Chapter 8

LANTZVILLE

The single most dangerous action you can take on this tour is failing to pay attention while travelling on the route. Do NOT read the following chapter while actively moving by vehicle, car, foot, bike, or boat. LANTZVILLE Walking Tour by Lynn Reeve, President, Lantzville Historical Society & Simon Priest, local resident/student of history

Lantzville in the summer of 1965

In the early days of development on Vancouver Island a cart track ran from Nanaimo to the Comox Valley. Called the “Comox Trail” until the 1880s, it traced a route from downtown that now follows Comox Road, Bowen Road, the Old Island Highway (19A), past Long Lake and the Wellington coal mines, Lantzville Road, and beyond to Courtenay and Comox. Back then, this village in front of you was a collection of farms producing food for coal miners and settlers throughout the region.

In 1916, the first coal mine in the midst of this farming community was started by Jack Grant and the village was named “Grant’s Mine.” It operated by the shoreline at the foot of Jacks Road with a small headframe (structure supporting the winch pulley suspending a cage from a cable) and large T-shaped wharf (for loading coal from the mine into docked ships bound for Vancouver and San Francisco). Shops and other services developed to support miners. A small Chinatown consisted of a dozen or so cabins.

By 1920, the coal mine had been purchased by an American company and Grant’s Mine was renamed for Fraser Lantz, one of the company’s directors. Lantzville continued to grow on the back of coal extraction. Contrasted with Nanaimo and Wellington, Lantzville did not contain very much usable coal underground. In fact, it ran out within a decade and the mine closed in 1926. A few smaller operations followed sporadically until 1943, but not much coal was removed compared to nearby famous collieries.

Prior to shutdown, stories are told of miners working under water below Nanoose Bay and noticing boulders in the roof of the mine that looked like those they saw collected on the beach at low tide. They concluded it was time to stop tunneling before the mine collapsed and flooded. After the mines closed, Lantzville survived as a summer cottages-by-the-sea recreation area. Today, it is a suburb of Nanaimo.

START at the intersection of Dickenson Road and Lantzville Road, across from the Village Pub. Begin on the Dickinson side, opposite to the pub, and walk along Lantzville Road, going southeast, past the first Fire Hall (#1), now the District Offices, the Sow’s Ear (#2), and the first school site (#3) at Caillet Road.

Lantzville’s first fire truck, built in Pierreville, Quebec, was driven across Canada in 1955 to Lantzville by Fire Chief Don Ruggles (photographer) and Herbie Heisterman (driver)

1. First Fire Hall: Lantzville’s first fire hall was built in 1956 on the site of what is now the District Municipal Offices. It began as a single story building, without a foundation, but a second floor and basement were added by 1968. The fire hall was needed, because a newly purchased fire truck, driven here from its manufacturing place in Quebec, had been sitting out in the open for nearly a year.

The new fire station, built in 1986, is now located west of the village at Superior Road. Please read the additional historical information on the nearby interpretive sign, before continuing to the next stop.

The Sow’s Ear, when it was a medical clinic, circa 1980.

2. The Sow’s Ear: A building supply store began on this location around 1948. By 1970, the business had relocated across the road and left the original building vacant and somewhat rundown. The new owners, who converted this old building into a series of small shops, knew that they would never be able to create a fine building from an initially dilapidated framework. They were reminded of the ancient Scottish proverb: “you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear” and the latter name stuck. At one time, an antique shop operated in the Sow’s Ear and called itself the “Silk Purse” for a while.

In the 1980’s, the town physicians constructed a new building on the south side of the old one and the latter was demolished to make room for their new parking lot. When their new medical clinic opened on this site, they kept the catchy and somewhat humorous name. Copies of the book Lantzville: The first one hundred years are available from the jewelry shop near here, during regular opening hours.

The first school was converted to a home after 1921 and was replaced with a business building in 1980

3. The First School: Lantzville’s first school once stood on the corner of Caillet (Named for local citizen, see #16) and Lantzville Roads. It opened in 1917 with children in all eight grades housed together in a single room. The rapid population increase, due to the mining work force boom, meant that the one room schoolhouse was outgrown within four short years. Closed by 1921, the school became a house for several families, until around 1980, when it was replaced by the current business building.

Turn left on Caillet Road and stop at the second left, Jacks Road. The Ball Field (#4) was once located straight ahead. Note how flat this area is. It was cleared and graded to make sports possible.

The local softball team sponsored by the Lantzville Hotel

4. The Ball Field: Around 1917, just as the mining population was exploding, the land here was leveled to make a playing field for baseball and soccer. The miners and their families provided the labour, while the mining company supplied equipment and materials. The land was logged and stumps were blown up with dynamite (in abundance for a mine). The local teams were all sponsored by the Lantzville Hotel.

Turn left on Jack Road and head downhill toward the water. Notice the steep grade at the edge of what was once the Ball Field area (#4). This is where an original mine house (#5) is located.

Located on Lantzville Road, this typical miner’s house was also the Micheks’ first store in 1917 (see #15).

5. An original mine house: The house at 7023 Jacks Road, with a round river rock chimney, was moved to this location after 1948. This relocated house was purchased by the relative of a coal mine partner. Although this house has been modified over the last century, it was initially built around 1917 and housed a series of families who rented back their accommodations from the mining company.

Please respect the privacy of the current residents, remain on the road, and do not trespass. Thank you.

After Lantz’s company took over the mine, the company built many new houses for miners (see stop #9). The old houses (this was one of them) were individually relocated to become homes elsewhere in the village, mostly along Lantzville Road. Some were modified into businesses in the village centre. Others were moved to the beach and became summer cabins. A few were sold and moved to Nanaimo.

Continue down Jacks Road, past McGill and the Rock Dump (#6), to its end by the water. Read the plaques on the boulder (#7), then return uphill to McGill and now turn right to Grant’s Mine Site (#8).

The mine buildings showing typical tailing piles or the “rock dump.”

6. Rock Dump: Beyond the dead end of McGill Road, the rock tailings from the excavations of another mine (Shepherd) were simply dumped near the beach and eventually filled in a small bay. The coal tailings from Jack’s Mine were dumped uphill of this point between Jacks Road and Myron Road.

The coal wharf at its largest by 1922

7. The Coal Wharf: Coal produced in the mine was loaded for transport onto ships via a 500’ (150 metres) long, t-shaped pier. Look out onto the water and you can see some of the pilings that remain. Bird houses have been added to some poles. The timbers for these pilings were imported from Australia. Eucalyptus or “Gum” trees contain a high quantity of natural oils and are resilient in saltwater. This explains why these have lasted so long over the past century.

Grant’s Mine, circa 1920, showing frame head over a vertical shaft (background) and horse or mule entrance doors (foreground) giving access to a diagonal slope

8. Grant’s Mine Site: The mine started here in 1916 and for five years, it was owned by the Nanoose Collieries Company and operated by Jack Grant. Mines in those days were registered with the government and usually named for the miner, a loved one, or special event. This was forever known simply as Grant’s Mine or later Jack’s Mine by the locals, even thought others owned and operated it.

From 1921 to 1926, the (American-based) Nanoose-Wellington Collieries Company took over ownership and Fraser Lantz was the director. Since Wellington was a name famous for coal (and a top quality standard at that), most coal companies found a way to incorporate this label into their titles. They called it the Lantzville Mine for its operating director and the name stuck with the village since then.

By the end of 1926, the mine was sold to Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Limited. The Dunsmuir family was famous for Wellington coal and eventually bought out most mines around Nanaimo. For one year (1927-1928), a pair of workers, whose names are lost to history, took over recovery of coal from the slag heap or tailing pile. Their operation was named Diamond Jubilee Mine for Canada’s 60th birthday.

From 1929 to 1941, J. Challoner took over operating the new Shepherd Mine for the Lantzville Colliery Company (a cooperative venture) on Harper Road. W. Clifford named this Lila’s Mine and the Micheks recovered coal in a last year. The infrastructure remained intact, but metals were in short supply during World War II, so the buildings were burned in 1943 to salvage crap iron for re-use in the war effort.

Years later, a family unknowingly bought the property that had once contained the frame head and buildings. One day, their son was mowing the lawn and suddenly his feet sank. All that saved him from falling down into the old vertical shaft was holding onto the lawn mower. After that incident, the shaft was further filled and became part of a flower bed, so ground level could be raised each year, if needed.

At the end of the block on McGill, cross Lavendar Road and continue ahead on Lancrest Terrace. This is the area where the mining camp and three rows of miner’s Camp Houses (#9) were located.

The Mining Camp, showing a row of empty houses, circa 1929, three years after the mine closed

9. The New Camp Houses: The mining camp had dirt roads, becoming muddy in the rain, and wooden boardwalks in front of several rows of identical company houses. Miners and their families lived here, but paid rent to the mining company. When the mine closed in 1926, most miners moved on, but a few remained and got jobs working as timber loggers or as workers for Straits Lumber Mill on Nanoose Flats.

Once the mine closed, these camp houses emptied and bushes grew up around the structures. After the Second World War ended, these buildings were rented out. Eventually, a developer bought the land and removed most of the houses in order to build new ones in the 1960s. The new development was called “Pebble Beach” after the shoreline here. During the redevelopment, in the summer of 1965, some of the camp houses in good condition were barged away to Dean Channel, located to the northwest of Bella Coola, to become a logging camp. Others were moved to new locations where they served as summer cottages and permanent residences. A couple of the really dilapidated ones were burned.

After Lancrest Terrace bends left, turn right on the very short Tremblay Road to reach a t-junction with Tweedhope Road (not signposted). Turn right on Tweedhope to visit the Myette House (#10), and then return here going the other way along Tweedhope toward the site of the village’s second school (#11).

Celia Myette, the first bride in Lantzville’s newly opened Catholic Church (#14), with her wedding party beside the Myette family home in 1939

10. The Myette House: 7075 Tweedhope, with its three brick chimneys, was built in 1936 by Joseph Myette from lumber gleaned by tearing down an old mine manager’s house. The garage behind the house was originally used as a storage building for mine fire fighting and rescue equipment. It was moved here in one piece as an intact structure by horse power before the Second World War.

Lantzville’s second school, circa 1942, was converted into today’s Costin Hall by adding a few extensions

11. Second School: Today, Costin Hall sits at the corner of Tweedhope and Lantzville Roads. It was once the village’s second school. The first school was quickly outgrown by the burgeoning population of mine works and their families, so a two room school was built here in 1921. Closed in 1955, the school was converted into Centennial Hall for community use and several additions of a kitchen and washrooms were added in 1967 (Canada’s centenary), with the brick section added in 1971 (BC’s centenary).

After a while, it became informally known as the “Old Age Pensioner’s” Hall only by that group who used it the most, but this annoyed a lot of long time residents who were not retired themselves, but had put effort into a community hall. At a Lantzville Improvement District AGM, objectors to the informal name moved to change the formal name from Centennial Hall to Costin Hall, after the Costin family who were extremely active in the community and had run the grocery store from 1948 until well into the 70s.

Turn right on Lantzville Road to reach the First Church (#12) and The Cenotaph (#13) in Huddlestone Park. Then return to this intersection and continue the tour in the other direction.

St. Philips United Church under construction in 1938

12. First Church: The St. Philips United Church was built with volunteer labour, using salvaged materials from mine buildings in Cassidy near the Nanaimo Airport. The church opened in 1938, just a month or two before the Catholic Church (#14). When the United parishioners moved to the Ecumenical Centre on Spartan Road, this building was sold to the Anglican congregation. Later, the Anglicans built a new church on Lantzville Road near the southeast corner of the village in the mid-1970s. By 1977, this church, and the Catholic one (#14) were sold to the Legion. Today, the District of Lantzville owns the church and leases it to community groups and other denominations.

Members of the Legion 257 after erecting the new Cenotaph in 2014

13. The Cenotaph: Finished in 2014, after a successful fund raising campaign led by Legion 257 (see #14 nearby), this cenotaph commemorates the fallen soldiers of foreign wars.

Once back at Tweedhope by Costin Hall, continue in the direction you are already heading, but cross to the other side of Lantzville Road via the crosswalk in order to reach the Second Church (#14), Michek’s Store (#15), and end of the tour at Lantzville Hotel (#16): back where you began at the FINISH.

Official 1938 opening of the Catholic Church: Our Lady of Good Counsel

14. Second church: Our Lady of Good Counsel was the Catholic Church that stood on the corner of Lantzville and Lantzville School Roads. The church opened just after the United Church (#12) in 1938, making it a close second. Branch 257 of the Legion now occupies this land. The church bell came from Grant’s Mine. The bell was moved to the Ukrainian church on Victoria Avenue in what was then Wellington.

The second Michek’s store: The triangular arch is still visible today

15. Michek’s Store: Lantzville’s first store was opened in 1917 within the mine-owned camp house located across the road and rented by the Michek father and sons. Around the time that the mine was closing, about 1923, the Micheks built a new and bigger store on the land they purchased on this side of the road and moved their operations to the building you see today. Clearly, when they lost their jobs, they committed to pursuing a new and profitable business. The photograph above shows a triangular peak that is still evident on the façade of today’s building.

The Lantzville Hotel shortly after opening in 1925; several extensions were added over the years

16. The Lantzville Hotel: The Lantzville Hotel opened on July 25th, 1925. The establishment had 10 rooms for rent, a dining room that served meals, and a large attic space that housed single miners. Rosa Caillet (boarding house cook), and her son Abel (mine worker 1917-1920), built the hotel to provide a better class of accommodation for the miners. The next year, the mine closed and the miners left. Suddenly, Rosa and Abel found meeting the mortgage payments difficult. Rosa was a French trained chef so she boosted the income by advertising and serving Sunday dinners. Patrons came from as far away as Nanaimo to enjoy her cooking. They also applied for, and got, a license to serve beer by the glass.

Lantzville Road was the island highway in those days. Installing a gas pump beside the hotel to sell gasoline to passing motorists was one more way they created revenue. A Ladies Parlour was added to the right side of the hotel in 1948. The patio was built in 1981, shortly after the hotel changed owners. The Caillet family had successfully run the Lantzville Hotel for 3 generations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

WEBSITES: www.lantzvillehistoricalsociety.ca www.lantzville.ca www.lantzvillepub.ca

BOOKS: Reeve, L. (2007). Lantzville: The first hundred years. Lantzville Historical Society: Lantzville, BC. (copies are available for purchase in Keller’s Jewellers next door to the District Offices)