however, when he concluded that this management in the region. When British Co- phenomenon applied only to the large river sys- 1. Anderson, A.C. c. 1860. lumbia joined confederation, the Dominion of British Columbia. tems and that salmon in small coastal streams sur- Unpublished Manuscript. Canada assumed jurisdiction over fisheries in the vived after spawning. PABC Add Mss Vol 2 province and, in April 1876, Anderson was ap- In 1872, Anderson wrote a description of the File 8. Note: This pointed inspector. He held that post until his death province of British Columbia that was selected manuscript contains in 1884. 5 personal observations as the government prize essay for that year. In and conclusions As early as 1860, Anderson was writing about that paper, he devoted several pages to a descrip- concerning salmon salmon and other fish species and providing de- tion of both freshwater and marine fisheries re- migration, distribution tailed descriptions of aboriginal fishing tech- sources of the province. He identified many of and physical niques.1 His writings illustrate that he was a keen characteristics as well as the species of fish available for harvest and pro- descriptions of aboriginal observer of the natural world. In particular, dur- vided information on their life history and dis- fishing methods. ing his tenure with the Hudson’s Bay Company, tribution. He also described Native fishing meth- Unfortunately, several Anderson recorded considerable information ods and referred to the large number of salmon pages are missing from about the various species of pacific salmon and the manuscript and the purchased from the Natives by the Hudson’s Bay section on salmon is other fishes essential to the fur trade. During his Company. With reference to the salmon canning incomplete. twenty-two years with the HBC, Anderson served industry, then in its early stages of development, 2 Extracts from the in several posts where trade with the Native peo- he concluded that a successful export market Hudson’s Bay Company ple for salmon was necessary for survival. During Archives documents on would be developed. Search Files, Folder No. the period 1842–1848, while he was in charge at It is apparent from his publications and manu- 1 - Salmon fishery - Fort Alexandria, for example, his journal entries scripts that Anderson came to the position of In- 2 Fraser River. Fort included many references to the salmon trade. spector of Fisheries with a good understanding Alexandria Journals, Much of the information presented in papers he 1843-47. of the fisheries resources of British Columbia. 3 Notes associated with a wrote in later years came from records he kept He was, perhaps, the most knowledgeable per- map produced by A.C. during his time in the fur trade. Most of these son about fisheries matters in the province at that Anderson in 1867. observations were made at a time when he would time. During the first two years of this assign- Compiled from various have had little or no access to the very limited sources including ment he also served as the Dominion representa- original notes from scientific knowledge of the day. tive on the Dominion-Provincial Indian Reserve personal explorations In 1867, Anderson produced a map showing Commission. His travels in that position allowed 1832 to 1857. From parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and Washing- him to deal with fisheries issues concurrently with writings of A.C. ton State. Several pages of notes including, among Anderson and other his commissioner duties and, as he was quick to historical material. other information, descriptions of salmon and point out to the Minister of Marine and Fisher- 3 University of British other fishes were appended to the map. He iden- ies, this was done at very little cost to the De- Columbia Library, tified six varieties of salmon in the Fraser River partment. He also visited many areas of the coast, Special Collections system using the names commonly in use at that Division. sometimes travelling on HMS Rocket in the com- 4 Most stocks of chinook time, i.e. Sa-quai or Kase (chinook salmon), Paque pany of Indian Superintendent I.W. Powell. 4 salmon are red-fleshed (white chinook salmon) , Suck-kai or Ta-lo Annual reports to the Minister of Marine and but a few are white- (sockeye salmon), Sa-wen (coho salmon), Qua-to fleshed. For example, Fisheries provided descriptions of the fisheries there is a run of chinook (chum salmon), and Hun-nun or Hoan (pink resource and the developing commercial fisher-

28 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 ies.6 By the time Anderson assumed his appoint- Anderson was of the opinion that a hatchery on salmon to the Harrison ment, the salmon canning industry was expand- the Fraser River system would serve to improve River, a Fraser River tributary that are white- ing rapidly and the demand for sockeye salmon sockeye salmon fishing by increasing abundance fleshed. was increasing. Also, at that time, there was a lu- in the low years and would also facilitate intro- 5Alexander Caulfield crative dogfish7 fishery for production of fish oil, duction of Columbia River chinook salmon to Anderson, The Dominion which was used as a lubricant for steam engines the Fraser River. By the 1870s, hatchery tech- at the West. A brief description of the province of and other machinery as well as lamp oil and as a nology had been developed for Atlantic salmon British Columbia its climate lubricant in the logging industry for skidding logs. in Europe and on the east coast of Canada. In the and resources. (Victoria, Other species harvested included herring and western United States, Pacific salmon hatcheries BC: 1872). 6 eulachon plus various species of marine fish for had been in operation on the Columbia River Reports of the Inspector of Fisheries for British the local market. At that time there was also sub- since 1877. Anderson proposed that a hatchery Columbia for the years stantial exploitation of fur seals. expert be sent out from eastern Canada to find a 1876–1883. Appendices In his annual report for 1880, Anderson re- suitable site on the Fraser River. Finally, in 1883, to the annual reports of ferred to the cyclic abundance of sockeye salmon after several years of requests to Ottawa, Thomas the Department of Marine and Fisheries, in the Fraser River. Since the early years of the Mowat was sent out from New Brunswick to Ottawa. nineteenth century, fur traders in the Fraser River find a hatchery site. Mowat, an experienced hatch- 7 The dogfish, Squalus watershed had observed that the all important ery man, selected a site on the Fraser River at acanthias (Linnaeus) is a species of small shark, sockeye runs varied considerably in abundance Bon Accord about four miles above New West- which is abundant on in four-year cycles. The cycles included one year minster, on the opposite shore. The plan was to the BC coast. In later of great abundance followed by a year of moder- produce salmon fry for release in various Fraser years, particularly during ate returns and two years of relatively poor re- River tributaries. Construction was underway in the 1940s, dogfish were harvested for the turns. From these observations, Anderson cor- the spring of 1884 but, unfortunately, Anderson vitamin-A-rich liver oil. rectly concluded that the majority of sockeye died in May of that year and never saw the project The fishery collapsed stocks in the Fraser River had a four-year life to completion. The Bon Accord Hatchery was after 1950 when other cycle.8 completed in 1884 and Mowat stayed on as sources of vitamin A 11 became available. Anderson was a strong proponent of salmon Hatchery Superintendent. 8 This cyclic pattern of propagation and transplants. In 1867, for exam- Perhaps Anderson’s most significant influence abundance continued ple, he proposed the introduction of Pacific on the development of fisheries management in until in 1913 the salmon eggs to tributaries of the MacKenzie and British Columbia was in the regulation of the dominant run suffered a catastrophic decline Saskatchewan Rivers east of the Rocky Moun- Native fisheries. He was well aware of the de- when rock debris, which tains. His idea was that an abundance of salmon pendence of Native peoples on salmon and other was dumped in the river east of the mountains would provide a source of species of fish both for food and trade. In fact, he during railway food for the expected settlers in the west.9 Al- was a major buyer of salmon during his employ- construction, blocked salmon migration though that idea did not come to reality and ment with the Hudson’s Bay Company. From through the Fraser would not now be considered scientifically prac- the beginning of his tenure as Inspector of Fish- Canyon. The 1914 run ticable, many transplants of Pacific salmon were eries, he advised his superiors in Ottawa that the was also severely attempted beginning in the 1870s.10 Native fishery was “in all respects unobjection- impeded by further rock slides. After many Several times in his annual reports, Anderson able and economical.” He recommended that it decades of low proposed transplantation of chinook salmon eggs not be interfered with unless they broke some abundance, Fraser River from the Arrow Lakes at the headwaters of the general law such as the use of explosives. sockeye numbers have Columbia River to the Thompson River, a tribu- In a letter to A. Smith, Minister of Marine and increased and, with some modifications, the tary of the Fraser River. He was of the opinion Fisheries dated 3 January 1878, Anderson clearly pattern of high and low that Columbia River fish were a different and stated his position with respect to Native fisher- years has continued. superior species which would benefit the Fraser ies:12 9 Notes associated with a River fishery. The chinook salmon from the two map produced by A.C. I have, from the first, been alive to the neces- Anderson in 1867. (See river systems are now considered to be of the sity of affording every protection to the inter- note 3.) same species by fisheries scientists and no trans- ests of the natives in this important particular, 10 While most attempts plants were ever attempted. and I have carefully watched, in as far as prac- failed, a few transplants In his annual report for 1877, Anderson pro- ticable, that no infringement of these heredi- of Pacific salmon, outside tary rights should be permitted. The exercise their natural geographic posed the construction of the first salmon hatch- range, have been of these rights, unfettered by wanton or igno- ery in British Columbia. For this proposal he had achieved. For example, rant interference, is to many of the tribes an the strong support of the cannery owners who coho and chinook object of prime importance; and as a matter of saw it as a means of increasing fish production. salmon have been

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 29 successfully introduced expediency alone, omitting entirely the higher Anderson’s position with respect to the tradi- to the Great Lakes and consideration of the moral claim, their protec- tional sale and barter of salmon to the fur traders chinook salmon have tion demands the earnest care of the govern- been transplanted to and others in the interior is less clear. There is no ment. New Zealand. See: C. indication that he restricted that business but he Groot and L. Margolis, It was with a view to this that I have on sev- did prohibit the sale of fish to canneries. It would ed. Pacific Salmon Life eral occasions, in addressing your Department, appear that he saw nothing wrong with the tra- Histories (Vancouver: pointed out the economical and satisfactory UBC Press, 1991) ditional trade in salmon, with which he was fa- 11The Bon Accord nature of the native modes of fishing, fearful miliar, but was of the opinion that Native people Hatchery, which lest, under representations of others less fully who participated in the expanding commercial cognizant of the subject, the Department operated until 1915, was fishery on the coast should be regulated in the the first of 14 Dominion might be led to take a different and erroneous government hatcheries view. same way as other fishermen. In any event, the built in British Columbia open sale of fish caught in the traditional fisher- Anderson went on to recommend to the Min- between 1884 and 1920. ies continued for many years even though regu- Eggs from local stocks of ister that the provisions of the Fishery Act not be lations prohibiting such activity were in force after sockeye and chinook applied to “the Indians, working to supply their 1888. salmon were incubated own wants in their accustomed way.” In his 1878 in this hatchery, but Recognizing the skills of Native people as fish- report, Anderson further clarified his position in Anderson’s plan to ermen and boatmen, Anderson promoted their introduce Columbia regard to the Native fisheries: involvement in the commercial fishery and rec- River chinook salmon to I may add, that by the letter of the Minister of the Fraser River was ommended that their employment should be en- the 8th August, I was duly authorized to sus- never implemented. In couraged by the government. He felt that the pend the application in regard to the Indians, 1936, after a scientific participation of Native people in commercial fish- review, it was concluded of the fishery enactments. Previously thereto, that the hatcheries were however, I had in anticipation of the support ing and processing would benefit not only the not significantly adding of the Department, given directions that the industry but also the Native communities. In fact, to natural production Indian population should not be interfered during his time in office, Native people were and most were closed at with, save in cases of obvious abuse, while fish- actively involved in the commercial fishery es- the end of that season. With the last hatchery ing for their own use in their accustomed way. pecially in northern areas such as on the Nass closed in 1937 this first At the same time, it was stipulated that, where and Skeena rivers. era of British Columbia fishing with white men and with modern ap- After suffering severe exposure in 1882, when salmon hatcheries ended. pliances, the Indians so fishing should be con- he was stranded overnight on a Fraser River See: K.V. Aro, Transfers of sidered as coming in all respects under the sandbar, Anderson never fully recovered his health Eggs and Young of Pacific general law. Salmon Within British and died at the age of 70 on 8 May 1884.13 With- Columbia. Fisheries and Anderson’s frequent references to the Native out the record he left behind there would be Marine Service Technical fisheries in his reports to Ottawa reflect the pres- little to tell us about the history of fisheries man- Report No. 861. (Ottawa: sure he was under from the canning industry and Department of Fisheries agement during that period. Most of the De- and Oceans, 1979). other business interests in the commercial fish- partment of Marine and Fisheries records and 12 Letter from Alexander ery to restrict the fishing activities of Native peo- correspondence concerning British Columbia, Anderson, Inspector of ple. The expanding commercial fishery was har- prior to the 1890s were lost in a fire in Ottawa Fisheries for British vesting increasing numbers of salmon and the Columbia, to The Hon. and we are left with only the published annual A Smith, Minister of Native fishery was seen as unwanted competi- reports and a few letters and memoranda copied Marine and Fisheries, 3 tion. The exemptions achieved by Anderson for to other departments such as Indian Affairs. For- January 1878. Public the Native fishery remained in effect until new tunately, Anderson was a prolific writer who pro- Archives, Canada. RG10, regulations were enacted in 1888. In later years, Volume 3651, File 8540. duced detailed annual reports with many ap- This letter was also after Anderson’s term of office, and when the pended copies of important correspondence and printed in Anderson’s demands of the commercial fishery were greater, statistics. His practical but imaginative approach annual report for 1878. Department of Marine and Fisheries policy for 13 to fisheries management and his sensitivity to the W. Kaye Lamb, the Native fishery became more restrictive. “Biography of Alexander needs of the Native people made him an ideal first Caulfield Anderson” in Whereas Anderson referred to the Native fishery Inspector of Fisheries for British Columbia.
Dictionary of Canadian as a “hereditary right,” later policy assumed the Biography. Vol. XI. fishery to be a privilege granted by the govern- (Toronto: University of ment. It is interesting to note, however, that re- Toronto Press. 1982). cent decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada have tended to verify Anderson’s original opin- ion.

30 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Candidates for the 20th Writing Competition Winners will be announced at the British Columbia Historical Federation Conference in Prince George in May

A Curious Life: The Biography of Princess Peggy Old Stones: The Biography of a Family. 230 pp. 1 Available on-line at , or by mail Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and One Man’s Justice: A Life in the Law. from Trafford Publishing, Orature. Wayde Compton (ed.). Arsenal Pulp Press. Thomas R. Berger. Douglas & McIntyre. Suite 6E, 2333 Government British Columbia 100 Years Ago: Portraits of a Province. Phyllis Munday Mountaineer. Kathryn Bridge. XYZ St., Victoria BC V9T 4P4, Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion. Heritage House. Publishing. 7 toll-free: 1-888-232-4444. Constance Lindsay Skinner: Writing on the Frontier. Jean Preserving What is Valued: Museums, Conservation, And 2 Distributed by: Heritage Barman. University of Toronto Press. First Nations. Miriam Clavir. UBC Press. Hall, Mezzanine, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver BCV5T Daggers Unsheathed: The Political Assassination of Glen Professing English: A Life of Roy Daniells. 3G7. Clark. Judi Tyabji Wilson. Heritage House. . Sandra Djwa. University of Toronto Press. 3Available from UASBC Discovery by Design: The Department of Mechanical Rusty Nails & Ration Books: Great Depression and Product Sales, David Engineering of the University of British Columbia WW II Memories, 1929–1945. Barbara Ann Johnstone, 821 Chestnut Street, New Westminster Origins and History: 1907–2001. Eric Damer. Lambert. Trafford Publishing. Ronsdale Press. BC V3L 4N3, phone Tales of Ghosts: First Nations Art in British Columbia. 604.521.0029, e-mail: E. J. Hughes.Ian M. Thom. Douglas & McIntyre/ Ronald W. Hawker. UBC Press. , Vancouver Art Gallery. The Coasts of Canada: A History. Lesley Choyce. or at the Vancouver Maritime Museum or the Flying Colours: The Toni Onley Story. Toni Onley and Goose Lane Editions. Gregory Strong. Harbour Publishing. Maritime Museum of BC in The Journey: The Overlanders’ Quest for Gold. Victoria. Fort Steele: Gold Rush to Boom Town. Naomi Miller. Bill Gallaher. Heritage House. 4 Available from the Riondel Heritage House. The Judge’s Wife: Memoirs of a BC Pioneer. & Area Historical Society, From Fjord to Floathouse: One family’s journey from the Box 201, Riondel BC V0B Eunice M.L. Harrison. Ronsdale Press. farmlands of Norway to the coast of British Columbia. 2B0. Myrtle Siebert. Trafford Publishing. 1 The Life and Times of Marta and Dragan Zaklan: 5 Available in some bookstores Pioneer Stump-Farmers, Strawberry Hill, Surrey. Harbour Burning: A Century of Vancouver’s Maritime and by e-mail George L. Zaklan. Self-published. 8 Fires. William A. Hagelund. Hancock House or by telephone 1-800-866- Publishers Ltd. The People’s Boat. HMCS Oriole: Ship of a Thousand Dreams. Shirley Hewett. Heritage House. 5504. Heritage Hall: Biography of a Building. Marian Gilmour 6Available at Burnaby City & Gail Buente. Heritage Hall Preservation Society, Tong: Tong Louie, Vancouver’s Quiet Titan. Hall and Burnaby Village Vancouver. 2 E.G. Perrault. Harbour Publishing. Museum. Order by mail Historic Shipwrecks of the Sunshine Coast. Rick James Tracking Amelia Copperman. Sarah H. Tobe. Issue of from: City of Burnaby, 4949 Canada Way, Burnaby BC and Jacques Marc. Underwater Archaeological The Scribe, publication of the Jewish Historical 9 V5G 1M2, Attention Jim 3 Society of British Columbia. Society of British Columbia. Wolf, Planning Department. Voyages of Hope: The Saga of the Bride Ships. Impressions of the Past: The Early History of the 7 Distributor: Fitzhenry & Communities of Crawford Bay, Gray Creek, Kootenay Peter Johnson. Heritage House. Whiteside, but also available Bay, Pilot Bay and Riondel, on the East Shore of War on Our Doorstep: The Unknown Campaign on directly from Rhonda Kootenay Lake, British Columbia. A. Terry Turner and North America’s West Coast. Brendan Coyle. Bailey, XYZ Editorial Susan Hulland. Riondel & Area Historical Society. 4 Heritage House. Office, PO Box 250, Lantzville BC V0R 2H0. In Veronica’s Garden. Margaret Cadwaladr. When the Whistle Blew: The Great Central Story 8 Available from: G. Zaklan, Madrona Books & Publishing. 5 1925–1952. Margery Vaughan and Robert 13278 84th Ave., Surrey BC Indian Myths & Legends from the North Pacific Coast of Vaughan, eds. Great Central Book Project V3W 3G9. America. Edited and Annotated by Randy Bouchard Committee/Alberni District Historical Society, 9 Available from the Jewish 10 & Dorothy Kennedy. Talonbooks. Port Alberni, BC. Historical Society of BC, st Land of Promise: Robert Burnaby’s Letters from Colonial Wildfire Wars: Frontline Stories of BC’s Worst Forest Suite 206, 950 West 41 British Columbia 1858 – 1863. Anne Fires. Keith Keller. Harbour Publishing. Avenue, Vancouver BC V5Z 2N7. Free with membership Burnaby McLeod and Pixie McGeachie. City of Wish You Were Here: Life on Vancouver Island in in the society. Burnaby. 6 Historical Postcards. Peter Grant. Touch Wood 10 Alberni Historical Society, Editions (Horsdal & Schubart). Launching History: The Saga of Burrard Dry Dock. PO Box 284, Alberni BC Fancis Mansbridge. Harbour Publishing. Women and the White Man’s God: Gender and Race in V9Y 7M7. Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and the Canadian Mission Field. Myra Rutherdale. UBC Reserves in British Columbia. Cole Harris. UBC Press. Press.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 31 Book Reviews Books for review and book reviews should be sent to: Anne Yandle, Book Review Editor BC Historical News, 3450 West 20th Avenue, Vancouver BC V6S 1E4

Terrace Regional Historical Society th Century Anecdotes from the tribulations, teaching in such isolation. The 20th Century Anecdotes from the celebrations held on 24 May, and 1 July— Terrace Area, Terrace Area Dominion Day it was then called. One of reviewed by Kelsey McLeod. Terrace Regional Historical Society, 2002. the facts that emerges is how young the men 98 pp. Illus., maps. $20 paperback. Emily Reynolds Baker went to work, and how eagerly they Caleb Reynolds, American Seafarer, Available from Terrace Regional Historical shouldered the responsibility of their own reviewed by Philip Teece. Society, PO Box 246, Terrace, BC, V8G 4A6 lives. David Finch REVIEWED BY KELSEY MCLEOD The greatest changes, after the initial R.M. Patterson: A Life of Great This collection of reminiscences about the arrival of settlers, came with the Second Adventure, Terrace area contains nothing startling or World War, when an airport and army reviewed by George Newell. unusual—it could be any small town in BC. barracks changed the community for ever. The Terrace Regional Historical Society Helmi Braches, ed. Yet it is well worth a read, enabling older Brick by Brick: The Story of Clayburn, people to remember what it was like years is to be commended for the publication of reviewed by Daphne Sleigh. ago, and younger people to envision a very this book. It is to be hoped that other towns different society that did not depend on the and villages will follow their example, and Myrtle Siebert government for everything, whether for set about preserving their everyday history From Fjord to Floathouse: One Family’s schools, transportation, or other needs. The as well. Journey from the Farmlands of Norway book takes in the time from 1900 to 1988. Reviewer Kelsey McLeod is a member of the to the Coast of British Columbia, reviewed by Ellen Ramsay. One questions if it was necessary to go as far Vancouver Historical Society. as 1988, but perhaps this permits an overview Judith Williams of the passing of time and the inevitable Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time: changes. One-room schools, long walks to Kingcome Inlet Pictographs, 1893– school through snowbanks, crossing rivers on Caleb Reynolds, American Seafarer 1998, ice, ferries across rivers—short and long Emily Reynolds Baker, reviewed by Phyllis Reeve. memories of those who lived and grew up Kingston, ON: The Limestone Press, 2000. Adele Perry in the area. Alaska History No. 50, Distributed by: On the Edge of Empire: Gender, Race, The book deals with a considerable area, University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks. and the Making of British Columbia, which includes not only Terrace, but also 213 pp. Illus., map. US$28.00 hardcover. reviewed by Donna Jean McKinnon. Nass, Rosswood, Usk, New Remo, Old REVIEWED BY PHILIP T EECE Helen Piddington Remo, Lakelse Lake, Kitimat, and Kwinitsa. This book is the kind of historical project The Inlet, There are nine chapters in all, each dealing that derives considerable interest from its reviewed by Ian Kennedy. with a decade, beginning in 1900. There are access to primary records that have been long many pictures, which in some cases are more hidden and, until now, unseen in publication. The Corporation of the Village of intriguing than the accompanying stories. For a century and a half the personal Ashcroft That of a public school at Kitsumkalum, for Bittersweet Oasis: A History of Ashcroft logbooks, letters and even a substantial body instance, could be a prototype for most early of poetry of Captain Caleb Reynolds have and District, 1885–2002, BC schools. On page 9 is a picture of the reviewed by Esther Darlington. remained as a private collection in the hands Skeena Bridge, a landmark in the area, of his family and their descendants. Finally, officially opened in 1925. Tom Marsh’s story in the present work, the Captain’s great-great- on page 10 tells of working a 10-hour day great granddaughter has made fascinating use for the sum of $2.50, the going wage for a of her family’s literary treasure. sixteen-year old. The revelations that we discover in this Chapter 3 gives Archie Hippsley’s correspondence and in the logbooks are memories of Depression days. Amazingly his especially exciting because they deal with our story mentions that the local sawmills ran all own West Coast at a truly crucial period in through those dark days in many places. Tales its history. of local dances, when the entire community For many of us on the British Columbia gathered—there seemed always to be some coast our period of historic focus is the great individual or individuals who were willing summer of 1792, when Vancouver, Galiano, and eager to play music for these affairs. and Valdes were all simultaneously engaged Schoolteachers tell of their joys and in their groundbreaking surveys of our local

32 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 maritime neighbourhood. By contrast, many region show the captain to have been a on numerous incidents mentioned in the following years seem a bit of a blank—an modest, gentle and sensitive man. They record books. On the matter of how Patterson anticlimax, perhaps. Yet only about a decade the anguish of separation that a seaman on happened to come to Canada’s Northwest, after Vancouver these waters were thronging our exceedingly remote coast felt during for example, Finch sees as the key a period with “The Boston Men,” shiploads of New absences from home and family that lasted in hospital when, as a teenager, Patterson was England fur traders who came to Nootka typically four or five years. Especially being treated for an illness that almost took Sound (and northwards to Alaska) to buy sea revealing are the intervals between the his life. “He returned from death’s door a otter pelts from the Native people, for trade writing of a letter and its arrival in its changed person. While bed-ridden, Patterson in a lucrative market that had opened across recipient’s hands. One letter, dispatched from read every Jack London book his mother the Pacific in Canton. Caleb Reynolds was Brazil in November of 1815, was received in could find. “They fascinated me,” Finch is one of these trading seamen. Boston in August of 1816. Another of quoting Patterson reminiscing in 1951, “those Reynolds’s first voyage to what is now the Reynolds’s letters to Mary awaited a reply stories of the North, and I made up my mind British Columbia coast was as early as 1804, for over two years. Will the outer-space that I, too, would hunt and drive my dogs in just a dozen years after the great 1792 voyages of some future era ever place travellers that blank space on the map, the Yukon exploration. He sailed here again on a trading into an isolation so complete as those ventures Mackenzie Divide.” venture that began in 1815, and here is the to British Columbia at the beginning of the Patterson carried through on his astounding fact about that voyage: already, so nineteenth century? determination. After establishing a homestead early in that rapacious pelt-hunting Emily Reynolds Baker has made excellent in the Peace country, he headed north and enterprise, the sea otter “gold rush” had so historical use of the fascinating personal out of that came, 20 years later, his heavily depleted the species that the trade at archives that have fallen into her possession. masterpiece, The Dangerous River. “It helped”, Nootka was ending. Thus, the New Caleb Reynolds’s long sequestered papers Finch writes, “that he often possessed the Englanders’ attentions were turned away from have much to tell us about what was going financial resources to take advantage of our Northwest Coast and, after about 1817, on in our British Columbia waters in the opportunities that arose, but the independent diverted to other kinds of trade in the South three or four decades before settlers began spirit of the wanderer and explorer set him Pacific. to occupy what is now Victoria. apart from many of his generation and In Caleb Reynolds, American Seafarer we find Reviewer Philip Teece, a retired librarian, is financial status.” Patterson learned all he could no explicit comment about the significance author of A Shimmer on the Horizon, a beforehand from books and maps and people; of these facts to British Columbia’s book about a part of BC’s upper coast on which and he was “a keen observer” and “his eye subsequent history. Yet clearly we are shown he lives nowadays. deciphered maps at a glance.” Yet, of his first a critical turning point on our coast. The trip, to the South Nahanni in 1927, Patterson “Lords of the Pacific” (as their later reflected on his lack of knowledge: contemporaries called the New England R.M. Patterson: A Life of Great “What I proposed to use in place of sailing captains) turned to the Sandwich experience has often puzzled me.” With the Islands rather than to Nootka for their trade Adventure courage (or innocence?) of the young he goods, and it was eventually Hawaii rather David Finch headed out and, as Finch points out, well than the BC coast that became American Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books, 2000. might not have returned. However he did territory. 304 pp. Illus., maps. $34.95 hardcover. return, and having gained some experience, What makes Emily Reynolds Baker’s REVIEWED BY GEORGE NEWELL he learned from it. He reflected on where he work a real treasure is the personal and social The re-publication of all of R.M. had been, what he had done, and summarized insight that she extracts from the captain’s Patterson’s books in the 1990s is indicative at the end of the trip: “I am the better for the logs and especially from his letters to Mary of the lasting value of—and the continuing trail I have made—in every way. A little Williams, who was to become his wife. The interest in—his writing. “At the time of his stronger and heavier, more obstinate, quicker richly varied life in our region of the Pacific death in 1984,” the publishers of this to think & act alone & able to do without during the couple of decades following biography claim, “R.M. Patterson had things & to drive myself on against my own George Vancouver’s survey is revealed in become a Canadian legend, both for his will. I know the way into the gold rivers—& Caleb Reynolds’s record of social evenings exploits and for his five published books and I have seen very great beauties in a wonderful with Russian Governor Alexander Baranof many articles. His vivid portrayal of the mountain world.” in Alaska, of encounters with the Native Canadian wilderness has never been The trip, dangerous as it had been, was traders of Nootka, of clashes with mutineers bettered.” but a stimulus. Patterson recognized early in and privateers. These are not idle promotional claims. And his life, as Finch clearly indicates, a dichotomy Among the most intriguing of the captain’s since, as the British Columbia publisher Gray in his character. “I can rough it with anybody papers is his memoir that records one of the Campell comments in his foreword, “we only when I am out for roughing it,” Patterson earliest meetings with the residents of Pitcairn knew him from his books and articles,” this wrote to his mother in 1924 shortly after he Island, the community that comprised the biography is especially to be welcomed. came to Canada: “but when I come in to remnant of the HMS Bounty mutineers. Patterson’s books are, in the main civilisation my idea of hardship will be, as The many letters that found their way to autobiographical, albeit naturally, neither someone has aptly put it, to be compelled to Mary in New England from wherever complete nor definitive. This biography fills, ring the bell twice for a waiter.” He was, all Reynolds happened to be in the Pacific to some extent, the gaps and casts new light the while, honing his writing, especially in

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 33 his teenage years and in his early years in inadequate. This is not to underestimate the Matsqui Prairie in 1868 and who later Canada in letters to his mother. Finch wisely value of the community histories of an earlier discovered the clay. All this, however, is draws extensively from these and they give period. They were of strong historical merit subsidiary to the major theme of the book, the reader many insights into Patterson’s in recreating the atmosphere of bygone which is set in the twentieth century. development, both through what he chooses times—the daily life, the dialogue, the The development of the brickworks is to write about and how he writes. The literary humour, the pathos, the value system that covered extensively in the chapter by John qualities of his books derive from these earlier prevailed in that community. They imprinted Adams, who describes the origins of the efforts. their district with a distinct historical identity. factory, its fluctuations, and its eventual This is a good solid work—it provides the Additionally, they were of importance in demise, when operations were transferred to reader with a sense of who Patterson was. adding to the new groundswell of enthusiasm Kilgard, the other side of Sumas Mountain. The narrative is well paced and appropriate for the cause of heritage preservation. He deals with the techniques of brick to the subject. It is fortunate to have so many Nevertheless, there is undeniably more making, the fuelling of the plant, the photographs taken by Patterson and his pressure today on community historians to transportation of the product, and—not companions that are contemporary to the produce a book that is professional in its least—the problems of management. He also events; looking through them after reading approach to archival research and also in its adds interesting details of the colour process the book illustrates how valuable they are, regard for design and layout. Community used for the bricks, and the names of some how much they add. They are well selected. histories have become increasingly of the buildings where Clayburn bricks were The lack of a bibliography is not a competent in both these respects. The chosen. shortcoming—the endnotes are much more Clayburn history, Brick by Brick, is one such Family histories make up the largest part useful than a simple bibliography. I would, example of a book where care and thought of the book, and offer plenty of agreeable however, have found a separate listing of his have obviously been expended over every browsing even for a reader unfamiliar with several diaries, with their dates, helpful. The detail of the production. The front cover itself the community. A history of the village itself maps are noted on the “Contents” page; so attracts you instantly with its clever precedes this section and offers an easy to do and yet so seldom done. Mondrian-like abstract design, incorporating explanatory background. This is The biography can only help promote the shapes and colours of Clayburn brick; sympathetically told, except in the case of interest in the writings of Patterson and please and the internal layout is similarly pleasing the titled English remittance man, who as those of us who have always valued his to the eye, as well as functional. Source notes usual is treated as a figure of fun. Inevitably published work. are arranged on the relevant pages, which is he is written off as doing “gentleman a convenience. One interesting device to farming,” though from the context he looked conserve space has been to use a smaller after his own herd of cattle. Laughed at behind Brick by Brick: The Story of typeface and a three-column layout for the his back for his accent and manners, it is not Clayburn large mass of family histories and other surprising that he retaliated by needling the Helmi Braches, ed. “appendices” (which actually take up half the Clayburn community. Clayburn Village Community Society, 2001. book.) This, to me, is just as easy on the eye What is the future of Clayburn? This is 181 pp. Illus., maps. $25 paperback. as the larger typeface and longer line used in now the question, and one that is not evaded (Clayburn Village Community Society, c/o the first half, and both styles are perfectly in this book. The charm of the site, and its Cyril Holbrow, 4176 Seldon Rd., Abbotsford, readable. The maps and plans are well heritage importance have been increasingly BC V2S 7X4) designed (though I wonder why the Mission recognized ever since the landmark year of REVIEWED BY DAPHNE SLEIGH station is noted as “St. Mary’s Mission” on 1978, when heritage activists in the MSA two maps, some years after the station had Heritage Society rebuilt the church (a story The large-format family history book moved away from the O.M.I. mission side of which deserved fuller treatment). Since then appears to be as popular as ever, with town.) the village has gone on from strength to communities all across British Columbia The main focus of the book is on the strength, its school, store, and homes largely enthusiastically recording their history in this Clayburn company town, now a heritage restored, and the site declared a Heritage form. But the task of the community village with its old-world, brick-faced houses Conservation Area in 1996. But what of the historian today is no easy one. and brick church, its nostalgic general store, brickyard itself, now reduced to concrete Twenty-five years ago, when a community and its early school, little changed since the foundations and a layer of broken bricks? wished to record its history in a book, it 1920s. Only a small amount of space has been There are suggestions of an interpretation might have been sufficient merely to assemble devoted to the history of the district previous centre, trails along the former railway, even a collection of family histories, arrange them to the founding of the brickworks in 1905, steel-frame structures to outline the shapes in alphabetical order, add plentiful illustrations though Cyril Holbrow, whose years of of former buildings. Let us hope that over- and—almost as an afterthought—some research are the foundation of this book, does zealous efforts do not destroy the ambience miscellaneous information on local buildings outline the story of Colin Sword and the that remains. and local industries. There was often no dikes at the beginning of the “Family historical overview, no attempt to explain the Reviewer Daphne Sleigh is author of One Histories” section. Nineteenth century local scene in terms of the broad picture. Foot on the Border: A History of Sumas history is also brought into the picture with Documentation might be lacking, sources Prairie and Area. the chapter by Janet Bingham on the well- unnamed. Maps could be sketchy and known Maclure family, who settled on

34 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 From Fjord to Floathouse: One The result is compelling reading: a book still speaks fluently the Kwak’wala language, treating the lives of men and women in an but recalls that she enjoyed her time at the Family’s Journey from the Farmlands even-handed manner. The volume also residential school. The Dawsons and others of Norway to the Coast of British embraces stories of the communities who wander in and out of the pages bring Columbia themselves in a realistic light, not afraid to out stories and objects, for instance, the family Myrtle Siebert. include the negative as well as the positive copper, in a musing, reminiscing, speculative Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2001. side of human and community life in coastal manner. No one claims the last word. 244 pp. Illus. $25 paperback. British Columbia. Alan and Mary Caroline Halliday also REVIEWED BY ELLEN RAMSAY Ellen Ramsay is recording Secretary of the belong to Kingcome. In 1894 the Halliday brothers Ernest and William, of Scottish stock, From Fjord to Floathouse is the story of three Vancouver Historical Society. staked claim to land on the inlet delta. Ernest generations of the Forberg family, a homesteaded, building a house that sheltered Norwegian immigrant family that originated Two Wolves at the Dawn of Time: his family for a century. William Halliday in Bo, Telemark, in Southern Norway and became Indian Agent, doomed to inflict emigrated to the coastal region of British Kingcome Inlet Pictographs, 1893- anguish on neighbours and would-be friends, Columbia where they moved with the hand- 1998 all with the “best” of paternalistic intentions. logging trade from Shoal Bay to Forward Judith Williams. In a position to see where regulations had Harbour, Jackson Bay, Port Neville, Rock Bay, Vancouver: New Star Books, 2001. 240 pp. been made too rigid, he served a bureaucracy and finally to Campbell River. The story Illus. $29. paperback. with no allowance for rule bending. He did begins with the author’s grandfather, Einar REVIEWED BY PHYLLIS REEVE. not entirely oppose the rules; he genuinely Einarson, who emigrated in 1893, and follows Any artist who paints a creation myth believed the continuing of the potlatch the genealogy through to the family reunion balances precariously between heaven and ceremony was morally and economically in 1998 in Telemark. The author is a writer, a earth, whether the scaffold swings beneath a injurious to the Native people. His boss in registered home economist, and a former ceiling in Rome or bangs against a rock cliff the federal hierarchy, Duncan Campbell Scott, teacher who spent three years researching the above an inlet of the North Pacific. In 1998 whose poetry appeared in all Canadian family history for this volume. Marianne Nicholson created the first tribal anthologies of my schooldays, receives a bad The book is divided into two parts, the pictograph to be painted in seventy years. press these days. The culture he thought dead first part focusing on the early years from Twenty-eight feet wide by thirty-eight long, is outliving him. William Halliday could only 1893 to circa 1946 centred on the immigrant on a cliff a hundred feet high, the pictograph judge what he observed “against the template experience, and the second being a study of testifies to the continuing vitality of the artist’s of his own belief system.” On the other hand, the changing lifestyles of subsequent home, the Gwa’yi village at the entrance to Rev. John Antle of the Coast Mission argued generations from 1946 to circa 1998. The book Kingcome Inlet. Its design brings the two against the ban, “The ruthless tragedy upon was published in cooperation with Trafford wolves from the Dzawada’enuxw origin ancient customs comes not too well from a Publishing and is nicely accompanied by myth into the frame of a huge “copper”, the Christian nation.” photographs, genealogical diagrams, recipes, shield-shaped icon of the traditional In the U’Mista Museum at Alert Bay, and letters. economic and social systems of the Williams thinks that even now the rescued The significance of Myrtle Siebert’s book Northwest coast. and protected ritual objects “rest uneasily on is that it is much more than a family history. Trained as a “contemporary” artist, pedestals.” Pictograph and petroglyph sites Siebert uses the expression “creative non- Nicholson relearned the traditional can not be so readily decontextualized. fiction” to describe her genre, and this is most pictograph techniques of her people. Her The reader wanting absolute truth or even appropriate as the volume combines the story research led her to non-Native artist and a clear battle line between good guys and of one particular Norwegian family with the scholar Judith Williams, a long-time villains had better leave this book alone. We wider history of settlement along coastal frequenter of the coast and investigator of its meet hospitable Interfor loggers who share British Columbia. It tells a compelling story culture. Williams became an enthusiastic food, information, and thoughtful, concerned of life on the West Coast worthy of fiction witness to Nicholson’s pictograph, opinions. We are appalled to find the Nature and Siebert demonstrates her command of documenting its progress and exploring its Trust offering to sell to the Gwa’yi people the style in what promises to be an enticing context and the human relationships that the land that had been theirs all along. And read. make it meaningful. we share the wrath of the late Beth Hill, Historical topics of interest that the author One hundred metres from the site, at doyenne of rock art studies, when young tree- has researched include the role of the Union Petley Point, another pictograph looms, planters trash the Halliday house. Alan Steamship Company on life in the early painted by another woman artist, Mollie Halliday comments: “Writing about it all, lumber camps along the coast, description Wilson, in 1927, in defiance of the potlatch they make it something different from what of the life of hand loggers on the coast, ban. Between the two sites, Williams traces a it was. It was just ordinary life.” Williams description of the Norwegian war effort lively line of intersecting, interacting histories shows ordinary life still being lived. during the 1939-1945 war, life in remote that have not yet reached their end. Her book includes a number of archival communities during the war, and finally an Two elder couples befriended Williams. and documentary photographs, including extended discussion of the passing on of skills Dave Dawson was for many years elected several striking views of the two modern (schooling, home economics, etc.) from one chief of the Dzawada’enuxw; his wife Flora pictographs. But, since she has written herself generation to another.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 35 so energetically into the story, I regret the population, these couplings seemed to any major shift or convergence of cultures absence of anything she sketched or painted threaten white culture in general, violating and expectations, it provides historians and during the progress of the pictograph. What its notion of racial superiority. The men cultural observers with rich material to try happened, I wonder, to the watercolour she involved in cross-racial marriage were to understand where we’ve come from and “looped onto paper” when camping in the criticized for relinquishing their place in how we find ourselves today. Halliday house? respectable society. Such relationships Reviewer Donna Jean McKinnon is a past persisted however, despite threats and cultural president of the Vancouver Historical Society. On the Edge of Empire: Gender, fears, and were a constant feature of colonial Race, and the Making of British British Columbian society. Reformers of the day felt the solution to Columbia, 1849-1871 these situations lay in programs to immigrate The Inlet Adele Perry. white women and in land reform and other Helen Piddington. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. such policies to encourage white settlement. Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2001. 200 286 pp. Illus. $24.95 paperback. $60 Perry states that “white women were invoked pp. Illus. $32.95 hardcover. hardcover. as evidence of British Columbia’s transition REVIEWED BY IAN KENNEDY REVIEWED BY DONNA JEAN MCKINNON from savage to civilized” (p. 174). The results Todays’ television programs abound about Whereas a number of studies have begun of these efforts however, proved to be less people attempting to re-live or re-create to paint a picture of the historical relationship than satisfactory. history. One group on a York boat follows a between whites and Natives in this province While many of the women who came to Hudson Bay fur-trade route half way across in general, and others have looked at white the colony did marry white men and settle Canada, another spends a year living like men and Native women or early feminist down to a “civilized” lifestyle, many more of 1890s Prairie settlers, and, in England, yet history in particular, Adele Perry’s book these mostly working-class women who were another attempts to live like ancient Celts. examines how racial and gender prejudices shipped to the colony felt no special Modern day pioneers Helen Piddington affected the development of early colonial obligation to fulfill a middle-class reformer’s and Dane Campbell and their two children, society in British Columbia and the self- ambition. Some became prostitutes, married Arabella and Adam, must find these contrived image of Britons on the colonial edges of Native men, opened businesses of their own, “made-for-TV” antics amusing, if indeed the empire. and drank, swore, and caroused with the they watch such programs in their house Dr. Perry first examines the lives of numerous white men hungry for female alongside Loughborough Inlet some 150 working white men in the young colony, who companionship, gravely disappointing the miles north of Vancouver, and yes, they do frequently lived together in households high-minded reformers who had sponsored have television. Rather than re-creating without women. These arrangements were their passage from England. history, the Campbell-Piddingtons have been perceived as a threat to the development of a Ironically, Perry reports, these women living history, living the life of real pioneers fully functioning white society and the men seemed especially offended by Native for the past thirty odd years, fighting to themselves as guilty of threatening the women—further ostracizing them and survive and raise a family in rugged, but separate spheres of existence between men precluding any notion of gender solidarity beautiful surroundings. and women because of the necessity of their between the two races of women. In the Helen’s book The Inlet presents glimpses, doing so-called women’s work. meantime, the course of love between white or snapshots, of the hardships, work, and Another perceived danger to the men and women was not necessarily running struggles the family faces, but also of the joy establishment of a respectable white colony smoothly, as reports surfaced of domestic and peace it found in living in semi-isolation. was the existence of relationships between violence within white relationships. Not a history of Loughborough Inlet per se, white men and Native women. An 1871 Perry’s work introduces a number of new the book contains a series of short essays, or census enumerated 581 such mixed couples ideas and challenges to the historical research musings, of a few pages or sometimes half a in Victoria, many consciously living in an community. She urges historians to revise the page, covering a wide range of topics. unmarried state. The Native women in these historical analysis of white/Native Campbell and Piddington met while relationships, as Perry and others have relationships, to examine the history of sailing the BC coast, formed a partnership, reported, were never accepted into the white whiteness and the concept of manhood as and in 1975, with a small daughter in tow, sphere despite their relationships, and the well as womanhood, to explore the bought an abandoned 1934 vintage house children of these unions were especially relationship between white and Native on five acres in isolated Loughborough Inlet, discriminated against. Native women were women, and to delve into the perception of off Johnston Strait, north of Campbell River. seen as immoral and their behaviour equated the “whiteness” of our society in the face of There Dane became a prawn fisherman, with with prostitution by the white community. current and historical Native resistance and 222 acres the smallest wood-lot operator in Adding insult to injury, they were also Asian immigration. BC, and a small-scale logger, while Helen frequently physically abused by their white In many ways the issues and reform variously became a printmaker, artist, pig male partners. policies examined in this book were part of farmer, gardener, home-grown food- As for the men in these relationships, many a bigger phenomenon that was happening preserver, home-schooling teacher, and colonists took a dim view of them, but for in other parts of the British Empire as new fighter off of wild animals, as well as an artist different reasons. For the overall white political, social, and economic realities drawing pastels, which illustrate her book. challenged continued colonization. As with

36 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Because Piddington is forced to rely on Helen Piddington’s The Inlet, not actors started by a Japanese former internee, a oral history in her attempts to gather re-living history, but a modern-day family lumber company and numerous “bush” mills, information about the Inlet, few hard historic carving out a life on BC’s coast, with and finally a copper mine, one of the latest facts grace the volume. What she does glean Piddington enjoying the luxury of being able in the world, all assured the Village of Ashcroft are stories of eccentric characters like the to fly to Paris for a month each year to study of a sound economic base for several “Three Old Goats;” the half-blind remittance art and to paint. A luxury hundreds of other generations. Of course a vibrant social life man, the sailor Gwyn Gray Hill; and the deaf, folk eking out a living along this rugged and accompanied all this business activity. 96 year-old live-alone Axel Yungstrum. These often unforgiving coast wouldn’t and couldn’t One of the major industries developed stories certainly add spice to the book. dream of. The Inlet: good summer reading. around the railroads, of course, was Yungstrum, for instance, to get himself going Reviewer Ian Kennedy is a resident of Comox. transportation. Horse drawn freight wagons each morning, took a shot of rye and rolled plied the steep grade above the village, laden on an Absorbine Senior soaked floor to ease with goods brought in by rail freight. The his aching back. Beat that for a remedy. destination of the freight wagons was all the Not afraid to offer an opinion, Piddington Bittersweet Oasis: A History of communities along the old Cariboo Road, speaks out bluntly on a variety of topics. Ashcroft and District, 1885-2002 now called the Gold Rush Trail. Stage coach Logged clear-cuts: “blemishes, of course...but Ashcroft: The Corporation of the Village of and freight wagon served the entire inland they are the tag end of an old system and Ashcroft, 2002. 160 pp. Illus. $25 region known as the Cariboo plateau for fifty gradually they green up too.” Native middens: years, until the first railroad was built linking “that only the best sites be saved”. On United REVIEWED BY ESTHER DARLINGTON. the coast region with the northern Cariboo States books used in British Columbia Ashcroft’s first history book appeared in in 1912. correspondence courses: “a country that 1985 under the title Bittersweet Oasis: A I heartily recommend the new Bittersweet doesn’t produce its own school books is History of Ashcroft—The First 100Years. Written Oasis for a good casual read. It is the kind of irresponsible.” Grizzly bear eco-tourism: by Brian Belton, a journalist, the text was 55 book you can pick up and find something “Bears should be left to themselves, the wary pages long peppered with some fine old new every time. It is also a showcase of data wild creatures, they are glimpsed maybe in photographs from the archives of the Ashcroft on the early pioneer beginnings of an often passing, but left strictly alone and in peace. Museum. neglected, but vitally important region in the Must someone be killed before this nonsense The new Bittersweet Oasis includes a good unfolding development and history of the is stopped?” The hunting of bears: “While part of the original text and photographs, Cariboo. friends in town moan for their welfare, but adds another 100 pages or so bringing Reviewer Esther Darlington is a long-time resident dressing up in bear masks, marching and the village’s colourful history up to the of the area. chanting ‘Clear-cuts Kill Bears,’ we notice present time. both black bears and grizzlies increasing Ashcroft is situated on a bench of the steadily.” She says that as areas become Thompson River five kilometres from the MORE BOOKS overcrowded the bears become more Trans-Canada Highway. As the crow flies, the Books listed here may be reviewed at a later adventurous, more aggressive. Not just bears village lies between Spence’s Bridge and date. For further information please consult do these modern-day pioneers encounter and Kamloops. Two rail lines run through the Book Review Editor Anne Yandle. learn to live with but also wolves, wild boars, village—the CPR and the CNR. The CPR, Amongst God’s Own: The Enduring Legacy cougars, otters, martens, and mink. She and in fact, is the reason the village began in 1884. of St. Mary’s Mission. Terry Glavin. her children share one memorable up close A portly former sheep man from Ohio, Mission: Longhouse Publishing, 2002. Oliver Evans, saw the immediate potential and personal magic moment with a killer Biography of Major-General Henry Spencer of the flat, partly cultivated bench above the whale. “Setting up and maintaining one’s own Palmer. Jiro Higuchi. Yokohama: the Thompson as a destination point for soon- community is a rich and satisfying experience author, 2002. but not for the faint-hearted. Self-sufficiency to-be-travellers on the rail line being Cranbrook and District: Key City means just that—relying on no one for constructed, and quickly built a hotel. Chronicles, 1898- Cranbrook & District anything.” Piddington relates the mundane, Together with his 14 year-old pregnant wife, Key City Chronicles, 2002. but all-important, aspects of survival in an Ellen, he surveyed a town site, comprised of isolated world: the difficulties of gardening three wide avenues running north and south Geography of Memory: Recovering Stories of and animal husbandry; generator failures; the that would parallel the rail line. a Landscaped First People. Eileen poaching of prawn traps; the reliance on and This burst of entrepreneurial insight was Deleharity Pearkes. Nelson: Kutenai the perils of boats and boating: the dangers to become a characteristic of the town that House Press, 2002. of fire, the ferocious and unpredictable would later attract a burst of Chinese produce The Heavens are Changing: Nineteenth weather. But, though confronting a multitude farmers using indentured labourers from Century Protestant Missions and Tsimshian of hardships, the family also experiences a China, who transformed the surrounding Christianity. Susan Neylan. McGill sense of peace and a quiet joy at having sage-brush-strewn hillsides into some of the Queens University Press, 2003. survived in relative isolation. “Be positive, finest potato and tomato production in Rusty Nails and Ration Books; Great warned an editor. Make everything sound Western Canada. A cannery was built, Depression and World War II Memories, pleasant so others will want to live as you do. producing tomato catsup, canned tomatoes, 1929-1945. Barbara Ann Lambert. But I’m not selling this life just telling how and canned pumpkin. A soy sauce factory Victoria, Trafford, 2002. it was.”

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 37 Reports

Peter Corley-Smith in so many other roles. member of the Kootenay Lake Historical Helicopter flying was a delight for Peter. Society for his contributions to the SS Moyie He enjoyed the exhilaration of flying into National Historic Site. the mountains and sometimes stopping for Peter brought sensitive wit and a per- lunch on a ridge top. He also enjoyed the ceptive wisdom to his writing. His love for company of the helicopter engineers, min- history and his books defined an important ers, surveyors, artists, and travellers whom part of British Columbia’s story. he flew all over Northern Canada and es- —Robert D. Turner pecially British Columbia. In 1959, Peter and Nina moved to BC with their two sons Gerald and Graham. Peter flew for many BC Studies Conference years with Vancouver Island Helicopters, an “British Columbia: Rethinking Ourselves” organization he particularly liked and whose people he respected. By then in his forties, HE 2003 BC Studies Conference Peter knew that his flying days were near- will be held 1-3 May 2003 at the ing an end and he enrolled at the Univer- TLiu Centre of the University of sity of Victoria, where he pursued another British Columbia. Entitled “British Colum- love and studied English, flying in the sum- bia: Rethinking Ourselves,” this interdisci- mer months to support his family. Then he plinary conference features 24 sessions, each organized around a different topic with two

Courtesy Robert D. Turner Courtesy Robert D. went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of or three presenters. Montana. After that, while still flying, he Participants will come from as far away as Australia, Scotland, and France and will in- T the historic paddlewheeler Moyie taught English at the British Columbia In- at Kaslo, the crew lowered the flag stitute of Technology. Students quickly came clude both graduate students and senior to half-mast when they heard that to respect the poetry-reading editor and scholars. Themes to be explored include A mountain climbing and natural history, the Peter Corley-Smith had passed away in Vic- former bush pilot who taught them the im- toria last November. British Columbia’s his- portance of writing clearly and well. dynamics of rural life, the Japanese experi- toric sites, museums, and all of us with a In the mid-1970s, he transferred to the ence in British Columbia, the regulation of passion for history lost a good and talented Provincial Museum with the museum train morality, women and travel writing, the mak- friend. My friend Peter was not an easy man program and was later an extension officer, ing of ethnic identities, BC’s Scottish con- to categorize. His career had too many di- running travelling exhibits and speaker’s nection, rethinking the place of Doukhobors rections, all of them ultimately complemen- tours programs, followed by a stint as a cu- in BC history, and British Columbians’ re- tary. He was born in India and schooled in rator in history. On his retirement in 1988, sponse to war. England. Then, as just a young man in the Peter became research associate at the Royal The conference offers two plenary ses- RAF during the Second World War, he flew BC Museum and continued many research sions. Thursday evening focuses on “Chang- for the Special Operations Executive in sup- projects and lecture tours. Peter travelled ing Images of First Nations in Film.” The port of underground movements all over throughout BC, speaking to historical soci- first part depicts Kwakwaka’wakw life occupied Europe. It wasn’t something he eties and hundreds of school classes. He through time, the second a collaborative talked about a lot and his logbooks only wrote ten books, mostly about the aviation project on Dane-zaa oral tradition. indicated “mission completed,” but the solo history of British Columbia, a subject his Friday evening is the Canadian premiere flights in a blackened Stirling bomber were long years of flying and his love of English of The Birthright, a play by BC playwright not an easy way to spend the war years. Next admirably prepared him for. Although he Constance Lindsay Skinner. Written in he went underground mining on the Gold was intimately familiar with the technol- 1906 and produced by the Shuberts in Coast of Africa and later in Northern Rho- ogy, he was most interested in the human Chicago and Boston, the play never reached desia (Zambia). In 1951 he married Nina, story of aviation and its pioneers. His titles Canada, perhaps because it tackles conten- his wife of over 50 years. It was “the one included Barnstorming to Bushflying; tious issues of Aboriginal-missionary rela- unquestionably sensible thing I ever did,” Bushflying to Blind Flying; Pilots to Presidents; tions on the BC’s North Coast. The play he commented in his autobiography 10,000 two volumes, co-authored with Dave Parker, will be presented at the Jericho Arts Cen- Hours. Soon they moved to Ottawa and Pe- Helicopters the B.C. Story and Helicopters in tre, 1675 Discovery Street, Vancouver, in co- ter returned to flying, this time in the early the High Country, as well as two histories of operation with United Players. Bell helicopters that were just beginning to the Royal BC Museum. He also helped with —R.A.J. (Bob) McDonald make their mark in northern surveys and many historical projects and was made a life

38 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 changed. They were under the mistaken im- pression an injunction had been issued pre- Work and Society venting use of Lardo. However, each town PERSPECTIVES felt it had an exclusive right to the name, ON NORTHERN BC HISTORY and insisted it would be impossible to find Prince George Conference another. They began trading insults. The 8 – 11 May 2002 Lardo Reporter called Lardeau “a mathemati- cal point on the Arrow Lakes, occupying Hosted by University of Northern British position but no space [which] has not yet Columbia and the Prince George fulfilled its manifest destiny by becoming a BCHF 2003 Organizing Committee sheep ranch.” Lardeau promoters responded by criticizing the geography of their rival: THURSDAY, 8 MAY 2003 “Lardo claims to be entitled to the name UNBC Conference Centre because of its proximity to the mouth of 8:30–5:00 A.M. BCHF Workshops the Lardo River. It is some 35 miles from its mouth.” College of New Caledonia MP John Mara was asked to intervene, 7:00–9:00 P.M. Opening reception Detail of a CP Rail map showing Lardeau (top but decided to sit on the fence: “I unfortu- left corner) and Lardo (bottom right corner). nately promised to support the application FRIDAY, 9 MAY 2003 for offices at both places, not knowing that Field Trip Day Lardo vs. Lardeau the department would object on account Morning: The naming of two communities on the Upper of the similarity of names.” Postmaster-gen- (A) Lheidlit’enneh Cemetery and Church Arrow Lake and Kootenay Lake (see 35/2 and eral William White finally ruled: “The ques- 35/3) intrigued Greg Nesteroff. He found some tion of name must be settled by the parties (B) Downtown Heritage Talk & Walk themselves.” With neither side willing to answers in the Postal Inspectors Reports, kept at Afternoon: compromise, the matter remained unre- the National Archives of Canada. (Microfilm (A) The East Line C7230, Files 399, 506, 515, 521, 561 and solved. (B) Railway and Forestry Museum C7231, File 326.) In October 1893, postal inspector Fletcher’s assistant visited Kaslo and inquired EST Kootenay has a long history about Lardo. He discovered that “the place SATURDAY, 10 MAY 2003 of inter-city rivalries over such [was] now practically deserted....There [was] UNBC things as sports, industry, and in- W therefore no necessity for the establishment All-Day Book Fair: UNBC Wintergarden frastructure. But it was a simple name—and of a post office at Lardo.” the prosperity associated with it—that led This was not quite the end of things. In Morning: two towns to battle during an 1890s gold 1895, MP Mara again wrote the postmaster 8:30-12:00 BCHF Annual General Meeting and silver rush to one of the remotest parts general, requesting an office be opened at 12:00 to 1:00 Catered lunch for registrants of the region. Lardeau, and suggested a potential postmas- Afternoon: The townsite of Lardeau, on the north- ter. Fletcher was asked to look into it, and Talks & Presentations east arm of Upper Arrow Lake, was regis- found that “the townsite has not been built tered in Victoria by W.H. Ellis on 2 Dec upon to any extent within the past year, nor Evening: BCHF Awards Banquet 1892. The following month, a separate group has the population increased. In fact I am 6:00-6:30 P.M. No-Host Bar led by John Retallack attempted to do the given to understand that there are no more 6:30pm Awards Presentation same for Lardo, near the north end of than half a dozen people living there.” By 7:00 P.M. Dinner with local Kootenay Lake. However, the registrar re- 1899, Lardo had been sufficiently resusci- entertainment fused on the grounds the name was too simi- tated to again merit a post office, while Lar- lar to Lardeau. deau was lost to nearby Comaplix. SUNDAY, 11 MAY 2003 The Lardo townsite owners appealed to For reasons unclear, the Lardo post of- the courts, but the judge dismissed the case. fice was renamed Lardeau in 1947. It closed UNBC This did not stop them from applying for a in 1967, although Lardeau is still a small resi- 8:30-9:30 P.M. BCHF Council Meeting post office, which BC postal inspector E.H. dential community. Explore Northern BC on your own Fletcher supported: “The population of For all the ado about the name, little or join the free tour to Fort St. James. Lardo is much larger and more important comment was made of its origin, which re- than that of Lardeau and the former being mains a mystery. It may be derived from an Registration forms can be found in this issue the first in the field for a post office, should early French Canadian prospector, or from and on our Web site I think, have the advantage of their enter- a Sinixt (Lakes) word, although neither ex- prise.” planation is supported by much evidence. Conference Coordinator Fletcher’s superiors authorized the post —Greg Nesteroff Ramona Rose, Northern BC Archives. office at Lardo, providing the name was Phone: 250 960-6603; Fax: 250 960 6610; E-mail: .

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 39 FORMER W INNERS Archives and Archivists OF THE Editor Frances Gundry LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR’S MEDAL FOR HISTORICAL School Archives Program in Mission BC WRITING NDER the direction of the Mission A School Archives Program Task Force District Historical Society, the (SAP)was also established to guide the im- 1983 Daphne Sleigh: Discovering Deroche: UMission Community Archives has plementation phase. Comprised of repre- From Nicomen to Lake Errock established a School Archives Program in part- sentatives from the Community Archives, 1984 Barry M. Gough: Gunboat Frontier nership with teachers, students and parents. Mission School Board, the District Parent British Maritime Authority and The program is designed to facilitate the on- Advisory Council, as well as Mission teach- Northwest Coast Indians. 1846– going collection, preservation and availabil- ers and students, the task force was respon- ity of archival materials from each school in sible for developing administrative structure 1890 the community. To our knowledge, this is for operating the program and a public-re- 1985 John Norris: Old Silverton 1891– the first program of its kind in the province lations program to promote SAP. 1930 Implemented in 2002, the program is de- Through the combined efforts of the Co- 1986 Charles Lillard: Seven Shillings a signed to assist and train students, staff, and ordinator and the Task Force, working rela- Year parents to play a proactive role in the ongo- tionships were gradually established with 1987 Lynn Bower: Three Dollar Dreams ing preservation and availability of records each school in the district. In April, the fol- 1988 Peter B. Waite: Lord of Point Grey that are important to their school. The pro- lowing account of a field trip to the Com- and Bridget Moran: Storey Creek gram is designed to preserve a selected sam- munity Archives was published in the local Woman ple of archival materials from each school newspaper, the Mission City Record : documenting their administrative policies 1989 John Hayman: Robert Brown and Hatzic Elementary’s Division 3, a class of and general operational activities, including grade 5 and 6 students, recently visited the the Vancouver Island Exploring school programs, special events, etc. These Expedition archives. These students took the opportu- do not include any records that are subject nity to look through photographs and 1990 Paul Tennant: Aboriginal People and to the provisions of the Freedom of Infor- documents from the turn of the last cen- Politics mation and Protection of Privacy Act. tury. They quickly grasped the value and 1991 Geoff Meggs: Salmon The idea for the program originated from significance that records of daily activities 1992 James R. Gibson: Boston Ships and the Mission 2000 Legacy Project, a millen- can have in informing us about how the China Goods nium-inspired campaign aimed at acquir- people of Mission lived at specific times in 1993 Allison Mitcham: Taku: The Heart of ing and preserving a comprehensive record history. The students were most inquisitive. of life in Mission dating from its establish- North America’s Last Great Wilder- Questions ranged from the practical, “Why ment in 1892 to the year 2000. ness do you wear white gloves?” and “How do During this project, archives staff and vol- 1994 Tom Henry: The Good Company: you get things?” to the sensational, “Do you unteers, including practicum students made have records about crimes?” They were An Affectionate History of the Union presentations and distributed information to most impressed by the enormous climate Steamships teachers and members of Parent Advisory controlled vault where their school archives 1995 Christine Frances Dickinson & Councils (PAC) at every school in the dis- will be preserved. Division 3 learned first Diane Solie Smith: Atlin: The Story trict. Through this consultative process, the hand the important steps involved in safe- of British Columbia’s Last Gold need to establish a partnership for the on- keeping a variety of valuable documents. Rush going preservation and availability of school At the conclusion of the six months, every history was identified and enthusiastically 1996 Richard Cannings and Sydney school in the community had registered to supported by all. Cannings: British Columbia: A participate in the School Archives Program. The members of the Mission School Natural History And in June, archival records were acquired Board also endorsed the proposed new pro- 1997 Richard Somerset Mackie: Trading from EVERY school for preservation in the gram. In a letter to the archives, they stated: Beyond the Mountains: The British Community Archives. “….this is a wonderful initiative to help and Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793–1843 Although the program is still in its de- preserve our heritage. The proposal will also velopmental stages, it has fostered a com- 1998 Kathryn Bridge: By Snowshoe, heighten our students’ awareness of the impor- munity-wide interest not only in the pres- Buckboard and Steamer: Women of tance of safekeeping historical records and how ervation of archives but also an understand- the Frontier the records they create contribute to our com- ing of their value in our community. 1999 Lilia D’Acres and Donald Luxton: munity’s history.” Through the program, children in kinder- Lions Gate Encouraged by the support of the educa- garten to grade twelve are learning to be- tional community, a project was undertaken 2000 Richard Sommerset Mackie: Island come proactive partners in the preserva- in 2002 to implement the program. Through Timber: A Social History of the tion of our community’s documentary her- the financial assistance of the Vancouver Foun- Comox Logging Company, Vancouver itage. dation, a part-time co-ordinator was hired for Island —Valerie Billesberger, Archivist six months to get the program operating. 2001 Milton Parent: Circle of Silver Mission Community Archives

40 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 Steamboat Around the Bend by Edward L. Affleck

more powerful sternwheeler Victoria. The Omineca gold rush and Wright’s quest- ing nature however reprieved her from oblivion. Well aware of the transporta- tion economies offered by steamboating, Wright determined to send the Enter- prise with a supply of goods on a voyage of discovery to see if the Omineca coun- try could be served by a water route. In 1871 she was taken through the Cottonwood and Fort George Canyons

E.L. Aflleck - Helga Martens, Art at Work Productions Work Art at Aflleck - Helga Martens, E.L. to Fort George, then up the Nechako The Saga of the Sternwheeler Enterprise to the Stuart River, up the Stuart to Stuart Lake, up Tachie River to Several miles north of Lillooet, the purser (Mr. Hunt) are hard to beat. For Trembleur Lake, and then up Middle Cariboo wagon road left the Fraser River the first time after leaving Lillooet I sat River and Takla Lake to Takla Landing, trench and began working northeast over down to a fine dinner with claret and a feat never equalled in river navigation the high country to 100 Mile House ice, ale, sherry and champagne in their in British Columbia. Had the Omineca before bending back northwest to re- company. In this respect, as in many oth- boom been more sustained, who knows join the Fraser River at Soda Creek. ers, she is the pioneer of civilization in what might have taken place in the way Forty-five miles of navigable water lay this part of the country....” of steamboat development. During 1871, between Soda Creek and Quesnel, so Subsequent developments provided a however, work was underway on the that it was possible to break the long haul certain amount of vindication for “Skeena Portage”, a 60-mile trail which by horse and wagon at Soda Creek and Wright’s road location, for after a hiatus approached Takla Lake from Babine Lake take advantage of the transportation of a decade during which Soda Creek to the west. The turbulent waters of the economies which the shallow-draft to Quesnel traffic moved over a wagon Skeena River system did not offer sternwheeler had to offer. When it was road high up on the bench, steamboat unalloyed navigation opportunities, discovered that road builder Gustavus service was restored in 1896 between steamboating or otherwise, but taken as Blin Wright had a major interest in the Soda Creek and Quesnel and thrived for a whole the approach to the Omineca steamer which was placed on the Soda a further couple of decades during which from the saltwater mouth of the Skeena Creek–Quesnel run, there were those it was extended upstream to take advan- was more satisfactory than that for a lim- who suspected had he had deliberately tage of boom times in Fort George. ited season mapped out by the Enterprise. located the wagon road west to rejoin Whatever his motives, Wright in 1863 The Enterprise was summarily abandoned the Fraser River in order to establish a had boiler, machinery and fittings for the in Trembleur Lake and forgotten for dec- steamboat hegemony and profit might- sternwheeler Enterprise packed by mules ades until she acquired an almost mythi- ily thereby. Wright, the doughty little from Port Douglas at the head of cal status. Interest in her revived in the Yankee responsible for building much Harrison Lake over the portages to twentieth century, and now some of her of the Cariboo wagon road in the 1860s, Lillooet and up the wagon road to a point fittings may be viewed at Quesnel by never did enjoy an utterly favourable near Fort Alexandria upstream from Soda those who have difficulty in believing press. His ability to get on with big en- Creek. Victoria’s skilled shipbuilder James that such a voyage into the Omineca was gineering projects was admired, but there Trahey was brought north to superin- ever made. was a sharp side to Wright which en- tend construction, and steam was raised Setting aside her epic 1871 voyage gendered a certain amount of misgiv- on 9 May. From 1863 to 1869 the Enter- into the Omineca country, the Enterprise ing. A correspondent writing to the Vic- prise worked diligently and profitably still deserves a special place in the annals toria Chronicle in 1864, however, was en- throughout a long season on the Upper of freshwater steamboating, for she was thusiastic about his sternwheeler: “...The Fraser Route, but in the latter year she the first sternwheeler to be built and steamer Enterprise...is very comfortable looked to be facing retirement when operated in British Columbia at any great though small and her “high-toned” Cap- Wright replaced her with the larger, distance from saltwater.
tain (W. G. Doane) and gentlemanly

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 41 Token History by Ronald Greene The British Columbia $10 and $20 Coins When gold was discovered in the mid- becoming much more obvious, but there was on the West Coast and responsible for many 1850s on the Fraser River there were few disagreement as to whether the mint was to of the dies used to strike the early private people in the territory then known as New be established in New Westminster or California gold. Several sets of silver die trials Caledonia. With the first influx of gold Victoria. Finally the governor made a were also struck. The total expenditure came seekers in 1857 James Douglas, the governor decision. On 14 November 1861, after to $5,085. of nearby Vancouver Island, extended his consulting Gosset and Claudet but not Claudet returned to British Columbia in control over the mainland in order to prevent London, he instructed Capt. Gosset to send March 1862, accompanying the machinery any Americanization of the territory. The Mr. Claudet to San Francisco to obtain the and supplies. By early April he had started to colonial authorities in London ratified install the machinery and requested further Douglas’s actions, formulating legislation that instructions. But for reasons still unknown was passed and proclaimed in 1858 creating the governor had lost the desire to establish the Colony of British Columbia. Douglas was the mint and instructed that the machinery appointed as governor of the new colony. be preserved with grease and laid up. Coinage The lack of coin, the absence of banks, was considered a royal prerogative. Did the and the suddenly increased population governor feel that London would disapprove, created great difficulties. With a dearth of coin had permission been denied, or was it related and no assaying facilities, the successful miners more to Gosset’s request that he be allowed took their gold to San Francisco, which left to use the title “Deputy Master of the Mint”? the local communities unenriched by the But more trouble arose as the assay office gold extracted. employees asked for increased salaries for In April 1859 the treasurer of the colony, anticipated extra work in the minting of Capt. Wm. Driscoll Gosset, suggested that a coins. Requests for extra staff were ignored mint be established. The same month, the or rejected and pleas to allow the mint to home government was asked to provide an operate were refused. assay office for the colony and to send out On 26 June a gold trial specimen of the £100,000 in coins in exchange for bullion. ten-dollar coin was sent to the governor and Some twenty-four months later £6,900 on 2 July four more gold coins were arrived in small coin. forwarded. It was reported that a few coins In 1862 a quantity of treasury notes was were struck from gold supplied by New issued to pay contractors for construction of Westminster residents and that these were BCArchives I-51742 BCArchives roads, but these were redeemed quickly and Above: 1953. Provincial Archivist Willard exhibited at the mint. On 10 July, Gosset not intended to be a circulating medium— Ireland holding examples of the $10 and $20 suggested sending some coins for display at the possibility of counterfeiting was coins. the London Exhibition, which rather considered great and the largely American surprisingly was approved. He then had population had a great distrust of paper necessary machinery for coining at the assay struck some eighteen ten-dollar coins and money, preferring coinage of full intrinsic office in New Westminster pieces of the value ten twenty-dollar coins. These were to be sold value. of ten and twenty dollars American currency. as bullion later and the proceeds credited to In September 1859 an assay and refining There was no intention to refine the gold, as the colony. A 22 August 1862 request from office was authorized, Francis George that would add many times more to the cost the colonial secretary asked for the total Claudet appointed assayer and staff obtained of the establishment. All that was felt necessary number of pieces struck, but there is no in England. In January of the following year was to add alloy to bring the pieces to a record of a reply by Gosset to that letter— construction of a building was commenced uniform standard of fineness. how we wish there were! Gosset’s health at in New Westminster, and the assay office In San Francisco, Claudet was able to the time was not good. He had applied for opened in August 1860. The first ingots cast purchase a screw press which had been used and was granted leave. In late August he were not marked with a value, which negated to strike the Wass Molitor & Co. coinage and turned over his responsibilities to his some of the benefit of an assay. Instructions other necessary machinery: rolling mill, temporary replacement, Chartres Brew, and to put values on the bars did exist, but cutting press, milling bench, draw bench, line left the colony—never to return—and the disagreements whether the value should shafting, pulleys, moulds, balance, gauges, and mint never again operated. appear in pounds or dollars led to acrimony steam engine. He had dies cut to Capt. An interesting letter now in the Public and a lack of action. Gosset’s design by George Ferdinand Records Office, London, from Gosset to the Meanwhile the need for a mint was Albrecht (Albert) Kuner, the leading engraver master of the Royal Mint indicates extreme

42 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 differences of opinion on the coins. Gosset felt that the coins should have been denominated in pounds sterling as part of a Web Site Forays standard coinage for the Empire, while by Christopher Garrish Douglas felt that they should be in dollars, which was the common currency of the http://livinglandscapes.bc.ca colony, as the majority of the white population was American, and the main HAT I find to be one of the records (an estimated 16,000 pages), or supply point for Victoria (the Colony of more endearing qualities of the 1974 Okanagan Basin Agreement! Vancouver Island) and British Columbia was Wthe Royal British Columbia There are also other sections of the site San Francisco. Perhaps this disagreement over Museum’s (RBCM) “Living Landscapes” that deal with current research projects, the denomination of the coins was the reason Web-site is its focus upon the Interior and, until recently, a Newsletter that de- why the mint never operated. of the province. tailed recent events involving “Living The coins were unknown to Canadian I first became familiar with the site in Landscapes.” numismatists until 1983 when R.W. 1997 when I began to search the Internet In 1997, the RBCM announced that McLachlan saw in the British Museum the examples that had been donated by Governor for information on the Thompson- it would work with the Columbia Ba- Frederick Seymour (Douglas’s successor) in Okanagan valleys. At that time, “Living sin Trust on a two-year project to ex- 1864. Most of the surviving gold examples Landscapes” was primarily a partnership, pand the research focus of Living Land- have come from pieces inherited by the begun in 1994, between the RBCM and scapes into the Kootenays through the provincial government and held as the Okanagan University College as a creation of “Columbia Basin: Past, “unissuable gold coin,” a total of $140 way to showcase the human and natural Present and Future.” Much like the according to J. McB Smith, deputy minister history of the region on a World Wide Thompson-Okanagan site, the Colum- of finance at the turn of last century. These Web site. The objective of the site was bia section provides researchers with an coins appear to have been sold as curios to to be threefold: to improve the under- invaluable resource on the human and the members of the Government following standing of the links between people and natural history of the region. For exam- McLachlan’s enquiry to John Robson, then provincial secretary. the environment in the region; to pre- ple, the pages dealing with the history The first public sale of the pieces took serve artifacts, specimens, and informa- of agriculture in the East Kootenay pro- place in London, England, when the famed tion that are at risk of being lost; and to vides visitors with an interesting number Murdoch collection was dispersed. A gold develop educational programs about the of links that underscore the importance ten dollar and a gold twenty dollar were sold relationship between people and the of the ranching industry to the social on 21 July 1903. Today it is difficult to state environment. (“About Living Land- and economic development of the area. precisely how many of the coins have scapes…” http://royal.okanagan.bc.ca/ In 2000, the third, and what might be survived. We know of 5 ten dollar in silver, 4 info/mandate.html, 9 January 2003). final, stage of “Living Landscapes” was twenty dollar in silver, 4 ten dollar in gold What set the “Living Landscapes” site added with the “Upper Fraser Basin: Past, (one of which hasn’t been seen since 1937), apart from other Web pages that dealt Present and Future” (identified as the and 5 twenty dollar in gold. The examples owned by the British with the history of the Okanagan at that area comprising Williams Lake to Burns Columbia Archives and currently on loan to time, however, was the quantity and qual- Lake to Mackenzie). Unlike the other the Royal British Columbia Museum, were ity of its content. Unlike other sites that sections, the content within the Upper obtained as follows: the silver ten and twenty explored one facet of the region, or pos- Fraser Basin section has not been fully dollar pieces were purchased from Fred sibly offered researchers only a biblio- developed. There are as many overviews Claudet, son of Francis G. Claudet. A gold graphical list of other material that was of potential projects listed as there are ten dollar piece was presented by Dr. J.D. available in hard copy, the “Living Land- actual completed studies. This could be Hunter in 1953. The piece had been owned scapes” site contained entire theses and due in part to funding cutbacks that oc- by John Robson, Hunter’s father-in-law, and major research articles on a wide variety curred at the RBCM in March of 2000 has been holed and worn as a watch fob for of subjects. Under the “Human and and have impacted the operation of the many years. A gold twenty dollar piece was transferred from the treasury department by Natural History Resources” page re- various “Living Landscapes” sites. These 1926.
searchers can find the aforementioned cutbacks are of certain concern to re- theses, articles, and abstracts, a census searchers who rely upon “Living Land- This article was published in the September 2002 database for the region (1877-1891), his- scapes” as a resource on these Interior newsletter of The Friends of the Archives and toric documents and photographs, a appears here with kind permission of the Friends. regions. It remains to be seen what will For information on memberships to The Friends searchable index to seventy-five years of become of the site, and how it will be of the Archives and its privileges please contact the Okanagan Historical Society’s Jour- updated and kept relevant as a signifi- Ron Greene. Phone 205.598.5539 or e-mail nal, and a bold initiative to digitize the cant resource.
.

BC HISTORICAL NEWS - SPRING 2003 43 W. KAYE LAMB Federation News Essay Scholarships Deadline 15 May 2003 SEE Y OU IN PRINCE GEORGE NEW MEMBERS The British Columbia Historical Federation Be sure to mark 8–11 May on your calendar The Federation welcomes new members awards two scholarships annually for essays to join us at the conference in Prince George. DELTA MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES and the THE written by students at BC colleges or The program (see page 39) offers participants RIONDEL & AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. For universities on a topic relating to British a unique look at BC’s industrial heritage and information on memberships and to receive Columbia history. One scholarship ($500) is for an essay written by a student in a first- its economic, technological, social and cul- membership application forms please con- or second-year course; the other ($750) is tural impact on communities in British Co- tact Federation Secretary Ron Hyde at the for an essay written by a student in a third- lumbia’s North. address shown on the opposite inside cover. or fourth-year course. Your hosts will be the University of North- FREE W ORKSHOPS To apply for the scholarship, candidates ern BC in partnership with other educational We owe a warm must submit (1) a letter of application; (2) institutions and community organizations. an essay of 1,500-3,000 words on a topic “thank you” to The conference will offer tours and presen- relating to the history of British Columbia; Canada’s National tations focusing on events that and people (3) a letter of recommendation from the History Society, who have shaped the North. Included in the professor for whom the essay was written. (publishers of The Beaver) for their generous program are: a tour of former sawmill com- Applications should be submitted before grant allowing us to offer two free work- munities; a visit to the historic Carrier cem- 15 May 2003 to: Robert Griffin, Chair BC shops in Prince George on Thursday, 8 May. etery and church of the Lheidli T’enneh Historical Federation Scholarship Commit- Also presenters Dr. Maija Bismanis and Linda Nation; a walking tour of the downtown area; tee, PO Box 5254, Station B, Victoria, BC Wills, and moderator Jacqueline Gresko de- a slide show on urban planning history at V8R 6N4. serve our gratitude. A special thanks goes to the Prince George public library; a tour of The winning essay submitted by a third- organizer and co-ordinator Melva Dwyer. the North’s industrial and transportation ar- or fourth-year student will be published in More information and a subscription form tifacts at the Prince George Railway and BC Historical News. Other submissions may are provided with this issue. Forestry Museum; and a culinary evening at be published at the editor’s discretion. the College of New Caledonia. WE CAN’T GIVE W HAT W E DON’T HAVE A one-day book fair is also scheduled offer- In the winter of 2001/2002 the Federation ing publications from local vendors and book started an endowment fund to help promote BC History publishers. The conference will conclude a wider interest in the history of this prov- Web Site Prize with an Awards Banquet at UNBC. ince. As you may understand this endowment The British Columbia Historical Federa- For more information contact: fund is still in an infant state and we are not tion and David Mattison are jointly spon- Conference Chair, Ramona Rose c/o in a position yet to consider supporting any soring a yearly cash award of $250 to rec- Northern BC Archives, UNBC, 3333 projects. Ronald Greene, the Federation’s ognize Web sites that contribute to the un- University Way, Prince George, BC V2N treasurer, invites you to contact him if you derstanding and appreciation of British Co- 4Z9 Phone: 250.960.6603; Fax: are interested to help build up the fund. Small lumbia’s past. The award honours individual initiative in writing and presentation. 250.960.6610 annual donations, occasional gifts, or bequests Nominations for the BC History Web allow the fund to grow. Meanwhile, if you A subcsription form is provided with this Site Prize for 2003 must be made to the issue. need funding we unfortunately can’t help you British Columbia Historical Federation, as yet. Web Site Prize Committee, prior to 31 De- CORRECTION NOMINATIONS W ANTED cember 2003. Web site creators and authors As you may have noticed, the caption of the Any member with a great desire or wish to may nominate their own sites. photograph on page 39 of the previous issue Prize rules and the on-line nomination serve on the Federation’s executive should (36/1) contains an error. Lily Chow is not form can be found on The British Co- contact the members of the nominations chairperson of the Prince George Canada– lumbia History Web site: . of the Chinese Heritage Preservation Com- be found on the inside of the front cover. mittee. Best Article Award A CERTIFICATE OF MERIT and fifty dollars will be awarded annually to the author of MANUSCRIPTS submitted for publication in BC Historical News should be sent the article, published in BC Historical News, to the editor in Whonnock. Submissions should preferably not exceed 3,500 that best enhances knowledge of British Co- words. Submission by e-mail of the manuscript and illustrations is welcome. lumbia’s history and provides reading en- Otherwise please send a hard copy and if possible a digital copy of the manu- joyment. Judging will be based on subject script by ordinary mail. All illustrations should have a caption and source infor- development, writing skill, freshness of ma- terial, and appeal to a general readership in- mation. It is understood that manuscripts published in BC Historical News will terested in all aspects of BC history. also appear in any electronic version of the journal.

44 BC HISTORICAL NEWS - VOL. 36 NO. 2 British Columbia Historical Federation Organized 31 October 1922

Affiliated Groups Lantzville Historical Society The British Columbia c/o Box 274, Lantzville BC V0R 2H0 Historical Federation is an Archives Association of British Columbia Lions Bay Historical Society umbrella organization Women’s History Network of British Columbia Box 571, Lions Bay BC V0N 2E0 embracing regional Member Societies London Heritage Farm Society societies. 6511 Dyke Road, Richmond BC V7E 3R3 Alberni District Historical Society Maple Ridge Historical Society PO Box 284, Port Alberni, BC V9Y 7M7 22520 116th Ave., Maple Ridge, BC V2X 0S4 Anderson Lake Historical Society Nanaimo & District Museum Society Local historical societies PO Box 40, D’Arcy BC V0N 1L0 100 Cameron Road, Nanaimo BC V9R 2X1 are entitled to become Arrow Lakes Historical Society Nanaimo Historical Society Member Societies of the PO Box 819, Nakusp BC V0G 1R0 PO Box 933, Nanaimo BC V9R 5N2 BC Historical Federation. Atlin Historical Society Nelson Museum All members of these local PO Box 111, Atlin BC V0W lA0 402 Anderson Street, Nelson BC V1L 3Y3 historical societies shall by Boundary Historical Society North Shore Historical Society that very fact be members PO Box 1687, Grand Forks BC V0H 1H0 c/o 1541 Merlynn Crescent, of the Federation. Bowen Island Historians North Vancouver BC V7J 2X9 PO Box 97. Bowen Island, BC V0N 1G0 North Shuswap Historical Society Bulkley Valley Historical & Museum Society Box 317, Celista BC V0E 1L0 Box 2615, Smithers BC V0J 2N0 Okanagan Historical Society Affiliated Groups are Burnaby Historical Society PO Box 313, Vernon BC V1T 6M3 organizations with 6501 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby BC V5G 3T6 Princeton & District Museum & Archives specialized interests or Chemainus Valley Historical Society Box 281, Princeton BC V0X 1W0 objects of a historical PO Box 172, Chemainus BC V0R 1K0 Qualicum Beach Historical Society nature. Cowichan Historical Society 587 Beach Road, PO Box 1014, Duncan BC V9L 3Y2 Qualicum Beach BC V9K 1K7 Delta Museum and Archive Revelstoke & District Historical Association Membership fees for both 4858 Delta Street, Delta BC V4K 2T8 Box 1908, Revelstoke BC V0E 2S0 classes of membership are District 69 Historical Society Richmond Museum Society one dollar per member of PO Box 1452, Parksville BC V9P 2H4 Minoru Park Plaza, 7700 Minoru Gate, a Member Society or East Kootenay Historical Association Richmond BC V6Y 7M7 Affiliated Group with a PO Box 74, Cranbrook BC V1C 4H6 The Riondel & Area Historical Society minimum membership fee Finn Slough Heritage & Wetland Society Box 201, Riondel BC V0B 2B0 of $25 and a maximum of 9480 Dyke Road, Richmond BC V7A 2L5 Salt Spring Island Historical Society $75. Fraser Heritage Society 129 McPhillips Avenue, Box 84, Harrison Mills, BC V0M 1L0 Salt Spring Island BC V8K 2T6 Galiano Museum Society Silvery Slocan Historical Society 20625 Porlier Pass Drive Box 301, New Denver BC V0G 1S0 Galiano Island BC V0N 1P0 Surrey Historical Society Gray Creek Historical Society Box 34003 17790 #10 Hwy. Surrey BC V3S 8C4 Box 4, Gray Creek, BC V0B 1S0 Terrace Regional Historical Society Gulf Islands Branch BCHF PO Box 246, Terrace BC V8G 4A6 c/o A. Loveridge S22, C11, RR # 1 Texada Island Heritage Society Galiano Island BC V0N 1P0 Box 129, Blubber Bay BC V0N 1E0 Memberships for 2003 Hedley Heritage Society Trail Historical Society are now due. Please do PO Box 218, Hedley BC V0X 1K0 PO Box 405, Trail BC V1R 4L7 pay promptly. Jewish Historical Society of BC Union Bay Historical Society 206-950 West 41st Avenue, Box 448, Union Bay, BC V0R 3B0 Vancouver BC V5Z 2N7 Vancouver Historical Society Kamloops Museum Association PO Box 3071, Vancouver BC V6B 3X6 Questions about 207 Seymour Street, Kamloops BC V2C 2E7 Victoria Historical Society membership should be Koksilah School Historical Society PO Box 43035, Victoria North directed to: 5213 Trans Canada Highway, Victoria BC V8X 3G2 Ron Hyde, Secretary, Koksilah, BC V0R 2C0 Williams Lake Museum and Historical Society BC Historical Federation Kootenay Lake Historical Society 113-4th Avenue North #20 12880 Railway Ave. PO Box 537, Kaslo BC V0G 1M0 Williams Lake BC V2G 2C8 Richmond BC V7E 6K4 Langley Centennial Museum Yellowhead Museum Phone: 604.277.2627 PO Box 800, Fort Langley BC V1M 2S2 Box 1778, RR# 1, Clearwater BC V0E 1N0 E-mail: [email protected]

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