Biutish C0lumma Winter 2000/2001 $5.00 Histoiuc NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation
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Volume 34, No. i BIuTIsH C0LuMmA Winter 2000/2001 $5.00 HIsToiuc NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation - r The Canadian Pacific’s Crowsnest Route tram at Cranbrook about 1900. Archival Adventures Remember the smell of coal and steam? The Flood of 1894 Robert Turner, curator emeritus at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, is an authority on the history of railroads and steamships in Yellowhead books on British Columbia and he has written and published a dozen Cedar Cottage BC’s transportation history In this issue he writes about the Crowsnest Route. “Single Tax” Taylor Patricia Theatre Index 2000 British Columbia Historical News British Columbia Historical Federation Journal of the P0 Box S254, STATIoN B., VICToRIA BC V8R 6N4 British Columbia Historical Federation A CHARITABLE SOCIETY UNDER THE INCOME TAX ACT Published Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. EDITOR: ExECuTIVE Fred Braches HoNolcsisY PATRON: His HONOUR, THE H0N0ISABLE GARDE B. GARD0M, Q.C. P0 Box 130 HON0eARY PREsIDENT:AuCE GLANvILLE Whonnock BC, V2W 1V9 Box 746 Phone (604) 462-8942 GISAND FORKS, BC VoM aHo brachesnetcom.ca OFFICERs BooK Rrvxrw EDITOR: PREsIDEi’cr:WAYNE DE5R0CHER5 Anne Yandle #2 - 6712 BARER ROAD, DELTA BC 3450 West 20th Avenue V4E 2V3 PHONE (604) 599-4206 (604)507-4202 Vancouver BC, V6S 1E4 FAX. [email protected] FIEsT VICE PRESIDENT: RoJ.V PALLANT Phone (604) 733-6484 1541 MERLYNN CREsCENT. 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CoMMITTEE OFFICERS ARCHIVIsT: MARGARET ST0NEBERG Single copies of recent issues are for sale at Box 687, PRINCEToN BC VoX tWo Books and Company, Prince George BC Coast Books, Gibsons BC PHONE (250) 295-3362 Galiano Museum MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY:TERRy SIMPSON Gray Creek Store, Gray Creek BC 193 BIRD SANCS-uARY, NANAIM0 BC V9R 6G8 Royal Museum Shop, Victoria BC PHONE (250) 754-5697 [email protected] THIS PUBLICATION IS INDEXED IN THE CBCA, I’UBLTSHED BY HIsTORICALTP.AILs AND MARKERS:JoHN SPITTLE MICR0MEDIA. 1241 MoUNT CROWN ROAD, NORTH VANCOUVER BC V7R 1R9 ISSN 1195-8294 PHoNE (604) 988-4565 [email protected] PRODUCTION MAIL REGIsrRATI0N NUMBEB 1245716 SCHOLARSHIP (ESSAY) COMMITTEE: FRANcES GUNDRY PUBLICAIIONS MAIL REGI5nwrloN No.09835 255 NIAGARA STREET,VICT0RIA BC V8V 1G4 PHONE (250) 385-6353 [email protected] The British Columbia Heritage Trust has pro PuBucTIoNs ASSISTANCE: NANCY SI1JART-S11jBBS vided financial assistance to this project to support 265IYORKAVENUE,VANCOUVER BC V6K 1E6 heritage garn further conservation of our resources, PHONE (604) 738-5132 [email protected] increase public understanding of the knowledge and WRITING COMPETITION—LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR’S AWABD: complete history of British Columbia. SHIRLEY CUTHBERTS0N BRIT 551 CDLUT’TISSA #306 - 225 BELLEvILLE STREFr,VICT0RIA BC VSV 4T9 jIeriraqe PHONE (250) 382-0288 BRITISH COLUMBIA HIsToRIcAL NEWS PUBLISHING COivIMITTEE see column on left side Our Web site, http://bchEbc.ca, is hosted by Selkirk College in Castlegar, BC BRrnsH CoLuMBIA Volume34, No. 1 Winter 2000/2001 $5.00 HIsToIuca NEWS ISSN 1195-8294 Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation Sex and Violence 2 Ladner and the Flood of 1894 THE PROMOTION of and public education by Gwen Szychter in BC’s documentary heritage is no small task. Real estate, memorabilia, and 6 Sex andViolence in the BC Archives: Adventures in collectibles are in the public eye, but not Historical Detection archives, although our knowledge and un by Jean Barman derstanding ofthe past depends on docu ments. Archives need help to increase pub- 13 Railway Route through the Crowsnest lic awareness ofthe true value oftheir col by Robert Turner and Randal Macnair lections and the documentary history of our province. 18 “...That Old Rogue, the Iroquois Tête Jaune” We welcome therefore the recent for- by Yvonne Mearns Klan mation ofthe “Friends ofthe British Co lumbia Archives,” which 22 Eight Times Mayor of Vancouver: had its inaugural meeting in Victoria on a sunny Saturday “Single Tax” Taylor: Louis Denison Taylor 1857-1946 in October. by Mary Rawson The “Friends of the British Columbia Archives” want to increase the awareness 27 Childhood Memories ofVancouver’s Cedar Cottage of what is at the BC Archives, and assist and Trout Lake District the BC Archives in the acquisition and by A. C. (Fred) Rogers preservation of records of historical sig nificance and making these more widely 36 Reports: available. Patricia Theatre Powell River’s The BC Archives takes care of an as hy Dean Unger tonishing amount of material about the Thinking about Museums entire Northwest area of the continent. by Valerie Patenaude The holdings are not confined to govern ment records but include a huge variety of records on subjects touching the de velopment and the people of this prov 30 BOOK REVIEWS ince. It is all owned by the citizens of BC NEws AND NOTES 38 but few realize the extent of this valuable 41 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR asset. 42 FEDERATION NEWS More information on the “Friends of British 43 INDEX VOLUME 33 (2000) Columbia Archives” and how to participate in their efforts can be found on page 39. But what has an archives to do with “Sex and Violence?” Dr. Jean Barman, Any country worthy of a future should be interested in its past. speaker at the inaugural meeting of the W. Kaye Lamb, 1937 “Friends,” kindly agreed to publish the text ofher talk on the subject in this issue of BC Historical News. The editor BC HISTORICAL NEWS - FALL 2000 Ladner and the Flood of 1894 by Gwen Szychter Gwen Szychter, local 1-JE residents affected by the 1993 over historian and heritage flow of the Mississippi River in the Mid enthusiast, has written T western United States undoubtedly have and published a series applied the label “the big flood” to their experi of books on the past of ence. In all likelihood, they will be dating events Ladner, BC. She is cur in their lives from that time. rently widening her re This is typical of search to the rest of how people remember historical events. Delta, with the inten There are many people still living in Delta, tion of creating a sec who remember graphically the flood of 1948, ond series of publica arguably British Columbia’s most disastrous. But tions. Her Web site is for those who lived on the Fraser River and in www.Iadnerslandingcom its vicinity the definitive flood, “the big flood” against which all others are compared, is the 1894 one. Local lore has led us to believe that this flood had the greatest impact on the residents of Chiffiwack and other points upriver. Ladner and environs were believed to have suffered minimal damage, being most adversely affected in January 1895 instead, when rain and tide combined to put the village under water. Not so. The winter of 1893—1894 saw unusually heavy a, snow deposits in the upper FraserValley.This snow pack, melted at the end of May by unseasonably 5.’ hot temperatures, caused all the streams empty t 0 ing into the Fraser to overflow their banks. From Li there the domino effect brought disaster to the communities along the river. attending Sunday morning service in the Pres On 25 May 1894, Quesnel reported that the byterian church, prevented any serious problems. water in the Fraser River was rising “half an inch Westham Island suffered some flooding, with per hour.” By 4 June, the flood waters had ex some pasture land and hay crops being reported ceeded the previous record set in 1882; at New under water after two hundred feet of the exist Westminster the river registered 13 feet 9 14 inches ing dyke was washed out. The Dominion Gov above the low water mark. Many locales on the ernment wharf there, as well as London’s wharf, lower Fraser were under water by then, includ collapsed and were swept away. Brodie’s Cannery ing Annacis Island. And the waters continued to on Deas Island was inundated and fell into the rise until lOJune.This was the peak of the flood. river. Afterwards the waters of the Fraser began to sub But it was Crescent Island that bore the brunt side, but by then a tremendous amount of dam of the overflow from the Fraser.