MEMBER SOCIETIES Member Societies and their Secretaries are responsible for seeing that the correct address for their society is up to date. Please send any change to both the Treasurer and the Editor at the addresses inside the back cover. The Annual Return as at October 31 should include telephone numbers for contact.

MEMBERS’ DUES for the current year were paid by the following Societies:

Alberni District Historical Society Box 284, Port Alberni, B.C. V9Y 7M7 Arrow Lakes Historical Society Box 584, Nakusp, B.C. VOB1RO Atlin Historical Society Box 111,Atlin, B.C. VOWlAO Burnaby Historical Society 6501 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby, B.C. V5G 3T6 Chemainus Valley Historical Society Box 172, Chemainus, B.C. VOR1KO Cowichan Historical Society P.O. Box 1014, Duncan, B.C. V9L3Y2 District 69 Historical Society Box 1452, Parksville, B.C. V9P 2H4 East Kootenay Historical Association P.O. Box 74, Cranbrook, B.C. Vi C 4H6 Gulf Islands Branch, BCHF do Charles llsley, RR1 Pender Island, B.C. VON2M0 Koksilah School Historical Society 5203 Trans Canada Highway, Koksilah, B.C. VOR2CO Kootenay Museum & Historical Society 402 Anderson Street, Nelson, B.C. Vi L3Y3 Lantzville Historical Society do Box 274, Lantzville, B.C. VOR2H0 Nanaimo Historical Society P.O. Box 933, Station A, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5N2 North Shore Historical Association 1541 Merlynn Crescent, North Vancouver, B.C. V7J 2X9 North Shuswap Historical Society Box 22, Celista, B.C. VOE1LO Princeton & District Museum &Archives Box 687, Princeton, B.C. voxiwo Qualicum Beach Historical &Museum Society 587 Beach Road, Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 1K7 Salt Spring Island Historical Society Box 1264, Ganges, B.C. VOS lEO Sidney & North Saanich Historical Society P.O. Box2404, Sidney, B.C. V8L3Y3 Silvery Slocan Historical Society Box 301, New Denver, B.C. VOGiSO Surrey Historical Society 8811 — 152nd Street, Surrey, B.C. V3R 4E5 Trail Historical Society RO. Box 405, Trail, B.C. Vi R 4L7 Vancouver Historical Society P.O. Box 3071, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3X6 Victoria Historical Society RO. Box 43035, Victoria North, Victoria, B.C. V8X 3G2

AFFILIATED GROUPS

Boundary Historical Society Box 580, Grand Forks, B.C. VOH1HO Bowen Island Historians Box 97, Bowen Island, B.C. VON1GO Kamloops Museum Association 207 Seymour Street, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 2E7 Kootenay Lake Historical Society Box 537, Kaslo, B.C. VOG1MO Lasqueti Island Historical Society Lasqueti Island, B.C. VOR2J0 Nanaimo District Museum Society 100 Cameron Road, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2X1 Okanagan Historical Society Box 313, Vernon, B.C. ViT 6M3

SUBSCRIPTIONS I BACK ISSUES

Published winter, spring, summer and fall by British Columbia Historical Federation RO. Box 5254, Station B Victoria, B.C. V8R 6N4 A Charitable Society recognized under the Income TaxAct. Institutional subscriptions $16 per year Individual (non-members) $12 peryear Members of Member Societies $ioperyear For addresses outside Canada, add $5 per year Back issues of the British Columbia Historical News are available in microform from Micromedia Limited, 20 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2N8, phone (416) 362-5211, fax (416) 362-6161, toIlfree 1-800-387-2689. This publication is indexed in the Canadian Index published by Micromedia. Indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index. Publications Mail Registration Number 4447.

Financially assisted by the Ministry of Small Business, Tourism and Culture through the British Columbia Heritage Trust Fund. Bdflh Columbia Historical News Journal of the B.C. Historical Federation Volume 28, No.3 Summer 1995 EDITORIAL CONTENTS

Readers of this magazine appreciate the FEATURES diverse qualities, interests and capabili An Englewood Sequel 2 ties of immigrants to British Columbia. by Tom Barnelt No two stories of our predecessors are B.C.’s West Coast in 1943-45 4 the same. Some of the arrivals, especially by Audrey Ward young single men, travelled by whatever means available to coastal or inland lo The Chinese: A Valuable Asset or an “Evil”? 9 cales. Some stayed in their first chosen byChrisLi “home” while others moved many times Will Miller: Adventurer and Farmer 11 before settling down. We hope the mix by Bertha Miller ture of stories will make pleasant sum Annie Ronayne: Pemberton Pioneer 15 mer reading. We aim to present many by Anita Mc Williams more stories of hitherto unrecorded peo The Vyse-Stevenson Special Hybrid c. 1932 18 ple and events in scattered nooks and by Henry Stevenson crannies, as well as the heavily populated Woman’s Hat 20 lower mainland and Vancouver Island The Fashionable cities. by Thelma Reid Lower Let us share our enthusiasm for our Balloon Bombs: Japan to North America.. 22 history and our heritage sites, museums by Henry Stevenson and publications. We as history buffs can Those Legendary Leasks 24 alert our family and friends to the oppor by Lynn Ove Mortensen tunities to enjoy glimpses of the past. We How B.C. Got Its Roads 27 happily introduce our grandchildren to by Winston Shilvock history. We can go a step further by talk Motoring from Nelson to the Cariboo: 1926 30 ing to their friends, frequently informally, by Edmund C. Wragge but perhaps in a classroom where the teacher is new to your town. Happiness CONFERENCE 1995 33 increases when we see our enthusiasm NEWS and NOTES 35 for history amplified by eager youngsters. BOOKSHELF Naomi Miller First in The Field 36 Review by R.C. Harris COVER CREDIT A Dedicated Team 36 Chinese immigrants contributed a great deal to our Review by Bruce Macdonald province in those early years before manpower was Riding the Skyline 37 replaced by machinery. Their diligence and effi Review by Phyllis Reeve ciency was appreciated by the employer but at times was feared by the white settlers. (See Chris Li’s Reflections: Thompson Valley Histories 37 article on page 9.) Fear was increased when Review by Melva Dwyer infectious disease accompanied the new arrivals. The Eternal Forest 38 The cover picture shows Dr. Hunter examining coolies disembarking at William Head Quarantine Review by Gordon R. Elliott Station where they were held during the possible Vancouver Voters 1886 39 incubation period for smallpox. (See “Chinese at Review by Peggy Imredy William Head,” B.C. Historical News 16:4.) Photo courtesy of H. Rundle Nelson Album, B.C. Archives Joseph Baker 40 and Record Service No. 95910. Review byJ.E. Roberts Manuscripts and correspondence to the editor are to be sent to P0. Box 105, Wasa, B.C. VOB 2K0. Correspondence regarding subscriptions is to be directed to the Subscription Secretary (see inside back cover).

Printad in Canada by Kootenay Kik Pont Ltd.

B.C.

News Historical 1995 2 Summer -

the entry of port ground and booming tended from out railway; the sys a and tide- to connection upper the from valley

first MP, as term become the Englewood line. had had the of end been Logging build to ex roads rail a taken direct

1953, By when began I my serving 1950s the Woss, and Camp largest, end the By the of at Vernon decision the

family. the I’ve his forgotten name! Englewood. the Up the from transfer valley to water Camp were rail.

as accepted all by and of one sundry the old port down railway to made where lake passengers freight and

by cookhouse garbage the they cans, window were cars onto trans for the of em-looking reloaded near station edge the

calmly bear camped the outside just Camp to lake down miles repair car the where L a and mod shops quite and

an ing unofficial huge a resident, black operation, ging the to towed were twelve some tion outside the world, locomotive

steamer whistle. The see was nearby from second a A, Camp truck-log major quarters, radio-telephone with connec

awake ing not as so hearing to the miss and production the Nimpkish. Nimpkish These the head divisional was

alarm had so clock, shifts take to stay were way into Camp at lake the dumped could one get. Island

hours no had of wee morning. the We the ward Logs access. the in spot a from heart rail new Vancouver lated of

Steamships boat Bay the in Mind Kelsey for a most was you, iso one rather still the about at awk it Vernon was

to had first do the catching Union with built ever Camp B.C. in at one arrived Vernon. When

Englewood stick mind. my in The mainline longest the via visit up logging trip valley the railway Camp to and Woss

Two incidents that from first

help, to had and meeting. lively a

and tables chairs. volunteers found We

arranging for sible

the

re-arranging and

VEVE400

F’ S.

‘

LAKE F.

.‘

agreed, respon provided would we be

,—.

F.

VEBAQA

from cook. the The

readily cook

CAiF

L000

‘

F.

we that would get to have permission F.2F.

meeting a and the in was cookhouse,

VANCOUVER

ISLAND

night. We place were only the told for

and about the for accommodation

about might we where a hold meeting

to town, ask went we office the to

As customary company a was in

from the lakehead.

way deep were woods the in up-river

Survey ment. crews new the for rail

I

F.

F. .—‘ F.

-r buildings the

old the of

settle sawmill

‘ .—. - ,—.

to of foot the Lake Nimpkish and way

dumping log rail short facilities, the

the installations: lish steamer the wharf,

& cently taken Wood old the Eng over

Canadian had re Forest Products

to trip Englewood.

‘off,

BAY AkffiT short southbound the CPR the for boat

ingO, early caught and the in morning

Day, VE be to day a not politick for

(which day turned another accessible out Alert in for logging, for become had ince had Bay lurching took Speeder the

up Cameron. the block had We virgin of the then lake the in fir Douglas previous Nimpkish, Camp to prov spent trip

The Cohn the big a to remaining largest of then-MLA transferred valley. the Comox, for the for launch old

to by election eral of head Speeder lake the accompanied the up reaches upper the candidate, to railway the L, Camp

fed a as was I at the from ran new The first my on took one steamer railway Nimpkish tour activity. Englewood wharf

1945 To keep to of a May the up functioning. locomotive once was travel shop hive again the it it from valley

a a Englewood bunkhouses. in operation, busy in I When with was way arrived first living in

Wood & bished. The of Englewood the old sequel. Division, rail English them most in

logging issue, been had associated a refur with at hundred eleven deserves B.C. loggers News) Historical work were

1994—95 (E.A. in early but ruins, The days a was sawmill car. directly logs of railway onto everything Harris, Some Winter

operation. logging for to integrated vast a Englewood’s developed was tem fascinating The sling report truckload a on

by Tom Barnett

Englewood Sequel An ______H. water. It meant a major capital invest Life in the Nimpkish valley has again many tourists must be to find themselves ment. The construction involved a lot changed dramatically since the main suddenly zipping through the underpass of rock work and a major bridge cross railway reached tidewater at Beaver of a railway they have never heard of, ing of the Kokish River. When it was Cove. A finely engineered extension of out in the middle of the wilderness. Even finished the railway terminus became the Island Highway enters the valley not those familiar with logging would say: Beaver Cove on the opposite side of the far from where old Camp Vernon used “They” don’t use railways any more! bay. Englewood was abandoned once to be, and runs its length to link with again; and has increasingly faded into a the seacoast towns of the North Island. past, as Nimpkish is no more. Canfor has place of the dim and distant Camp Tom Barnetç, former MPfor a Vancou described by E.A. Harris in his article. consolidated its logging operations to ver Island ridlng is now retired and liv One thing nature will not erase, for those Woss, which has become the only set ing in CampbellRiver His wife Ruth was who care to look, is the old Wood & tlement in the valley. president ofthe RC HistoricalAssocia English railway grade. I have often thought how startled tion 1978—8O

1995 British Columbia Historical Federation Annual General Meeting

H .,Li U Editor Naomi Miller a.. Past Pres...... Co,, rence delegates enjoy the warm Myrtle Haslam seen here Minter Gardens. Ken and Mary Leeming of Victorie. sunshine and sc,4ptured vegetation as they At tbeAGM Miller was awarded an Honorary Photo by John Spittle assemblefor a tour ofMinter Gardens. L(tè Membership in the BCH1 Photo by R. Milard Photo by Doree

A

Vice President Ron Weiwood and his wift MayorJohn I Frances at the Awards Banquet. ) John Spittle Photoby.’e

! Aj’ug crqft instructor showing her £G. (Bob) Harvey with his a for Coast Coni lions raffia baskets at the displayspresented by 1994. Pamela Mar Writing Competition Cbairpres tiling the Sto.lopeople. the certificate and cheque. Pt’.o(obyJohnSpittJe Ptioto by John Spittle

3 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995

4 1995 Summer B.C. News Historical -

the Before war both De women. and of men The home.” fortable afternoon on observation the in or parlour. deck

employees, single to com the a accommodate Euclataw cupboards. indeed is the of it rest the trip spent and opened

bunkhouses large several and many duplexes, and water hot many, has saloon dining the with when in Jay hour.” was

many houses, There nice some heated is boat are The kitchen. her whole half in served be in “Breakfast an ing: will

about. switchback and twist to sidewalks set proud be would housewife a any sound announc steward at am of the

Wooden hillsides. up right rocky which of the like the stove 6:30 oil large a boasts at roused She mounted. excitement

in set rows are Houses sea. the hot from water a cold and with sink and sides it her the regularly wailed foghorn

almost rise mountains the space “Be because aft. galley the and toilet, and room as fitfully dozed she where stateroom

much not is There out. is town wash laid well tiny a large a day), refrigerator, a assigned was little enforced. out Jay

The States. United to shipped the the mainly during away folded be could with so time which proceeded black ship the

(two and here produced are and Pulp of Paper bunks four with cabin main war in instituted were sailings Night

Mills. Pacific by operated town pany large room, engine large “office,” and join to husband. her

com a is “This to her diary: her in write long feet fifty wheelhouse with Ocean to S.S. the about sail to Falls Adelaide

led Falls Ocean of Jay’s 1943, exploration The was wheelhouse. the Euclataw in she when 18, boarded December

“Flu.” of outbreak major a to due celled bunk the to up moved discreetly boat, Saturday, on commences diary her and

can was dance Year’s the that Eve the on New partner 1943 Marvin’s Urseth, Olai in day school last the of as signed

disappointed was others, with He, weeks. many several for home their became Jay Euclataw. aboard boat BCFS re the

Marvin. He with visit pleasant a had ing. the to Jay which Euclataw led Marvin lived he where Falls Ocean to moved

to prior enlist Forest Alberni at Service rocky steep hillside. the Falls. Ocean to up October Marvin season in

the with been had Stevenson” 1 tiers who in together compactly set buildings fire the of end the at transferred was

a “Mr. was Among personnel the service the of blaze a from lights presented Marvin, however, in School Vancouver.

teaching Aberdeen at position

a accept to Jay allowed ing album. family Kullander the of courtesy photos All

1944. the Milbrook Euclataw Crn’e,

aboard Jay and

Marvin January in

post This R. Eva boat the BCFS

in his accomplished was travel

of to much where Island Bowen

posting first His was forces. dian

Cana in officer an the than ice

Serv B.C. the Ranger

Forest in

•

S

—

a as deemed valuable more 4rZ

VI32i 1943 was he May in graduation

to Upon history. medical his

due service military for regular

ineligible that at although time,

campus on student male every

in was behooved as ROTC the

Marvin the on coast. west wet

spent were lives their thereafter

but moon Cariboo South the in

wharf, the at (or up tied from Falls brownout), and Bella Ocean Bella blackout honey brief a have to managed They

came in the plane Force Air An night. lower practised mainland the Although in school Vancouver. an elementary

into well partied and board on those boat Falls. Ocean in docked the midnight a at teacher ish wife his and Columbia

Euclataw the near up tied About boats Several dining saloon. decorated tively of the at Brit student a was University

families. their 9, and cial fes officers the in Police nicely 1942. served were dinner October on Marvin married were

Provin for two the by and and Mills Pacific Lunch Charlotte Sound. Queen of and Ades “Jay” Kullander Marvin Jessie

Boss by the Woods senior the crossing of wife the for calm sea The was bour.

welcomed Jay Coola was Har Coal Christmas. for at base Force the to Air Island with Service. Forest B.C. the

Bella to home go to a in launch friend’s across them take to Vancouver bus a postings husbands her of course the in

left Olai 21st the On mas onto celebrations. loaded aboard servicemen Hardy seen activities of records observations her

Christ for beer dozen Port At three Hardy. Port purchased and McNeil Port Bay, Mrs. by kept dia7y The Kullander lumbia.

and 28:1), Coupons Ration Alert (see Liquor News Government Vol. Historical B.C. Co of of coast the on citizens British lives

of sets three took cember men the 20 Englewood at stopped Adelaide The the in changes afew necessitated Wartime

Ward by Audrey Edited

in 1943—45 Coast RC.’s West there were many Japanese - employees but now they have been evacuated in land. There is a large Com pany store where you can buy just about anything. (I have even noticed some items that you cannot buy in Vancouver stores lately.) There is a large hotel, thea tre, dance hail, swimming pooi, and bowling alley. Tuesday afternoon the store closes and Thursday after noon the hairdresser closes.” Mrs. Urseth came down to Ocean Falls on the Union Steamship with her husband on January 6. Jay and Marvin were able to get a room in the hotel for three nights, taking meals in the restaurant, in the drug store or the hotel dining room in the company of the Urseths. At 9 am on January 9 the Euclataw left the mooring, carrying both couples to Bella Coola. They sailed This down Cousins Inlet to Wear map ofthe west coast ofBritish Columbia shows many of the places named inJay Kulianders 1943-45 diary. ing Light then turned into Dean Channel. Jay observed that the coast. Mrs. Urseth and other locals plant. Here herring were brought in by mountains were covered with dense claimed that they were satisfied with the scow load and put through a reduc rather scrubby timber with occasional present connections with the outside tion plant where the oil was extracted bare, clear cut patches running back world and they did not wish to have a and the flesh and bones ground to fish from the beach. She was shown road bringing in a flood of tourists, meal. In the cold storage plant, herring, MacKenzie’s rock with its famous in On January 13, duties finished, the halibut, cod and salmon were quick fro scription: “from Canada by land 22nd men took the launch back to Ocean Falls zen, then glazed and stored “FROZEN July 1793.” The wind howled as they in record time due to a stiff tail wind. SOLID!”. The man in charge gave them approached the wharf at Bella Coola but The CNR steamer landed behind them three halibut and two cod for their fu the men soon had the Euclataw safely and Mr. St. Clair, District Forester, ture use. Next stop was at Safety Cove moored. Olai and Mrs. Urseth took the enroute from Vancouver to his home in where Marvin rowed to make an inspec Forest Service truck to reach their home Prince Rupert, visited to relay a mes tion at the south end of Calvert Island. in Hagensborg ten miles inland. Jay sage from Vancouver. The Euclataw was Jay marvelled at the starfish glowing noted the quiet, dingy waterfront with to be taken to Vancouver to be sold. yellow, orange, red and purple, lovely the now-unused cannery close to the Marvin busied himself transferring all sea anemones and huge barnacles. The wharf. Next morning she saw the small files held in the boat’s office to the following morning they attempted to village of Bella Coola some 11/2 miles downtown office. He also made a point cross Queen Charlotte Sound but were away. She accompanied Marvin on a of acquiring his liquor ration of two driven back to seek shelter in Milbrook drive up the valley, past small farms, a dozen beer. January 17 they were roused Cove at the entrance to Smith Sound. community hall, the school and the Lu earlier than planned by the mill whis They sat there from Friday to Tuesday. theran church built by Norwegian im tles calling workers to fight a fire in the (Olai told of an earlier voyage when his migrants from Minnesota in 1894. Marvin mill. Their adventurous trip south started boat had sheltered there for three had to make an inspection while Jay against a stiff westerly wind in Fisher weeks!) They made ii. to Hardy Bay, admired the rugged scenery. On the Channel. They reached Evans Arm meeting a CNR steamer and a large return trip they paused to visit Mrs. where they were pinned for thirty-six American troop ship going north, be Urseth. Conversation turned to the pro hours by the driving storm. They vis fore they landed. The Haida Chief a posed road from Williams Lake to the ited Namu and toured the B.C. Packers large Air Force boat, was tied up nearby.

5 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 The shore was very muddy as they on the CNR steamer then joined Ranger was fast and the tide was with them. It walked to the Port Hardy Hotel for a Scott and engineer Elmer Rice living seemed no time at all till they were out meal, then along to the B.C. Forest Sta aboard the Lillian D. He received no in the main passage heading up don to visit the Ranger. Port Hardy wharf mail while he worked on the isolated Johnstone Strait. The examination boat was exposed to the southeaster; Marvin Charlottes. Meanwhile, Jay stayed with near York Island was noted but those was out several times during the night her widowed father at 909 West 18th travelling north did not have to report. putting bumper pads in place to save Shushartie Bay on the north coast the boat from some of the punish of Vancouver Island was their safe ment. Next morning they moved harbour that night. On May 10 they across the bay and tied to a boom. arrived at Ocean Falls about 6 pm. They had to buy groceries as sup Mail was collected and then they plies were running low. More and treated themselves to supper in the larger boats shared the bay, attest restaurant. ing to the ongoing storm. Saturday The Kullanders finally had an they accomplished a rough three- apartment. In fact, they were given hour trip to Alert Bay on Cormorant the choice of two recently vacated Island. “Alert Bay is a large fishing suites! They chose number eighteen centre with many stores and several because it had a better view. There hotels. There is a large Indian Re was a small bedroom, a kitchen, serve with totem poles and huge logs bathroom and nice-sized living which must have been beams for the room. There was an electric stove community houses. I noticed several in the kitchen and hot water heat

Indian girls wearing fine fur coats — ing. The walls were freshly they did well in their fishing or can kalsomined but the floors were in nery work I guess. Two American bad shape. As Jay’s furniture had not corvettes came and tied up in the arrived yet they spent many hours bay; the boys are ‘doing the town’.” scraping the floors and applying Last but not least, they visited aboard several coats of varnish. Some nights the Forestry boat Tamarack which they slept on the boat. Other times was here while the Wells Gray was they used an air mattress on the being overhauled. floor. Marvin was busy most of the Sunday, January 30, they left Alert time now. Jay sometimes was alone Bay at 7 am. As they aproached York in the apartment, sometimes she Island, a Navy Patrol boat signalled farvin and e.ie geese be shot for went out on the Tamarack with them to stop. This was a wartime pictured on the wharfat Ocean Falls. Marvin and Olai. checkpoint for all vessels going Jay recorded what she saw and south; they were soon cleared to go on. Avenue in Vancouver. She took a night whom she met on these trips up the Yuclataw Rapids had to be negotiated course in Placer Mining which she en arms and inlets in Marvin’s district. There at slack tide, about 4 pm. Their boat joyed very much. She undertook a ma were bachelors, couples of all ages, and was caught twice in a whirlpool and jor house cleaning, redecorating the the occasional child who grew up wear spun briefly before they emerged and back bedroom using kalsomine on the ing a life jacket every waking hour of headed for Toba Inlet where they tied walls and paint on the trim. It was April the day. Up Schooner Passage they up in Refuge Cove for the night at 7 27 when Marvin slept in a bed ashore stopped at the camp of the Roy broth pm. Next morning the sea was glassy again, in Vancouver, preparing to as ers. One brother had a wife who gar calm and they made good time as they sume command of the Tamarack. dened in tubs beside her house on a passed Bliss Landing, Savary Island, Olai again served as engineer and float. The Englishmen had been logging Lund and Powell River. They called in guided the 55-foot packer-style vessel for a long time, and operating a trap to visit at Half Moon Bay then went on out of the Fraser behind Bowen Island, line in winter. From Hoys they went up to Gibsons Landing. They left Olai up to Gibsons Landing. The Kullander to Tom Goodie’s camp. Jay discovered aboard and went to Marvin’s parents’ family assembled next day to visit with that Mrs. Goodie had been a classmate home for Monday night and Tuesday. Marvin and Jay. Two sisters, a brother, at Vancouver Normal School so the la Wednesday, Groundhog Day, they sailed their families and Mr. and Mrs. Kullander dies had a great time reminiscing while between Bowen Island and Gambier Sr. made the reunion very special. Jay’s the men climbed the hillside inspecting into the north arm of the Fraser where diary notes: “We likely wouldn’t have a block of timber. Next stop was at they left the “good ship Euclataw” at travelled today as a westerly is blow Dawsons Landing where there was a the Forestry Boat Station. ing.” May 8 they left and made good store and gas station. Mr. and Mrs. Marvin was assigned to Prince Rupert time, joining a line of boats tied up at Dawson invited the couple in to play and the Queen Charlotte Islands for a Stuarts Landing awaiting safe passage bridge in the evening. From Schooner three-month survey. He left February 7 through Yuclataw Rapids. The passage Passage they went up Rivers Inlet, not-

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 6 ______

ing deserted canneries, booming from which — for reasons of economy — dent Roosevelt; Canadians tuned in to grounds, waterfalls and tumbling creeks, are canned at Wadhams cannery. The FDR’s campaign speeches when he was trees clustered up very steep mountains, production from 1882 to 1930 was on the west coast in Washington state many fish boats and collecting boats 733,562 cases of canned salmon.2 and Alaska. Her cousin Meryl visited which took fish to Namu for process In Goose Bay, Roy Gadson shot a seal as while the boat paused in Ocean Falls; ing. “Doc” Gildersleeve’s camp was next. there was a bounty on these “Salmon Meryl was enroute to Prince Rupert “Doc” was away but where she was working they met Mrs. for the US Engineers Gildersleeve, her son stationed there. The Dick and his wife. The War Services Bill was Gildersleeves were Sev passed in Ottawa; Jay enth Day Adventists commented that it from the USA. Mrs. should be “good for Gildersleeve was a hard Ernie” (her brother in worker, currently feed the navy). Summer gal ing twenty men at the loped by with some logging camp. She had warm, some hot and two sons in the Air some rainy days. Rain Force, one here and a came usually as “Ocean daughter married and Falls special, heavy and living in Queen Char straight down with up lotte City. The float to 21/2 inches in a day.” home of the younger Bill Wright was fire Gildersleeve was very warden for the Bella nicely furnished. The Coola district. Bill and Gildersleeves had a sec Mrs. Wright lived ond camp on Draney twenty-five miles up Olai Ursetb andJay at Alert Bay on tbeirJanuary Inlet where they were 1944 trip to Vancouver the valley. The Wrights greeted by wood boss met Marvin and Jay at Andy Torgleson. Jay and Marvin were thieves” of $2 each. Marvin had next to go the wharf and drove them up to their fed in the cookhouse after the men had to yet another Gildersleeve Camp up Smith home farm of two hundred acres. gone to their logging operations ashore. Inlet on Burnt Island. The camp supper was Wright’s daughter Peggy, her husband The breakfast was fantastic and the cook so delicious and well served that the and little daughterJean lived on the farm proudly showed his kitchen centrepiece, Kullanders helped wash dishes to say “thank to help with raising turkeys and chick a wood stove that cost $1,000. Some you.” From there it was a thcky course to ens, haying and other duties. A few days inspection here could only be reached enter Wyclees Lagoon. By the time they re later Marvin chose Wright’s place to re by a rowboat, which made for a pleas turned to Ocean Falls news of the war in place the brake linings on the forestry ant outing on a sunny day. From there Europe became exciting. truck, a most welcome safety procedure they took the Tamarack to Goose Bay June 6, 1944, D-Day. Marvin was out for those who drove the steep, narrow, near the mouth of Rivers Inlet. each day but home at night. Jay listened sometimes icy roads. One evening the Rivers Inlet was named in 1792 by to the radio as she worked in her apart Wrights joined the Kullanders at the fine Captain Vancouver after George Pitt, first ment. Her comments recorded the big Indian hall to see a show. “All the Baron Rivers of Strathfieldsaye, Hamp progress of the fighting in Europe and white people sat on the right and the shire, a member of whose family accom the Pacific front. She particularly enjoyed Indians on the left side of the aisle. panied Captain Vancouver. The cannery going to the movie “show.” Her other Nearly everyone was there — a fewboat here was built in 1882 by the Rivers In pleasure was having her hair sham loads came over from the Tallheo can let Canning Co. of Victoria, B.C. It was pooed and set by the hairdresser. The nery. There were a couple of short the first cannery built north of the Fraser apartment floor was refinished piece by features (one where the audience joined River. A sawmill known as Victoria Saw piece. During this summer she began in to sing ‘The West, A Nest and You’). mill was operated in connection with typing a book her grandmother had The feature picture was Shut My Big the cannery until 1922. The property was written. (This book, Widow Smith of Mouth starring Joe E. Brown. It was a sold in 1890 to the British Columbia Spences Bridge, was eventually pub slapstick comedy of the wild west. Not Canning Company of Victoria, in 1924 lished in 1989.) Cherries were plentiful only did our hero have brushes with to the British Columbia Fishing and that summer; she notes that she made gun-totin’ bad men but also with a tribe Packing Co., and in 1928 to British Co cherry pies, canned cherries, made mara of Indians who, mounted on pinto po lumbia Packers Ltd. (the owners still in schino cherries, followed by canning flies and clad in conventional movie 1944). The operation was continuous peaches when they arrived. This was Indian robes and fiercely painted, from 1882 to 1930. Since then it has been election year in the USA; Republicans swooped about shooting arrows and maintained as a fishing centre, the fish nominated Dewey to run against Presi scalping people. These scenes being

7 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 shown to an audience consisting largely packed to go south on the CNR steamer ness, culminating in a gall bladder op of local Indians amused Marvin and me for a holiday. Mr. and Mrs. Urseth stayed eration on Jay and a tonsillectomy for immensely. These locals, however, in the apartment while they were away. her husband. Prince Rupert club for of seemed to enjoy the Injun sequences Marvin spent much of his vacation time ficers of the American army was closed tremendously.” in Gibsons Landing helping his father “in mourning” following the death of The Northern Co-op Lumber Com to clear and fence a new piece of prop President Roosevelt. The Pacific War was pany requested an official test cruise of erty. Jay spent some time with her sister progressing dramatically. Then on Au a timber block where there was rough Audrey, a student at the Vancouver Gen gust 14 radio news announced “Cessa going through bush with many eral Hospital, cleaned house for her dad, tion of Hostilities.” People took to the streamlets and fallen logs. Marvin re scouted the stores for a few items of streets, driving up and down and around ported to the business manager of the clothes, took the train up to visit Grand dragging streamers of toilet paper be company, Mr. Rouillard. Mrs. Rouillard mother Smith at Spences Bridge, and had hind them. promptly made lunch for them. to drive her dad to work as it was Marvin received an urgent phone call

Rouillards, of French extraction, had “Tramless Tuesday” ... the streetcar from the Head Forester who lived in a three daughters and one boy (who workers went on strike for ten days. hotel. Forest Superintendent Gordon worked for Co-op). Mrs. Rouillard noted Barely two weeks later the Kullanders Abernathy from Victoria was also at the that she had been born in Rhode Island boarded the CPR Princess Louise to re hotel (which did not have a restaurant). on the Atlantic seaboard and now was turn to Ocean Falls. “Marve, can your wife cook us dinner?” here on the Pacific coast. Mr. Rouillard They arrived in Prince Rupert on So Jay thawed a turkey, baked pies, and was credited for clever business prac March 12, 1945. Wartime Housing coor missed out on outside activity. Marvin, tices which put the Co-op in good shape; dinator Mr. Calahan told them that get meanwhile, rushed off to the Co-op store he shrewdly kept out of bad deals with ting a house in Prince Rupert would be and bought a case of toilet paper. (Next Pacific Mills. difficult. The retiring District Forester, Mr. day there wasn’t a roll in any store in A Vancouver teacher spoke to Jay in St. Clair, offered his house (for a rent town. Citizens had to wait for a hastily the Ocean Falls store, remembering Jay considered exorbitant) and they took ordered shipment to arrive by boat from bowling against her in Vancouver. He possession on St. Patrick’s Day. They Vancouver.) The dinner party went off was working on a seine boat for the had to stay in the hotel, however, for successfully. Visiting cousin Meryl and summer and having the time of his life. another fortnight as it was being redeco sister Audrey did the dishes. The (See B.C. Historical News 24:2, article rated. Marvin and Mr. St. Clair left on Kullanders played cards with the For by Frank Lightbody.) the train to attend a Ranger Meeting in esters while Meryl and Audrey danced Through the fall the young forester Smithers. Observations about Prince at the U.S.O. on Roosevelt Hill. Prince and his wife had frequent card games Rupert were: “It is bigger than I ex Rupert was a lively place that night. with other couples, or perhaps played pected, a bit rough in appearance with The diary spoke of day-to-day hap bingo. They met Mr. Blake, Marine Su countless American and Canadian army penings and the now-rare trip with perintendent of B.C. Forest Service, and barracks and warehouses everywhere. Marvin out on a job for the Forest Serv took him on the carefully groomed and The Forestry Office is in the Court ice. Following Vj. Day she had a full- polished Tamarack. They attended a House. The city is situated on Kaien Is time teaching position starting concert given by a visiting CWAC (Ca land with a deep protected harbour. At September 4, 1945. Wartime installations nadian Women’s Army Corps) pipe the entrance to the harbour we passed and safety precautions could be disman band. Police Commissioner Parsons vis through the submarine nets and saw tled. We have given our readers a first ited when the police launch tied up next several Naval Patrol boats as this is still hand account of life on B.C.’s west coast to the forestry launch. Cliff Kopas, mayor an important Military port. The Cana in the last few months of World War II. of Bella Coola, sold them a picture taken dian National Railway (formerly Grand in Tweedsmuir Park. Jay met a teenaged Trunk Pacific) follows the coastline then youth who seemed to be eager to talk the bank of the Skeena River.” Jessie 7ay”Kullander died in 1980. Her husband died on October 6 1991. There but apprehensive at the same time; the Jay made enquiries about teaching were no children so all records, such as and soon was called to take lad was the son of Ralph Edwards of positions the diary, photograph album and maps, Lonesome Lake where his was the only the Port Edward one-roomed school for went toJay’s sisterAudrey WarL Audrey family and school was seventy-five miles one month. She travelled to Port Edward now lives in Penticton. away. District Forester St. Clair, enroute on the train at first then was signed up home from Vancouver, advised Marvin as a regular passenger on the American FOOTNOTES 1. “Mr.” Stevenson. This gentleman on christmas leave that he could expect a promotion and a Army Shuttle Bus. Her cousin Meryl, may have been in civilian clothing as no service transfer within a few weeks. Rain working in the office of US Army Engi rank is given. Prior to the 1960s first names were changed to snow in time for Christmas. neers, visited Jay frequently. She stayed used only by people on intimate terms. Courtesy demanded that new acquaintances be addressed The Christmas season passed pleas at the house when Marvin was away on with the prefix “Mr.” or “Mrs.’ The only exception antly with successive dinners hosted by extended surveys. came when a large family was involved, e.g., Jay refers to Mr. Gildersleeve Sr., Dick Gildersleeve police or forestry staff. Marvin shot two May 8, 1945: “V.E. Day and a Holi and Bill Gildersleeve to differentiate. geese for Jay to serve when she was day!” 2. Quoted from a B.C. Packers Ltd. pamphlet handed hostess. After New Year’s Kullanders Their summer was plagued with ill- to those 1944 visitors.

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 8 The Chinese: A Valuable Asset to the Canadian Pacqic Railway or an “Evil” to White Labourers? by Chris Li

In 1881 , the construction of the Ca single men, were able to live on low was beneficial to the province.’5 As nadian Pacific Railway in British Colum wages and “are thus fitted to become Andrew Onderdonk argued, “the em bia attracted a large scale of Chinese too dangerous competitors in the labour ployment of Chinese at low wages made labourers into the young province.’ In market.. .and grind down all labour to it possible to hire white workers at high the next four years more than 17,000 the lowest living point”.9 Generally wages. . . without the Chinese, the de Chinese workers, also known as “coo- speaking, a Chinese labourer received velopment of the country would be re lies,”2 entered the province3. The Chi $75 to $1.25 per day compared to an tarded.”16 In addition, the report nese presence undoubtedly precipitated unskilled white worker who earned from indicated that more white immigrants arguments within the white community. $1.50 to $2.50.b0 The Chinese willing were settling in the province even Paradoxically, the white labourers de ness to accept long, toilsome hours of though the Chinese presence remained. tested and deprecated the use of Chi construction for minimal wages made Besides being a threat to the economy, nese because they were “sojourners and competition for jobs virtually impossi many anti-Chinese supporters used the cheap labour”,4 while the railway con ble for white workers who had large phrase “a menace to public health”7 as tractors considered the Chinese a valu families to support. The Chinese cheap an excuse to preclude the Chinese en able asset to the Canadian Pacific labour imperilled the livelihood of every trance into the province. In 1881, when Railway for these same qualities. white wage earner in the province. more than one thousand coolies died Ever since Andrew Onderdonk, the In addition, many whites attributed the of a “mysterious” disease in Yale, fright American railway contractor, imported province’s stagnant economy to the fact ened local residents feared an outbreak the first group of Chinese coolies from that the Chinese workers were forced to of smallpox.’8 A Yale doctor later as Oregon in 1880 to build a railroad be buy provisions from Chinese merchants sured residents that scurvy and not tween Port Moody and Savona’s Ferry,5 only. The coolies’ contracts stipulated smallpox was the cause of the high white British Columbians had possessed that they must purchase their provisions mortality among the Chinese. Neverthe two contrasting images of the Chinese at the “company stores”.” (Chinese less, the coolies’ filthy living-quarters workers. Which of these images became merchants controlled the “company” convinced many whites that the Chinese preponderant solely depended upon stores). If the Chinese coolies purchased caused other deadly diseases such as whether British Columbians considered goods from a white merchant they were cholera and leprosy. Since immuniza the Chinese as a “threat”6. Indeed, Brit to be paid only eighty cents instead of tion was not a standard of public health ish Columbians’ attitudes toward the one dollar. In an angry white merchant’s procedure, many whites believed that Chinese were clearly divided along class words, “they [Chinese] hoard their the best remedy was to exclude the lines. White labourers believed that the wages. . . their earnings are forever lost Chinese from “white”9 British Colum Chinese cheap labour depressed their in British Columbia!”12 Furthermore, the bia forever. wages and jeopardized the survival of Chinese dependence on non-taxable In contrast to many white labourers’ their families. In addition, many white imports such as rice led to complaints opinions and attitude, wealthy contrac merchants regarded the Chinese as “a of tax evasion. One government official tors and employers possessed an entirely superior instrument in the hands of stated that less than fifty per cent of the different image of Chinese workers. builder”7 because of their low wage male Chinese workers paid the required They valued and supported the use of rates, high levels of transience and three dollars provincial revenue tax.’3 coolies mainly for their cheap labour. strong work discipline. The Chinese threat to the economy Prime Minister Ivlacdonald’s stricture in The Chinese willingness to accept was also alleged to deter the settlement the House of Commons in 1882 clearly lower wages than other workers was and development of British Columbia. emphasized the importance and advan the main source of the whites’ discon Many anti-Chinese labour organizations tages of Chinese workers to the Cana tent. As Peter Wrd, history professor at protested that the Chinese presence de dian Pacific Railway. He frankly told the

Queen’s University, explains, “Anti- pressed the white worker’s wages so low House of Commons,”. . . It is simply a

Orientalism was grounded in economic that other “desirable”4 immigrants were question of alternatives - either you must tensions created by the availability of discouraged from settling in the prov have this [Chinese) labour or you can cheap Asian labour”. . The Nanaimo ince. Nevertheless, the Royal Commis not have the railway.”2° When the B.C. Knights of Labor, an anti-Chinese organi sion Report published in 1885 refuted Legislature passed an act to forbid fur zation stated in the 1885 Royal Com the accusations against the Chinese and ther Chinese immigration in 1884 and mission Report that the Chinese, being stated that the great influx of Chinese again in 1885, Macdonald immediately

9 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 disallowed both acts to stress the im retarded”27 white immigrants and the BIBLIOGRAPHY portance of Chinese workers to the rail economic development of British Co I BOOKS way.2’ Indeed, during economically lumbia. On the other hand, railway con Barneby, Henry. Life and Labour In the Far, Far West: being Notes of a Tour In the Western States, tough times, many politicians and rail tractors and government officials British Columbia, Manitoba, and the Northwest way contractors regarded the Chinese regarded the Chinese as “necessary Territory. London: Cassell and Company, 1884. not as an inferior race but as workers evils”28 whose cheap labour contributed Berton, Pierre. The Last Spike. Toronto: McCleIland and Steward Limited, 1971. who would accept much lower pay than enormously to the railway construction This book talks about the general attitude of the white workers. and development of the province. As white workers toward the Chinese coolies. Brown, R. British Columbia: An Essay. New In addition, the shortage of white la Arnor De Cosmos, a Victoria MP and a Westminster: Royal Engineer Press, 1863. bour convinced many rabid anti-Chinese strong anti-Orientalist, meekly admitted Dempsey, Hugh. The CPR West. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1984. employers that coolies were “indispen to the Parliament, “that as a choice be “9’his book contains useful and detail information sable and absolutely vital to British Co tween evils the Province would accept about the whites’ contrasting images of the Chinese lumbia.22 Onderdonk stressed the Chinese labour for the purposes of con coolies in British Columbia during the late 1800s. Li, Peter. The Chinese In Canada. Toronto: Oxford importance of Chinese workers to the structing the railway.”29 By accepting the University Press, 1988. railway when he told Macdonald in 1882 “evil”30 of Chinese railway workers, Brit MacNab, Francis. British Columbia for Settlers. London: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1898. that an exclusively white labour force ish Columbians avoided the other “evil” Morton James. In the Sea of Sterile Mountains. would take another fifteen years to com of no railway and were able to accom Vancouver: Jj. Douglas Ltd., 1974. Roy, Patricia. Vancouven An illustrated History. plete the construction.23 Indeed, if the plish their goal of creating a “white”3’ Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1980. railway were not completed by 1885, British Columbia. Ward, Peter. White Canada Forever. Montreal: McGill- Onderdonk’s continuing financial trou Queen’s University Press, 1978. ‘“‘This book contains information about the main bles might result in an indefinite abey which whites’ hostility toward the 11 student at Sir reasons triggered the Chris Li was a Grade Chinese, especially cheap labour. ance of construction, and the young Winston Churchill Secondary School in province would suffer the consequences Vancouver when beprepared this essay II SOURCES OTHER THAN NEWSPAPER ARTICLES of no white immigrants. Lai, David Chuen-yan. Chinese Attempts to for the Vancouver Historical Society. He Discourage Emigration to Canada: Some Findings The Chinese presence also acted as a won the prize for Best Essay, 1993-94 from the Chinese ArchIves in Victoria, BC Studies. damper on strikes. In 1884, when white schoolyear vol. 18 (Summer 1973), 33-49. Lee, David. “Chinese Construction Workers on the labourers near Port Moody struck and FOOTNOTES Canadian Pacific,” Railroad HIstory. (148) Boston: demanded a raise from $1.75 to $2.00 Peter Li, The Chinese in Canada (Toronto: Oxford The Railway Locomotive Historical Society, 1983. (pp. an hour, Onderdonk immediately re University Press, 1988), p.25. 42-57) 2. Hugh Dempsey, The CPR West (Vancouver: Douglas This particular article offers a good account of the placed them with Chinese workers.24 & McIntyre Ltd., 1984), p.18 railway workers’ experience in British Columbia. Again, the Chinese were valued for their 3. David Lee, “Chinese Construction Workers on the Preston, Jasper H. “The Chinese Question,” Rose Canadian Pacific”, Railroad History. spring 1983, Belford’s Canadian Monthly and National Review, industry, docility, and willingness to p.43. VII, no. 1 (July, 1881), 81-83. work for low wages. In addition, em 4. Dempsey, The CPR, p.13 Thompson, Richard. “Ethnicity versus Class: An Analysis of Conflict in a North American Chinese ployers supported the use of coolies 5. Pierre Berton, The Last Spike (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1971), p.198 Community,” Ethnicity, VI, 4 (December, 1979), pp. because they were highly-transient, 6. Francis MacNab, British Columbia for Settlers 306-26. hard-working and reliable. Michael (London: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1898), p.56. Willmott, W.E. ‘Approaches to the Study of the 7. Dempsey, The CPR, p.32. Chinese in British Columbia,” BC Studies. No. 4 Haney, who went to work for 8. Peter Ward, White Canada Forever (Montreal: (Spring 1970). discovered that he McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1978), p.9. Onderdonk in 1883, PUBLISHED GOYERNMENT DOCUMENTS 9. Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration, Report III could move two thousand Chinese a Report of the Royal Commission on Chinese and Evid.ence (Ottawa, 1885), pp. 66-67. distance of twenty-five miles and have 10. Ward, White Canada, p.17. Immigration. 11. Berton, Spike, p.197. Ottawa: Printed by Order of the Commission, 1885. them at work all within twenty-four Extremely useful in learning about the different 12. Kamloops Inland Sentine( 11 January 1883, p.2. whites about the Chinese hours. The same task would have taken (Obtained from Microfiche at UBC Main Library). kind of opinions that the had coolies. Also, useful statistics about Chinese the same number of white workmen at 13. Royal Commission, Evidence, p.443. 14. Li, The Chinese, p24. immigration vs. White immigration during the early least a week. Furthermore, Rev. George 15. Royal Commission, Report, p.XV 1880’s. Grant, a Cache Creek sub-contractor 16. Lee, “Chinese Construction,” p.53. Report of the Royal Commission on Oriental 17. Henry Barneby, Ljfe and Labour in the Fa Far Immigration. commented, “They (Chinese) are ready West(London: Cassell and Company, 1884), p.115. Ottawa: Printed by SE. Dawson, 1902. (Obtained from for special work at nights or Sundays... 18. Dempsey, The CPR, p.16. UBC’s Special Collection library) Report of the Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire 25 19. Lundin Brown, British Columbia: An Essay (New and are more depended on The into the Methods by which Oriental Labourers have Westminster: Royal Engineer Press, 1863), p.10. dependability and frugalness of the Chi 20. Berton, Spike, p. 196. (Obtained from House of been Induced to Come to Canada. Ottawa: Commons, Debates, 12 May 1882, p.1477). Government Printing Bureau, 1908. (Obtained from nese coolies persuaded white British UBC’s Special Collection library) evil26 21. Lee, “Chinese Construction,” p.49. Columbians to accept the of 22. Royal Commission, Evidence, p.168 IV NEWSPAPER ARTICLES Chinese labour for the purposes of con 23. Lee, “Chinese Construction,” p.54. 24. Berton, Spike p.206. ‘British Columbian. (New Westminster, B.C.) 30 September structing the railway. 25. Lee, “Chinese Construction,” p.48. November 1882 and 27 1883. (Microfiche) ‘Daily British Colonist. (Victoria, B.C.) 14 November The whites’ different attitudes toward 26. Dempsey, The CPR, p.22. 1885. (obtained from Microfiche) the Chinese coolies during the railway 27. Royal Commission, Evidence, p.147. 28. Dempsey, The CPi p.22. ‘Inland Sentinel. (Kamloops, B.C.) 11 January 1883. construction were as clear as black and 27. Royal Commission, Evidence, p.147. (Microfiche) ‘The titles and writers of the above newspaper articles white. On one hand, many white labour 28. Dempsey, The CPR, p.22. are not listed. 29. Ibid., p.27. ers argued that the Chinese cheap la 30. Ibid., p.34. bour and unsanitary habits “deterred and 31. Ibid.

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 10 Will Miller: Adventurer & Farmer by Bertha Miller

William Morgan Miller was one of Stella Shantz. In 1983 it was acquired Pemberton’s earlier settlers; others had by the Pemberton & District Museum come before but few stayed or left such Society, and is now the main building substantial achievements or memories. of the Museum.

He was born in Milnathort - a town in The next several years were spent the lowlands of Scotland east of Edin clearing and improving the land and burgh and west of St. Andrews - on April prospecting. Copper deposits had been 8, 1867, the year of Canadian Confed found near Birkenhead Lake. Miller sunk eration. His father, James, was station a shaft in the area in 1897. master; his mother, Helen (nee In early spring of 1898 he went north Fotheringham). There were two broth to Quesnel to join Jerry Gravel, a pros ers, James, who later farmed in England, pector, and his associates, Johnnie Blair, New Zealand and Scotland and Robert Stuart Adamson and Archie Knight in a who came to Canada. A sister, Nell, plan to drive one hundred and twenty married in Norway. head of prime steers to the gold fields When sixteen years old Will Miller of the Kiondike. (These details are taken joined the Argyle and Sutherland High- from an article written for the Vancou landers of the British Army to serve in ver Province, August 16, 1947 by Louis the conclusion of a war against the Zu Le Bourdais). Miller is not mentioned in lus led by King Cetywayo in South Af the article but he had told his sons in rica. He told of long marches in hot later years that Gravel was leader of the weather, wearing warm uniforms and drive he joined. carrying heavy packs. His son, Morgan, Cattle ranchers of the Cariboo and is sure that in falsifying his age in order taken Maritzburg, Natal South Africa. Chilcotin had earlier found a market for to enlist he told the only lie of his life. beef to feed miners of the Cariboo Gold

He spent the years 1884 - 1888 in Ceylon Rush, next the builders of the C.P. Rail before purchasing a discharge from the furiously downstream. He explained that way which reached the coast in 1885. army and moving on to Hong Kong. he had observed smoke farther up the The railway provided access for beef to There he served in the police force and valley and was hurrying home to warn the coast market until farmers of the sailed with ships bound for the coast of his people that Chilcotin marauders Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island filled British Columbia. At the end of one voy might be descending on their settlement the demand. Several ranchers decided age he left ship in Vancouver. again. to try a shortcut to the Yukon, overland In Vancouver he worked as a In 1895 Miller pre-empted D.L. 498 to Teslin Lake and on by the Yukon longshoreman and in the police force. on the south side of Miller Creek and River, to transport beef to the goldfields. He earned a reputation for excellence built himself a log cabin. Recent maps Shipments at that time were also being

in sports - boxing, wrestling, weight show the greater part of DL. 498 north made by ship up the coast to Skagway throwing, and was captain of a Scottish of the creek. This is probably due to a or to the mouth of the Yukon River, from team which, in 1893, defeated all corners change in the course of the creek. In those points either by foot or by scow to an International Tug-of-War compe later years the Howe Sound and North to Dawson. tition. ern Development Company bought D.L. In reality the drives which were or By 1894 he was on his way again, this 498 and other land in the lower valley, ganized proved much more difficult than time to the Pemberton Valley. Arriving believing a railway would be built anyone had anticipated. An account of at the banks of the Lillooet River he spied through these properties and north by one, taken from the journal of Norman an Indian canoe on the far side and Railway Pass; this would be the site of Lee (‘Klondike Cattle Drive’) tells of the swam across, hoping to borrow it to a future town. The company’s agent was hardships encountered. The route taken transport his pack across. No one was Eustace Bubb who sold some of the by Lee was the same used by three other

in sight to ask and feeling he could not Miller land to George Groat. A friend of herds that summer - led by Jerry Gravel face another swim in the frigid water he Groat’s, Ian Nicholson, dismantled the with one hundred twenty cattle, Jim used the canoe anyway. The Indians cabin and floated it down the Lillooet Cornell with seventy-five head, John were probably wary of strangers. A year River where he reassembled it near the Harris with two hundred. Lee also drove or so later Miller was again by the river site of Agerton for his own use. Years two hundred steers. The herds passed side and observed an Indian paddling later it became the home of Milton and and repassed each other on the trail,

11 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 each vying for rest stops which would who pedalled a bicycle. as far north as Quesnel. Two sons were provide pasture. At Nome, Miller probably did some born in those years, William Morgan in Many difficulties were encountered, prospecting until, with eight or nine 1910, and Edmond Ronayne (Ronie) in rivers and swamps to cross, poison hundred dollars in his money belt, he 1912. Morgan recalls his father holding weeds to avoid, lack of grazing for boarded a ship at St. Michael for the him up near their home to show him a horses and cattle and dwindling food trip down the coast to British Columbia strange object on the road below - the supplies for the men. As far as Telegraph and Vancouver. first car he had seen. Creek the trail followed the, by then, Returning to Pemberton, he was ac In 1914 Miller sold his horses, except obscured right-of-way slashed in 1865- companied by his younger brother, Bob, for one driving horse and a work team 67 for the proposed telegraph line which who had first come to Pemberton in and prepared to move his family to was to link New York and Siberia. 1897. Bob had also been to Dawson City, Pemberton. Don recalls his father tell By the end of September, three herds where he worked in the same bank as ing of driving a buckboard with the reached the south end of Teslin Lake. did Robert Service, the Yukon poet. horses following, all the way north to Jim Cornell had bought a restaurant at In 1907, the brothers pre-empted more Fort George where they were sold. Con Telegraph Creek and would slaughter land, Will D.L. 189 north of Miller Creek struction of the Grand Trunk Pacific his animals there. The other men would and Bob, D.L. 188, south of the creek Railway westward from the Yellowhead have to obtain lumber from a local saw and adjoining Will’s lot 498. Lot 189 was Pass to its terminus at Prince Rupert mill, build scows on which to load their later owned by war veteranJoseph (Jay) meant demand for horse power. slaughtered beef and then propel the Mighton and his wife, Ruby. John Am Miller, with Vivien and the four boys scows north on Teslin Lake and the was a later owner and his cabin has been travelled by train to the valley in March Yukon River to Dawson. Harris got away moved to the outdoor School site in the 1915. Mrs. Miller remained in North Van first. Gravel delayed to help Lee build upper valley. The lot is now owned by couver to await the birth of another son, his scows so did not leave until about Al and Marti Staehli. Robert Joseph (Robbie) on April 2nd. October 15th. By now there was a short- Will and Bob continued work on their Vivien and the younger boys stayed age of cash to buy food and building land, clearing, building a barn and with their Uncle Edmond and Aunt materials - a great deal of bartering went fences, The framework of the barn still Gladys Ronayne. Will Miller and his step- on. At 30 Mile River, near the end of the stood after the big flood of 1940. Bob Sons camped on the property bought lake, Gravel encountered a fierce storm had brought an axle from the coast and for Mrs. Miller and prepared to build a which battered his scows and drove constructed the first wagon in home. Lumber and labor were provided them ashore. Lee also ran into a storm Pemberton. He also worked at the fish by Herbert Perkins and his employees, on his third day out, had to beach his hatchery on Owl Creek. Andy Anderson and Oscar Johnson. scows and lost the beef. Harris became In the meantime the Ronayne broth Perkins had a small sawmill across from frozen in when two hundred miles short ers had arrived, Edmond, John (Jack), the falls near the site of Lexi and Ellenore of Dawson and could not rescue his and Joseph. Jack came first and pur Ross’s home on Ryan Creek. cargo before it spoiled. Gravel’s crew chased land for themselves and their More land was purchased (the Benson was busy carrying quarters of beef to sister, Teresa, still in Ireland. Will Miller Place) and the farm extended from one the shore when Will Miller recognized had come close to meeting the brothers side of the valley to the other. The road men in a passing boat as old friends. at Teslin Lake. They had been mining originally followed Ryan Creek but was Still anxious to reach Dawson, he joined at Atlin, as well as hunting wild game re-routed to cut right through the Miller them and travelled on, with nothing to for the townspeople and trapping be property. After the 1940 flood the grade show for his summer’s work. tween Atlin and Teslin Lake. They came was raised considerably so that, in an Arriving in Dawson, he earned money upon the meat abandoned by Will’s other such inundation, there would re cutting birch firewood for townspeople group and were able to use some. main a higher, and hopefully drier, and miners and probably to supply In 1909 the Miller brothers sold their haven for the farm animals. Hard work wood to fire the boilers of the lands to the Howe Sound and Northern was needed to develop the farm to what sternwheelers which plied the river. Development company and left for Scot it is today, one of the best in the valley. Presently he had a grub stake to take land. After visiting his own family, Will All labor then was done by men and him on the next leg of his journey - a travelled to Southern Ireland to meet the horses. fifteen hundred mile hike on the frozen Ronayne brothers’ family at Donickmore The completion of the railway from Yukon river to its mouth at Norton in County Cork. There he met and mar Squamish to Quesnel in 1915 encour Sound. There was still a long walk on ried their sister Teresa (Ronayne) Ross. aged the planting of a greater variety of ice across the sound to Nome, Alaska. She had been widowed with three chil crops for the coast market. The Millers

Gold had been found in the gravel of dren - Vivien, Alexander (Sandy) and established a Jersey herd and shipped the shores of the Bering Sea and many Gerald and returned to the family home. sweet cream. Their barn contained the miners from the dwindling diggings on The new family set out for Canada to first milking machine in Pemberton, the Kiondike River had made the same arrive on April 8, 1910 - Will Miller’s 43rd powered by a gas motor. Farmers who journey using various means of trans birthday. Their first home was in Lynn shipped cream also had to have a saw portation. There is an account in James Valley. Miller purchased horses and es dust insulated ice house to cool and Michener’s book Alaska of one man tablished a freighting business working keep the cream for the twice weekly

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 12 train schedule. When practical some lived in a small cabin near the north arm Sandy, his wife Sidsel, their three month used rafts to suspend the big cans in of Ryan Creek, close by where Gerald’s old son Lexi and Sidsel’s mother Sigrid the icy river water. Cutting and hauling house now stands. Both married in the Gimse. After visiting in London with her ice from ponds was a winter chore. 1930’s and each built a home. Vivien sister Margaret, Mrs. Miller and Sandy Skimmed milk along with grain and married Jacob Lokken in 1923. continued to Cork, Ireland where sister dried peas was fed to hogs fattening for Miller sons, Morgan, Ronie, and Cornelia lived and to her old home, market. Other crops grown on the Miller Robbie, were soon able to help on the Donickmore, now occupied by brother farm were turnips, commercial potatoes, farm. Donald Paul was born in 1919. Jim, his wife Jenny (nee Buckley) and corn for ensilage, honey and black cur In the mid and late 1930’s stricter regu their children. Sidsel, baby Lex and Mrs. rants. Will Miller had brought in a hive lations on the shipment of dairy prod Gimse went on to Norway. of bees when he returned to Pemberton ucts and slaughtered hogs to Vancouver She had been a devoted homemaker.

- presently he had a dozen hives, and markets discouraged their production. In a pioneer situation which must have sold honey mostly for the lo - been very difficult at times, cal market. The honey was she maintained a cheerful contained in big square tins ness and quiet sense of hu which held sixty pounds. His mour. A lovely flower garden friends, Jack Ronayne and Jim may have reminded her a bit Landsbrough, established of Ireland. hives and bee keeping was a Now Will, with sons Ronie, hobby for the three men. A Robbie and Don, was left to fair sized patch of black cur manage the home and farm. rants was planted behind and Morgan had married and around the family home. Na moved to his own property, tive Indian labor was indis one corner of which is part pensable for farmers growing of the original Miller pre row crops. A group of emption. Don attended women would come to cul school in Vancouver as well tivate and harvest the cur as logging at the coast. rants for shipment. They Robbie was often in the were hard workers, yet good Cariboo and eventually humoured and full of jokes. bought a ranch. The big Will Miller was nicknamed flood of October 1940 oc the “Olallie (berry) Tyee”. curred in these years, dev In 1922 a government ag astating most of the valley ricultural inspector had vis farms. The Millers lost the re ited the valley. He noted the cently harvested crops of excellence of the soil and hay, turnips and potatoes, suitability of the location and some cattle and all the bees suggested farmers grow cer were drowned. Freezing tified seed potatoes. Walter weather came shortly after Green was the first to obtain the water subsided and certified seed and grow a made clean-up very difficult crop. He sold a ton of seed - a dreary silt-covered scene to Will Miller. Thus began to view until new growth the very important disease Map ofPemberton area. next spring provided a more free potato seed industry. cheerful outlook. Some The number of acres and va farmers left but others were rieties grown increased as more farm Beef herds replaced dairy cattle and Will reassured by a federal and provincial ers specialized in seed - carefully Miller shipped in a carload of Hereford government plan to dyke and drain the guarding and promoting the disease free heifers and a Black Angus bull from valley. No financial aid was given or reputation of their product until now it Williams Lake. expected. is the most lucrative crop. Teresa Miller died in June 1935, at age These were war years. Ronie left to By 1923 Sandy and Gerald Ross had 61 years, following a stroke. She had work in Vancouver shipyards. Don was saved enough money trapping marten very recently returned from her only visit away logging. Both enlisted - Ronie in and working in mines on the mountain to Ireland since the 1910 arrival in 1942 with the Princess Patricia’s Cana side around and beyond Tenquille Lake Canada. She had travelled by Norwe dian Light Infantry, and Don as a Sap to buy land of their own. They soon gian freighter from Vancouver through per in the 11th Canadian Field Company cleared and farmed the land and added the Panama Canal to Southampton, Eng of the Royal Canadian Engineers. more as years went by. Originally both land. She was accompanied by her son Morgan and Robbie continued to work

13 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 on the farm as much as possible. Mrs. sad days for their father uncertain about sponded with his brother, Jim, in Mid Miller’s niece, Phyllis Ronayne, came the future of the farm and himself 78 lothian, Scotland and his sister Nell, in from Ireland in 1937 to housekeep for years old. Still he kept working. Tonsberg, Norway. In letters received Miller and the boys still at home. She In 1949 Don was well enough to re in the spring of his death both Jim and married Henry Erickson in 1940. After turn to Pemberton. A first tractor and Nell had spoken of a possible reunion. the boys left in 1941 he was really on other machinery were purchased. The His very good friends Jack Ronayne and his own except for the company and farm was divided so Robbie would have Jim Landsbrough visited on Sunday af help of Morgan and Robbie and their property of his own, Don staying with ternoons. While the family was still at families. Robbie had married in 1941 and the original home and surrounding land. home he was an interested spectator at had two sons and a daughter. Morgan Don’s marriage in Febmary of 1950 and soccer games played on Sunday after had four daughters at that time. the birth of his first daughter in Decem noons between teams from Mt. Currie ber of the same year were (in those days known as the Creekside happy events for his fa Rancherie). Two of his Sons and two ther. stepsons were players. A family, or of Winters in Pemberton ten, community picnic by the are often cold and long. Birkenhead River sometimes followed, Now that he was free to other evenings a family dinner at the leave the farm during that Miller home. In the 40’s he, on several period, Will Miller went occasions, brought back from Vancou for an extended stay in ver haggises purchased from the James

Vancouver. He had had Inglis Reed shop on Granville - the sign recurring heart problems. on the shop proclaimed “We ha’e meat He became ill and was that ye can eat”. He would take the hag taken to St. Paul’s Hospi gises and his treasured book of Robbie tal where he died of a sud Burns poetry to dinner at Morgan’s home den heart attack on April on the poet’s birthday. The potatoes and

9, 1951 - the day after his bashed neeps (turnips) traditionally 84th birthday. He was bur served with haggis were easily come by ied in the Pemberton in Pemberton. He would read Burns’ Cemetery beside his wife. “Ode to the Haggis” to his son, daugh His neighbour of many ter-in-law, and granddaughters. years, Walter Green, read As time goes on there are increasing the service. numbers of descendants of himself and There is contrast be his wife, Rosses and Millers, among the tween Miller’s early years population of the valley and other parts William Morgan Mille, 80 years plus taken at bisfarm in and his later life. He had of B.C. A mountain and a creek bear his Pemberton Meadows. returned to Pemberton name. He is certainly one pioneer who twice during his travels. left his mark in the community. Eric

Ronie and Don were sent overseas - Perhaps this was the home he had Gethen, a resident for many years, in Ronie to England, North Africa, Sicily looked for. He told his son, Morgan, that cluded this tribute in the obituary for and Italy. Wounded slightly in October farming was “in his blood”. He left it the Lillooet and Squamish newspapers

1943 he was returned to hospital in infrequently after 1915 - occasional trips - “It would not be fitting to pass this North Africa, suffered from jaundice and to Vancouver to visit with old friends or occasion without paying tribute to a caught diphteria, so did not arrive back his brother, Bob, who had returned to noble character. Mr. Miller was a man in Italy and the front lines until April of Vancouver with his English wife, Lydia, respected by all, whose word was his 1944. Private Peter Williams of Mt. Currie but no children, and had worked with bond, a man whose strength of charac was with him during much of the time the school board there. Bob died in the ter gave strength to others to follow a in Italy. Ronie was killed on August 27, fall of 1944. In those days it was neces right course”.

1944 during the battle of the Gothic Line sary to travel by train and steamship - near Pesaro in Central Italy. He is bur using the greater part of one day each N.B. In putting together this account of my fa ied in the Canadian Cemetery in way - to Vancouver for medical, dental ther-in-law’c lift I have regretted very much that Montecchio close to the battle scene. or eye care. There was a trip or two to we had not made a greater effort to talk with him Don also spent time in England, hospi the Cariboo while Robbie lived there. about the many interesting events which must have talized for a while, then went on to He did not roam the hills as his sons taken place during his travels. Now it is too late. France and served in the liberation of have done, except when it was neces I have used records that are available, memories of the Netherlands. Arriving home in 1945, sary in the early years to hunt game for his sons, my own friendsh/i over twenty years and he was found to have tuberculosis and his family. If there was time to relax he research already carried out by the authors of hospitalized in Vancouver and read a great deal, keeping up with world “Pemberton - The History ofa Settlement”. Tranquille, near Kamloops. These were events, cared for his bees and corre Bertha Mille, Pemberton, B.C.

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 14 Annie Ronayne - Pemberton Pioneer 1885-1966 by Anita McWilliams

Anna Theodora Francesca Theodora delicious Dutch treats every Christmas sual for the times: he obtained work on Maria van Snellenberg was born in until World War II stopped the flow. As a steamship and when the ship docked Amsterdam, Netherlands, on July 10, soon as the war was over the parcels in San Francisco, he “put his chef’s 1885, the youngest of the six children flowed in the opposite direction, with knives inside his pantlegs and walked of Petrus and Margrethe van Snellenberg. gifts of staples and warm clothing go- off the ship.” To avoid U.S. authorities, Margrethe died of tuberculosis he made his way up the when the child was only four coast to North Vancouver, months old, and no one expected and soon was well Anna to live, but live she did for enough off to send for his over 80 years. sister, Anna. Upon the death of the mother, According to her own their grandmother came into the account published in the home to look after the children, Squamish Times, she left but when Anna was still quite Amsterdam on April 19, young, her father remarried and 1909, at the age of 24. “I this woman turned out to be the came to North Vancouver incarnation of the wicked step where I built a small two- mother treating little Anna with bedroom bachelor home great cruelty. One of her favour in Lynn Valley on a road ite punishments was to lock the that was to be named van child in a dark cupboard under Snellenberg, but as I was the stairs amongst the spiders and married by the time the cobwebs, for hours at a time. road was finished they At the age of six, Anna was sent called it Ronayne Road,” to a convent school. There she which is the name it still was treated little better than at bears today.” home. Spare the rod and spoil Annie’ kept house for the child seemed to be the guid her brother, and did do ing principle. Any minor infringe mestic work for some of ment of the rules meant that the the Lynn Valley matrons. child had to stand stock still be It was at the William side her desk until she nearly Miller home2 that she met dropped. When it came time for Joseph Ronayne, down Anna’s first communion, she was from Pemberton for the made to wear a grey dress, be winter. Joe liked the look cause the van Snellenbergs were of Annie, and proposed poor, and so white was “ unsuit within a week. They were able.” One thing about hard married a month later, on times, they led to the departure June 1, 1911. She was 26, of the stepmother, and once he, 36. Long afterward, again the beloved grandmother, she told her daughter-in- now a frail little old lady, re law, “I didn’t love Joe turned to help the family out. then, but I knew he was As a young woman, Anna a good man.” So it proved went to work in a corset factory, or at ing from our house to Holland. to be, and theirs was a happy marriage. elier, above the shop where corsets were Her brother John, next to her in age In April of 1913, they set out for the sold. Here she made two friends who and her favourite brother, was trained farm in Pemberton with their nine- were to remain in correspondence with as a chef. Having decided to emigrate, month-old baby, Margaret. her all their lives, sending packages of John did it in a way perhaps not so unu “We started out... taking the train from

15 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 Vancouver to Lytton where the baby “The next day we went on with a sur 1929. She could knit a sock in an slept in a dresser drawer.” veyor’s outfit; I sat on a camp stove with evening, while at the same time read “The next morning we headed for the baby in my arms. As the horses were ing a book or periodical. Lillooet in a touring car but had not pro in poor shape the load often pulled them Our parents were very interested in ceeded very far before we collided with back when going uphill so my husband current events and politics, and their another car. It was my first ride in a mo blocked the wheels at times. In the reading could not be described as light. tor car...” evening we arrived at Spetch on Owl Annie liked to lend books and maga Creek where we spent the night.” zines which argued the political views “The next morning we went on with she held herself, and visitors rarely left the mail carrier, for a comfortable ride, without carrying some reading matter comparatively speaking, in a democrat3 with them. and arrived at Pemberton. From April By the time her second child was to until November we lived in a tent while be born, the Pacific Great Eastern Rail our log house was being built. Here we way had pushed its tracks north from raised a family of five.” Squamish and Annie went out to Van “We had much trouble with goitre couver by the first train, to await the during the first year and lost many of birth, allowing lots of time and staying our calves. I remember helping my hus with friends in the city. When Kathleen band to hold up some of the foals to was four weeks old, the railway had suck milk from their mothers. We our been snowed in for weeks, but the PGE selves took Churchill’s Iodine.4 I even would not give any information as to gave the baby a drop in her bottle.” when the trains might run again. Life certainly wasn’t easy those first For one whose native tongue was Annie Ronayne with Margaret, Kathleen, Ronald and Chfford years on the farm. The mosquitoes were Dutch, Annie had an excellent command (Anita not born yet). c.1921 frightful. The couple slept inside a mos of the English language:

quito netting in their tent, but before “.. .my husband, Mr. Sampson and I, “Small rocks were rolling down the retiring, Joe would bring the horse as with my baby in my arms, left Squamish mountainside and my husband feared a close as possible to the tent doorway. for Pemberton. Daddy carried the slide. There was much traffic on this In a few moments the animal would be handsleigh on his shoulders as there was road, mostly railroad workers in cov covered with mosquitoes, which Joe no snow on the ground there.” ered wagons drawn by four or six horses would kill with swipes of his hands, then “Travelling on a pump car, we started who were so frightened of our auto that quickly dive inside the tent and into the north from Squamish with $7.60 worth they reared... or started for the brush netting. of provisions. I sat on top of the suit although there was very little room on Annie adapted to the heavy load of cases with baby whilst four men either side of the road, up the mountain work necessary to establishing a farm pumped.” on one side or down into the river on in the Pemberton Valley. She “drove the “Sixteen miles from Squamish there the other. One driver, hanging by his hayloads, cut one hundred tons of hay was a tree across the track and we had pantleg on the brake, was cursing one year and raked it with horse rake to leave the pumpcar. We stopped the loudly. It was all very exciting, to say and mower.” She canned enormous night in an abandoned railroad shack the least.” amounts of meat, vegetables and fruits as we did farther along the way. Daddy “We spent the night at the Lillooet every summer, in order to provide their put some runners on the sleigh, and a Hotel (and) from Lillooet to Seton Lake growing family with food for the win man gave me a pair of mackinaw pants we travelled on foot. We went across ter. The copper boiler which could hold to wear which was a great help.” Seton lake on a motor launch where I ten two-quart jars at a time, seemed to “On the second day we set out on sat below next to the engine with the be bubbling on the stove the whole sum foot. I had snow shoes but could not baby on my lap. The deck above was mer long. The heat in the kitchen was manage them as they were too tiring. I full of freight.” intense, so after some years she pur was carried pickaback by my husband “We walked the three miles between chased a second-hand wood stove across the trestles, using the sleigh when Seton and Anderson Lakes and then by which was set up outside to be used we could. We arrived at Brandywine launch to D’Arcy where we slept in a during canning season. At night she Falls late in the afternoon and slept there cabin belonging to an Indian by the would set the morning’s cracked-wheat in a large cabin with a few rats scurry name of I Am Johnny. Baby Margaret and rolled-oat porridge (mush, we called ing around.” slept on an old buggy seat. I was a bit it) in a double boiler at the back of the On the third day as they tramped up nervous but we all slept well.” stove. the track alongside Green Lake, (near Annie’s nervousness was because this That wasn’t the end of her evening, present-day Whistler) they saw the was her first encounter with Indians, and though. She would sit in the living room house of the Rougers family on the far of course all she knew of them was the with Joe, mending or knitting, reading side. The Rougers had built there, ex rather frightening stuff one would find and listening to records or to the radio pecting the railway to come their way. in the novels of the day. after that came into their home about (Highway 99 now passes right by the

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 16 and on Sunday to the New York Philhar site of Rougers’ homestead.) She kept the accounts and managed the monic concert. These times were sacro The little party set out across the lake money. She was thrifty but not frugal. sanct, but in fairness, we were allowed to on the ice. Sampson went first, Joe be She knew how to trade with the Indi listen to the Hit Parade on Saturday nights. hind the sleigh, and Annie astride the ans who came up the valley in their She loved to dance, and attended the sleigh with the baby under her wrapped wagons with huckleberries or baskets. local dances well into middle age, although in a goatskin robe. The old women with kerchiefs tied over her husband did not dance at all and rarely “The ice started cracking. Daddy their heads, speaking slowly through attended. shouted to Sampson to swing off, but it younger women, sometimes wanted When Joe died in 1943, at the age of 68, was too late and the sleigh went down clothes in trade, sometimes “glease” (lard Annie was devastated. A few years later, in in a few inches of slush. I got a real or tallow) which Annie always rendered her loneliness, she married James Walsh, a fright for I thought the baby was drown and kept in old creamers. Sometimes man younger than herself, a veteran of the ing. But all went well. We got across.” they wanted cash, which was a rarity Spanish Civil War. Apart from political “Next morning we finally reached the even among the farmers. Annie knew a views, the couple had little in common, train which was snowed in. We ate in good basket when she saw one, and and after about four years they divorced the caboose and Sampson slept there. some of the baskets she acquired, still and Annie resumed the name of Ronayne. Daddy and I and the baby went on to a in the family, are of museum quality. In 1950, Annie returned to Europe for deserted cabin nearby. The floor was She was fair - when in the depths of the first time since 1909, accompanied by covered with ice but my husband cut fir the Great Depression a family came with Anita. About a month was spent in Hol branches and we slept in the big robe.” huckleberries and asked eight cents a land. Subsequent to this, Annie made other “On the morning of the fifth day we pound, she paid instead ten cents, know trips abroad, by polar flight, even travel reached Pemberton, where we had din ing the long and arduous process that was ling to the Soviet Union in 1956 and 1962, ner at the hotel. I had little appetite be involved in picking the berries up in the when it was not considered fashionable nor cause of lack of sleep. The trail up the mountains and transporting them the 20 even safe to do so. A tourist’s every move valley was very narrow so I was miles up the valley. in the USSR was plotted and accompanied pickabacked again part of the way until Annie loved the arts. She accumulated by an Intourist guide. Being well up in we got to (Millers) and I had the first a considerable collection of records and years, Annie found this convenient. She good sleep since leaving Vancouver.” allowed the children to play them when attended the ballet, saw the famous Her “Next day, the sixth, Daddy fetched ever they asked, but the handling of the mitage Museum in Leningrad, travelled us home. Mrs. Sampson had dinner brittle “78s” was always supervised. to the Black Sea resorts of Yalta and Sochi. ready. My four-year-old daughter did not “Popular” records, such as those by Harry She noted that Russian textiles were shoddy, recognize me. To top it all, the railroad Lauder and Frank Crummit had black la and that Russian parents seemed to be very opened in another month. Had we bels, and both sides could be played with relaxed and permissive with their children. known this would happen, I would have the same steel needle, but the red seal In her later years, she usually spent the waited in Vancouver.” recordings of such greats as Caruso and winters in Vancouver, as she tried to es Their fourth child, Clifford, was born John MacCormack would be placed on cape the cold and loneliness of Pemberton, in November, 1918, when the Spanish the turntable by Annie herself and the but she always returned to her log house influenza epidemic was raging world steel needle would be used once only. In in the wide. Again, Annie went to Vancouver spring. During to have her baby. Although there were the years before her final illness, so many sick people in Vancouver Gen she was much involved in life of the farm, particularly eral Hospital that they were lying on the garden, helping with can ning mattresses in the corridors, Annie and and freezing fruits and vegetables. She was very her baby escaped the dreaded disease a willing baby-sitter, particularly of her retarded and returned to Pemberton after the ten- granddaughter, enabling her son and day hospital stay that was required for daughter-in-law to take part in childbirth in those days. There are no community activities. “Her greatest virtue Joe and Anita Ronayne with grand was stories about the births of Ronald her loyalty,” says her daughter-in-law. (the daughter Sylvia Furey, about 1942. third child) and Anita, the fifth, perhaps As she says in the Squamish Times arti cle, “It was all worth it and we had a because both were born in May. this way she preserved the quality of the good life.” In the summer of 1925, Annie’s brother records and taught the children something Piet and his wife and eight children ar about proper care of valuable articles. She Bio Note: Anita McWilliams makes her rived in Canada and spent several weeks admired, and attended whenever she was borne in Hudson’s Hope, R C The story of with the Ronaynes before settling in Van in the city, concert performances and le berfatber appeared in the Fall 1993 (VoL couver. The crowding must have been gitimate theatre. In Holland, she had seen 26.4) issue ofthis magazine. difficult enough, but things were made the great Sarah Bernhardt, at the time quite Footnotes infinitely worse by the onset of whoop an old woman with a wooden leg, which 1. Anna in Holland, Annie in Canada. 2. Mrs. Miller was Joe’s sister Teresa. The Millers later ing cough, which affected all but the Annie said was undetectable. Every Sat moved to Pemberton. two mothers and Joe. urday during the season, she would lis 3. A type of buggy. Annie was a good businesswoman. ten to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast, 4. A few drops in milk or tea.

17 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995

B.C. News Historical Summer 1995 18 -

He refused. me allowed home up drive to a using tackle and block anchored hubs.

to me ing surrender but I license, my day intact. doors whole Our taken was and the the wooden-spoked of wheels

Police B.C. officer ask me tank challenged original its and gas side two its in took of care difference the that size

16 a to limit, old year 15 I A then. balized was everything it but nearLy poured had still molten the metal void, the into

1931 In changed driving regulations a over someone and bank had problem canni we lead melted then ladle, a in

Oldsmobile. Nelson. car old That dumped been had To minor that Studebaker. overcome

1925 to stricted drive my only corner the father’s Silica and of larger Falls in Street the on much the than hubs wheel

qualify a for 1926 drivers license body re but was a from car Ford had at landfill were Oakland which that holes

the reached age I 14 of to able early up 1926 was day the a spending had salvaging wheels belonged a to

police never bothered The I When us. so Saturday day next was were we front when us got we The free. for it

car streets the on of the and a Nelson, cle pass would roadworthy test. by tionable but vintage, alright was that

1926 now. In seldom we another met would for pay a licensing the vehi the if ques from Studebaker wrecked of

amount traffic of we also encounter daily to He up. clean told he that us came with plete Our axle front wheels.

sible kid a for this at the to due time project without a it leaving him for mess com Overland 1926 rear assembly axle

type That driving of impos be would agreed, completed we the providing a where told obtain could We were we

to the brake on stop the engine and car. build to car. a assistance frame car their Dad parts. required we when

to order in enough exert pressure proached my foot let to us about father our have heard the offered endeavours and

would but the als, forward slide on My seat Alfred friend Vyse ap I and Some local the of mechanics garage

to able the reach clutch ped suiplus brake and equipment. to ment with. work

as me alongside co-pilot. barely was I motor tric left which engine Star the as plenty had machines of equip and we

drive Dad’s T him model this Ford changed with an to time the had he to body over bolt elec frame. the Fortunately

time the By able to was I was I 10 the all connected was so to machinery. made widths At to brackets be to had

the on move steering nental engine wheel. line the that shaft were driving different of lengths vehicles and

my could I so father his had follow every Star a operating been on body with the Conti two Ford Star the frame,

stood I seat the on cushion of front in in father machine his The shop. came shop the exasperating the of job fitting

speed able dirt our on streets. to and roads work to go and for school quit set engine the the We my then onto frame,

miles fifteen 1932 hour an accept the was in Due depression the to had I Street.

1921 in cars when were and scarce back. fairly to haul the it shop machine Vernon on

5 I That when about was a old. years he was warrant. Fortunately, never it where came and could we onto load truck a

initiation My to began me informing driving would he that car a with return tree a to the pull to to up body Street the

IN AND SIGN SOPICVOUS CARRY POSITION ON MOTOR.SSNICLE.

s..._

2 34348

-

C. NELSON, B.

—

9

NELSON AVE..

$

HAZES EVERETTE 1 STEVENSON,

smme nod (Registered address licensee.) of

COACh 270716 2100 5—4—u ‘ ttntoppte.

STAR 34348 251425 1925

.ffireiothin.pe.rr

\

Circe. Weight. :ct 1 (,d Pnrrbosr. Seciot Orig. No. 5SIRt

Licence and Plate No

use rg and accordance of the with provisions the until Art” “Motor.vnhiole

The motor.vebicle registered sod described as hereby is bereon shown lot licensed

BRITISH COLUMBIA MOTOR.VEHICLE LICENCE.

Stevenson by Henry

1932 c. Hybrid Special

Vyse-Stevenson The Crmt.rr,,reini.iPrIkr. Back at the landfill we found a pair of had challenged my drivers license the unobtainable due to obsolescence. So headlights that had been on a 1928 previous year arrived to test drive the long as the engine was running we had Chrysler which had been wrecked. We car. I was apprehensive, thinking that no problem, but when we stopped, it also dug up a steering gear and wheel he would remember our controversy just was necessary to turn the gas valve off from a 1927 Chevrolet. Mickey a year before, but he chose to ignore it. at the tank, otherwise it would not be McEwan, one of our friendly mechan After driving the car around the block long before we would be out of gas. ics, wired the instrument panel, the en he congratulated us on our work, pass I taught Alfred Vyse to drive allowing gine wiring, and connected up the lights ing it for licensing. He suggested that him to shift gears for me from the right for us. He also gave us a tail light from we use the original 1925 Star registra hand seat. When he became proficient a 1925 Oldsmobile as well as four used tion because it contained the engine and at that phase, we changed seats and he tires. serial numbers required. The license had drove like a veteran. John Learmonth gave us a rear seat to be kept in my father’s name because Now whenever Alfred and I get to from a 1916 Packard, also a double regulations at the time restricted any gether, we recall many of the pros and wicker seat, a “left over” from one of one under 18 years of age owning an cons regarding our pride and joy auto his buses. The wicker seat served the automobile. mobile. The whole project was a great driver and front seat passenger. When The accompanying photo is not that learning experience for both of us. Our all the parts were assembled the car of our actual car it is a 1926 Ford Tudor mechanical marvel eventually met its looked a little strange, especially the sedan which is the identical body of our demise in a scrap yard, my only regret, engine hood, because the Star radiator “Vyse-Stevenson Special Hybrid.” I never took a picture of our machine. was about two inches higher than the We put a lot of miles on the car by Ford cowl giving the cars’ appearance a touring around the district. We chose not Mr. Stevenson is a retired machine shop little “droopy”. However, we were proud to get too far from home with it, mainly owner living in Nelson. He is also an of our vehicle in spite of its collection because we did not have the money for aviation history buffwho wrote ‘Planes of many makes. gasoline and our tires were pretty thin. Over the Kootenays”for this magazine in 1991 - VoL 24:4. When the day came to license the Another thing, the carburetor had a vehicle, the same B.C. Policeman who badly worn needle valve and parts were

THE Favorite Family Prescriptions. DRUGGIST’S I-lAND-BOOK. >-r The following comprise a choice collection of special pre. scriptions from, the most successful physicians of our land, which have been in family use for many years. PH ARM ACEUTICAL DEPARTMENT.

AsTnseA.—Tincture of lobelia and wine of ipecacuanha, each an oz. Take one-half teaspoonful every half hour until expectoration or nausea ELIXIRS, OR ELEGAIiT PREPARATIONS. occurs. 9. Iodide of potassium, two drains; decoction of senega, flue oz.; tinct ure of lobelia, one oz.; paregoric, one oz. Take a teaspoonful three times a day. BILtousNRss.—Take a powder of rhubarb root, magnesia, and prepared charcoal powder, ca-b a teaspoonful; powdered ginger, one teaspoonful. AROMATIC ELIXER Mix, and divide into saree vsrt. Take one every morning. (A common base for medications) 2. Tartar-emetic, four grains; powdered ipecac, twenty grains; water, four oz.; one tableepoonful every twelve minutes, until vomiting. Tincture of Cardamom, a drachms;e To act on the Liver—Dandelion root, sliced and bruised, one o,incs; water, one pint. Boil for ten ,njnutm, in a covered veoeI, strain us above, Tincture of Angelica, a drachms; u,l a,i,l suilicient water to ,,ak,, a pint. A wineglasslul ti,,,,, four times a day. Spirit of Vanilla, a drachms; Bu,owciizris.—Niti’ in of potausa, two drains; oxymel of squills, one oz.; tincture of digitalis, a fluid dram; vinegar, a tablespoonful; sugar and Oil of Cloves, drops; gum arabic each two drama; water enough to make in all six oz. Mix. Take a tablespoonful every three hours. Oil of Cinnamon, drops; Bronchitis, with Dry Cough._Tartar.emetic, one grain; syrup of squills, three oz. Take a teaspoonful every four hours. Oil of Coriander, 3 drops; CATARRN.—.Salurated tincture of bloodroot, or sanguinaria, two oz.; wine of ipecac, two oz. Take fifty drops every four hours. An excellent Oil of Sweet Orange Peel, drops;e febrifage. of Lemon, a drops; 2. Decoction of senega, four oz.; iodide of potassium, two drains; Oil wine of antimony, four drains; syrup of tolu, two oz. Mix, and take a tea Oil of Caraway, a drops; spoonful four,Siusea a day. CATHAisTTC.—Resiu of jalap, thirty grains. Divide into three parts. Oil of Bergamot. a drops; Give one every four hours ti 11 they operate. Powerful Cathartic, in Rare Cases.—Croton oil, five drops; crumb of Spirit of Rose, a drachms; bread or conserve of roses, a sufficient quantity to make four pills. Mix, and divide. Take one every four hours, until they operate. Spirit of Neroli? a drachms; Prompt Cathartic—Mix a tablespoonful each, of castor oil and molasses, with a pint of warm water in which a little Castile soap has been dissolved. Syrup, 44 ounces; Inject into the rectum with a syringe. CHAseED HANDS A5{D FACE.—Bay.rum and glycerine, each half an Water, 6 ounces; ounce; quinee.juice jelly, one ounce. Mix. Alcohol, 95 per cent., 24 ounces.

The Cottage Pbysiciais, 1898 The Druggist Handbook 1881

19 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 The Fashionable Woman’s Hat by Thelma Reid Lower

Women’s magazines have always pro damp weather. When madam was re moted their public image as being the quired to venture outdoors she donned latest authority on fashion. Granted fash a copious quilted bonnet, padded with ion designers in salons of haute cou white wool fleece. To protect the fringe ture created new fashion trends; of curls across her forehead she poised women’s magazines, nevertheless, made her bonnet gingerly forward almost to their own editorial selection of fashions her eyebrows. which would appeal to their subscrib Daily curling of the hair by whatever ers. A far larger population of women means was a tedious and time-consum consult magazines than attend seasonal ing affair so that after 1750 milady took salons of fashion. It becomes apparent, to wearing dainty lace caps and wigs. therefore, that fashion is a two-way For formal occasions she would mount street, reflecting an imaginative design a gloriously elegant and powdered wig er’s creation and the mores of the soci of the style established by Marie ety in which he creates. Antoinette at the French court of Ver Periodicals of the past which have had sailles. To protect her lavish hair style, I influence on what women chose to wear milady required a cavernous hood The Calèche 1765-1790 provided protection were part of the display. Mr. Sayers se vaulted and framed like a cage made of for milady’s elaborate coiffure. A copious lected pages from Fashionable Woman of cane slippery silk. was quilted bonnei padded with whitefleece. The strips and It cavernous hood ofthe calèche (calasb) was c. 1790; The Ladies Cabinet, 1835; called a caleche (calash). When not in vaulted andframed like a cage from strips Godey’s Ladies Magazine, 1856; Eng use the calash was collapsed like an of cane and slippery silk. When not in use lish woman’s Domestic Magazine, accordion into folds about the shoul the calash was collapsed intofolds about the shoulders forming a shawl-like collar of 1864; Dame Fashion, 1881; La Mode ders, forming a large shawl-like collar. great proportiolL ifiustre, 1886; Ladies Home Journal, Summer weather, too, had its prob 1895, 1912, 1915; The Woman at lems, for the fashionable lady needed When we think of early fashion, the Home, 1906; Caricature Magazine, to shield herself from tanning her deli images in our mind are based on a mix 1909; The Modern Priscilla, 1910; cate skin and from unwelcome atten ture of memories taken from surviving Grand Album de Chapeaux, 1911- tion. Coyly, she hid her face under the clothes and accessories, theatrical cos 1913; The Designer, 1914; Elite Style brim of a straw bonnet which extended tumes, family photographs, illustrations Magazine, 1921; Art-Gout-Beaute, so far forward that it resembled the pro- in history books, and perhaps the most 1923; Eaton’s Mail Order Catalogue, vivid of all, fashion magazines of the 1925; Vogue Magazine, 1932-1934; Lii> time. Although source information avail erty Magazine, 1940 (War & Women’s able about fashion is rich and varied, Hats); Vogue Pattern Book, 1942; there has never yet (1979) been pub McCall’s Magazine, 1942; PictorialEn lished a systematically arranged series cyclopedia of Fashion, 1968. of all types of women’s costumes. A Fashion illustrations show what the very large work would be necessary, designers are putting forth as the ideal which would include samples of wear to be aimed at by women even though ing apparel from every source and cover the majority of them cannot afford it. In every class of the population. Such a practice fashion illustrations are followed large publication is outside the resources by only a few women, partly imitated

of most researchers and publishers. It by many and often - with a year or two’s

was therefore all the more appreciated time lag - echoed by a large number, when Ivan Sayers, then Curator of His the echoes growing fainter as the time tory at Vancouver’s Centennial Museum, lag increases. mounted a fashion display entitled Les Fashion in head covering has often

Chapeaux - The Fashionable Wom been dictated by a contemporary hair an’s hat, 1750-1950. This exhibit span style. Before 1750 hair was curled tight The Spoon Bonnett 1863-1866 All bonnetts, ning two hundred years of the to the head with perhaps heated curl anchored securely on the bead by lavish ribbons tied under the chin in wide bows fashionable woman’s head apparel was ing irons or paper or rag curlers. This could survive gusty weather or a dash in a shown through to January 1980. coiffure was particularly susceptible to horse drawn cuttet

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 20 truding lip of a coal scuttle. From its the back of the head to cover chignon flower bedecked edge, a lace veil dan and long ringlets. gled which she could raise or let fall as When bustles were in style, hats and she pursued her coquettish intentions. bonnets were worn on the back of the All bonnets, anchored securely on the head or tilted forward to emphasize the head by lavish ribbons tied under the swan-like shape of the fashionable wom chin in wide bows, could survive gusty an’s figure. The museum displayed a weather or a dash in a horse-drawn cut “flower pot” hat trimmed with white silk ter. Bonnets have always been looked and daisies worn with a graduation dress upon as sentimental treasures as the in 1884. A brown felt hat called “three popular song tells: “Put on your old grey stories and a basement” for obvious rea bonnet with the blue ribbons on it and sons was trimmed with an ostrich pin we’ll hitch old Dobbin to the shay. wheel. Through the fields of clover we will drive After 1900 large hats, profusely deco to Dover on our golden wedding day.” rated with flowers, fruit and feathers Religious services had required the were worn at a rakish angle to accentu formality of a bonnet but by the late ate the S-shaped silhouette of the Ed 1860’s hats became, for the first time in wardian woman’s figure. The slimmer Cocktail Hat 1949-1950. A tiny bat or cluster offlowers, often draped with a sultry veilws many years, acceptable at church. Hats the skirt, the larger the hat! Circular hats, “de regeur”for cocktail parties to keep the were small like bonnets with flowers, called “boaters” drew attention to the war effort (WWII) by fund raising and ribbons and lace cascading down over face by framing it as though looking recruiting. through a ship’s porthole. Some boaters were braided from wood ing often continued in the candled dark. shavings in a wide weave and Gradually the dressy hat has been were called “chips”. abandoned. Neither the carefully The motoring peaked hat with permed head nor the boyish short style its long scarf and goggles was an is topped for church or Street or visit ing. Even Brownies and Guides no eye-catching accessory for a pas longer wear the beret with its badge. senger (no lady would ever drive) The liberated woman may wear a Tilley in a motor car. Since these early hat while outdoors or a baseball cap at automobiles were open to all a barbecue but designers are a long way kinds of weather, dusty roads and from convincing her to adopt a hat for a polluting gases, practical and pro- every combination in her wardrobe. tective covering was essential for The “Chip” Boatet; 1910. Circular bats, called an enjoyable Sunday drive. During Mrs. Lower wrote this article while Ivan “boaters” drew attention to theface byframing WWI hat pins a foot long were deco Sayerc display was being shown at the it as tbougb looking through a ship’sporthole. rated with buttons from soldiers’ uni Vancouver Museum. It appeared in the Some boaters were braidedfrom wood shavings December 1979 PLAYBOARD and is re in a wide weave and were called “cbips” Hat forms. Wartime restraint prompted produced here with permission from pins, a foot long held the “boater” secure. In women to make turbans as simple head the present publishers, Harold and World War I they were decorated with buttons covering. After the war the newly en from soldiers uniforms. Irene Scheil ofBurnaby. franchised woman “bobbed” her Ivan Sayer is currently developing apri

— hair and wore a close fitting hat vate museum of Textiles and Fashion. called the cloche, which made her figure appear taller and more slen der. Penny?? During the 1940’s home-made and utilitarian head gear such as A former resident is looking for the origin of bandanas and fabric turbans made the name of a settlement called Penny, a a comeback when women di station on the railway line between Prince rected their energies into war in Qeorge and McBride, probably started in dustries. For special occasions 1914 when the railway first went through. population almost such as entertainments associated Penny had a peak of 700 in the mid 1 950s’ now it has shrunk to nine with fund raising for war efforts, - hardy souls. Pennyites, however, are holding tiny hats were trimmed as ornately a reunion on August 18 - 20, 1995 and are The Motoring bat with veil; Since 1905-1910. as possible with available materials. A researching their history before this gathering. early automobiles were open to all kinds of small a cluster flowers, weather, dusty roads, and polluting gases hat or of per Please convey your information on this name practical covering was essentiaL The haps draped with a sultry veil, was de to A.I. Persofsky in Vancouver; Phone (604) motoringpeaked bat with its long bead scarf rigeur for cocktail parties in the late 734-3751. and goggles. afternoon before “lights out” when danc

21 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 Balloon Bombs: Japan to North America by Henry Stevenson

The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl longitude, near the North American attached to a block of picric acid on a Harbour, Hawaii, December 7, 1941 trig coast. magnesium charge. That would destroy gered the United States to declare war The concept of the free-flying balloons the balloon blowing up all parts, which in the Pacific. was to carry incendiary bombs into the Japanese hoped would set fire to For a number of years prior to that forested areas and farmlands in west our forests and farm fields. The only invasion the Japanese army and navy ern Canada and the United States. remains would be in such small frag had been studying upper winds of the The 30 and 32 foot diameter balloons ments as to leave hardly a trace. stratosphere. They had discovered a “Jet were constructed from several lamina The most favorable weather, for Stream’ at about the 30,000 foot level, a tions of tissue paper held together with launching in Japan, was from Novem river of air travelling in the general di hydrocellulose adhesive, then lacquered ber to April when the jet stream was rection from Japan eastward toward to waterproof the bag. Tests were also strong enough to carry the balloons over North America. Sometimes the flow made with balloons made of silk and the Pacific Ocean in three to four days. reached speeds up to 300 miles an hour. rubber. The bottom of the sphere had a Fortunately for us, that time of the year, Our allies apparently knew nothing pressure-operated valve that kept the the target area of North America is snow about this phenomenon until several bag from overinflating when hydrogen covered and wet. Also, the high-veloc years after. It was a well-kept secret by inside expanded from the heat of the ity winds during the remainder of the the Japanese army. sun in daytime and then the cooling at year in Japan made filling of the bal Col. Sueki Kusaba was in charge of night when the temperatures reached loons with volatile hydrogen difficult and the Japanese army’s science research the lows of -50 degrees centigrade in dangerous. center at Noborito, where the experi the thin atmosphere at high altitudes. The 93,000 balloons were launched ment on free-flying balloons was taking Nineteen shroud lines were attached from the east coast of Japan during the place. The project was given the code at even spaces around the perimeter just winter months of 1944 and 1945. Only name “Fugo”. It was shelved, due to below center of the bag. The free end 297 were found in the United States and higher priorities, by their military in favor of the lines (about 45 feet in length) were Canada. The first remnants of a Japa of more important branches of the army tied together allowing plenty of distance nese “weather” balloon was picked up and navy. between the bag and its cargo. The pay by a U.S. Navy patrol boat on Novem Shortly after Col. Jimmy Dolittle’s B- load included a solar heated wet bat ber 4, 1944 about 68 miles southwest of 25 bombers wreaked havoc on theJapa tery to power the radio, an aneroid San Pedro, California. nese homeland in April 1942, project barometer to maintain fairly constant Shortly after this episode several other Fugo was revived. Experiments began flight elevation, plus the sophisticated reports were received by Allied West with the building of 20 foot diameter apparatus that carried incendiary bombs ern Defence Command. It was quickly balloons. They were only able to remain and the “chandelier” ring that held 32 noted that they were not weather bal airborne for about 30 hours, travelling bags of sand ballast. loons, as at first thought, but were anti 180 to 600 miles at an altitude of nearly When the balloon sank to a 25,000 personnel and incendiary bombs. five miles. foot elevation the aneroid barometer A few balloons were found in Mexico, By 1943 Col. Kusaba had been pro triggered a mechanism that would au- two went as far east as Michigan, 57 moted to the rank of General. He con tomatically release a sand bag allowing landed in British Columbia with the re tinued to work on his project the balloon to rise again to 30,000 feet. maining scattered from Alaska to the experimenting with 30 and 32 foot bal According to the scientific calculation, middle states and provinces. loons. These gas bags were equipped by the time the last sand bag was re Four were found close to Nelson (the with a radio capable of transmitting in leased, the balloon should have reached author’s home town). The nearest was formation back to Japan automatically the North American continent at which just north of Salmo and others at giving code messages of flight course, time the incendiary bombs would be Kitchener, Yahk and Kettle River Valley. altitude, internal bag pressure, etc. The ready to be dropped one by one and The Salmo balloon (incident number radio was produced by the Japanese 5th the balloon would be losing altitude due 280 in the bomb landing file) was dis army technical laboratory. The released to loss of hydrogen while enroute. Fi covered by Irwin Butcher and Chet Bush balloons ascended into the jet stream. nally a high-explosive bomb would drop near Hidden Creek, high up on a heav One balloon had been airborne for three setting off a small charge of flash pow ily wooded mountain slope on the east days when it landed at 130 degrees west der which in turn ignited a fuse line side of highway 6, on July 16, 1945. The

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 22 two men climbed to the site over rocks, across a forestry work crew where the bomb from Japan. It had been on the underbrush and windfallen timber to road was blocked. Rev. Mitchell stopped ground for some time, several parts were reach the object. The climb had taken a the car to let his passengers out while rusted. Paper covering of the balloon lot of time and realizing that the hike he turned the car around and parked it. was mildewed and six inches of snow back to the highway would take until As Rev. Mitchell got out of his car, his lay beneath the paper, while the sur near darkness, they merely cut a few wife called to him, “Look what I have rounding area was devoid of snow. strands of shroud line and took it back found, dear.” He called back, “Just a Bomb disposal officers from Lakeview to Salmo, where they reported their find minute and I’ll come and look at it.” Mrs. Naval Air Station were brought in to dis to Corporal Don Pye of the British Co Mitchell and the children were about a arm and remove the remaining bombs. lumbia Police. Corporal Pye immediately hundred yards from him. At this point The military personnel and the FBI kept confiscated the pieces of rope and told there was a terrific explosion, dead the disaster cause a secret by stating that them to refrain from discussing the event branches, twigs, pine needles, dirt and the explosion was from an undeter any further due to wartime restrictions. dust filled the air. mined cause. For weeks school teach When the writer interviewed Mr. Rev. Mitchell was first to arrive at the ers, churchmen, police officers and other Butcher a few weeks ago regarding the scene, followed by the four forestry officials warned people that if they balloon he said, “Do you realize that you workers. The mangled bodies of Mrs. found any strange objects to leave them are talking about an event that happened Mitchell and the children were scattered alone and report them to authorities. about 50 years ago, I had forgotten all around a hole about a foot deep and A mass funeral was held for the vic about it.” He was surprised to learn that three feet across. Mrs. Mitchell was tims on May 6, 1945 in the Klamath Tem he and his partner were within a few barely alive, her clothes were ablaze. ple in Kiamath Falls, Idaho. feet of a live bomb and was happy that Her husband ran to her and managed The “Jet-Stream” was the tempestuous they did not check any closer to the to beat the fire out with his hands, but wind that carried a weapon, which wreckage. could do nothing to help her, she died claimed the only lives lost in the United Incident number 240 on the bomb file quickly. The children had been killed States resulting from enemy action dur was a fatal one. A Sunday school group instantly. ing World War II. in Oregon, on May 5, 1945, were not as Two men stayed with Rev. Mitchell, There is still a possibility that some fortunate. Reverend Archie Mitchell, the other two took a pick-up truck and where in the forests of North America Pastor of the Christian and Missionary rushed to the district ranger’s office at there may be live bombs lying in the Alliance Church in Bly, Oregon, and his Bly, where one man got off and phoned wreckage ofJapanese balloons. Should wife Elyse were taking five of their Sun the county sheriff at Lakeview. He re anyone come across any object that day school class children on a picnic mained there to stop any traffic that looks like a balloon bomb, they should and fishing outing. They drove up a for might be heading up the road. keep clear of it and report it to police est service road, on Gearhart Mountain Examination of fragments from the ex or an army base so that it can be dis past Klamath Lake, until they came plosion proved to be that of a balloon posed of safely.

From the Caricature Magazine, 1909

23 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 Those Legendary Leasks

by Lynn Ove Mortensen

At the turn of the century and just af Westbank near Kirkwall, and their sons ter, the serpentine waterways of the B.C. enjoyed growing up in the country.’ coast must have seemed like the last Their uncle, Henry Leask, J.P., of bastion of available wilderness to peo • Boardhouse, Orkney, was a genealo pie scuffling along at the tail of the west gist and the leading authority of his day ward movement. Not impossibly far on translating old Orcadian documents from burgeoning cities and railheads, into modern English. A section of the even served by frequent steamer serv Kirkwall, Orkney archives is devoted to ice, unclaimed land lay at the foot of his work.2 towering mountains, lapped by the The brothers were educated in bounteous waters of an inland sea. Kirkwall, and, according to their great Much of this land offered small pros niece Maisie Rannie who now lives in pect to farmers and cattlemen, strangled Manitoba, “grew up with a love of books as it was by rocky precipices at every and nature.”3 Both Charles and Alfred turn. But giant trees swished their green learned to paint, capturing local scen hems in the high tides and pranced right ery in realistic watercolor renderings. up the mountains, endless fodder for Yet their personalities were different. swaggering lumberjacks. And the sea re Charles wrote poetry and was described leased salmon, halibut and cod for the by his nephew Alexander as having taking to support a thriving fishery. Small been very gentle and loving.4 settlements studded the shoreline in The energetic, curious and enthusi spots like Shoal Bay, and Port Neville astic Alfred “always wanted to be in and Minstrel Island, outposts for mail volved in some project.”5 He learned to and dry goods. In many such ports, build boats, perhaps from his father, and rowdy hotels offered bed and bar and built craft for himself and friends. He Saturday night revelry for the lonely entered his own gaff-rigged sloop “Wal coastal dwellers. Floating lumbercamps Tom Robertson, AVred Leask, and Majsie rus,” at least once in an 1897 race off rose up and down on the tides and in a Leask taken by a specialtree in Orkney -1935. Kirkwall. Says niece Jean Crerar, “Un hundred nooks, smoke rose from the cle Alfred loved racing his yacht round chimneys of solitary cabins. Frequent mention has been made of the Orkney points in wild weather” and About the year 1913, three brothers this unusual trio, most often in classic “raced with his gig and pony in daring named Leask found their way among west coast cruising accounts. But these fashion” as well.6 this maze of islands and peninsulas, in occurred in passing, a sentence here, a Blue-eyed Henry, the eldest by eleven habited mostly by loggers and fisher paragraph there; never enough to sat years, was described as a “gentleman, men, miners and trappers. They were isfy curiosity piqued by questions of who dignified, brave and steadfast.”7 Follow not young nor did they take their living these men really were, and why they ing in his father’s wake, he soon com from land or sea. Each had been well- chose such an isolated spot. Even their manded a ship of his own. Alfred educated and had followed a profes ultimate fate has remained a mystery. became a banker in Kirkwall while quiet sional career in earlier times. In June of 1851, in the treeless and Charles found employment as an ac The brothers must have explored the windswept Orkney Isles, Scotland, countant in the Register House (archives) region carefully. When they settled, they Henry Graham Leask had been born to in Edinburgh. When failing eyesight chose an ideal site in a crescent cove the sea captain James Leask, and his forced Henry to abandon his seagoing near the mouth of Bute Inlet, thoroughly wife, Isabella Logie Leask, Eleven years career, he homesteaded in New Zealand. protected from the howl and harangue later brother Charles Hardyside was Eventually, both Charles and Alfred and of the notorious wintertime Bute wind.” horn, in January of 1862. Alfred, the their nephew, Alexander Leask, joined Their bay looked across treed moun youngest of their family of eight chil him there. What prompted their depar tains to the setting sun. Steep hills rose dren, arrived in March of 1863. ture is not clear though family members behind them, folding a fresh water lake Their father James Leask was raised recall suggestions of “a love affair that in their union. The Leasks were about on a farm at Quinamoan, several miles did not prosper,”8 James Leask, born in as far from their homeland as they could from Kirkwall, but by the 1861 census, 1846, attempted to persuade his broth be, not only in physical distance but the family was recorded as living at 8 ers to move closer to Scotland, and his especially in atmosphere. Main Street, Kirkwall. Later they owned urging may have been the reason they

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 24 landed on the B.C. coast. by Kelsey Moore lay on the far side of pie as tasting “just like chicken.”8 Early coastal missionary, John Antle, Stuart Island at Kelsey Bay. The broth What the brothers did for hard cash is notes in his memoirs the phenomenon ers could row or sail, choosing between a matter of question. Relatives believe of well-educated men living as hermits two routes to round the island, though they sometimes cut and sold timber from along the coast “not uncommon,” citing passage to the north required penetrat the property.’9 We also know Alfred both an ex-professor from a large east ing two sets of swirling rapids. During earned some income in 1925, by con ern university and a former Supreme spring floodtides the first, Arran Rapids, structing a “splendid Norwegian Court justice. He drew the conclusion is known to spawn overfalls as large as praam”2° for the ten-year-old daughter that, “All of them gravitated to this sim eight feet. Given the right combination of cruising authors Robert and Kathrene ple life via the whiskey road.”9 of tides however, the current could Pinkerton. But it is extremely doubtful that this sometimes have carried a small boat The Orkneys had been held by was true for the Leasks. Not known to right to the store float. Scandinavian rulers for centuries before drink, adventure proved their heady And, beyond staples and specialized being presented as dowry to King James elixir. Bute, despite its isolation, must hardware for some of their inventive III of Scotland and it is likely that Alfred have attracted the trio for many reasons. creations, the Leasks must have had few learned Norwegian boatbuilding tech Not only did it appeal to their aesthetic needs. They nurtured a large garden niques in his homeland. The lightweight sense and offer challenging sailing, but among the rocks behind the house and and seaworthy dinghy as well as its oars at the time, the inlet teemed with wild an orchard with apple and cherry trees. were custom-made to match the young life increasing a settler’s ability to live A stone rootcellar dug into the hillside girl’s height and weight. Its cedar off the land. Olaf Holtz, Game Warden preserved turnips and potatoes and car planking had been milled in the broth for North Vancouver Island, names a rots throughout the winter. Goats er’s own millworks and rib knees were diary reference to a brief trip up Bute in roamed the hill above, though they be natural bends found in the forest. Only the fall of 1914 in which he “got three came nuisances when they got into the the mahogany for the transom ends was grouse . . (a) doe and 3 goat.”° garden and wrecked it.’5 of non-native materials. The Leasks set about developing a Mrs. Barbara Sneligrove, guest on the Sometime in the early 1930’s, Charles homestead and brand of hospitality yacht Ivanhoe, visited the Leasks at died at Fawn Bluff. His nieces do not which became rather famous through Fawn Bluff when she was an impres know the cause of his death but specu out the cruising journals of their con sionable teen. She remembers the eld late that the hardships of the upcoast temporaries. According to the account erly gentlemen scurrying to greet their lifestyle took their toll. The quiet and of Johnny Schnarr, a notorious coastal visitors clad in old jeans held up by sus gentle Charles had been “a painter, not bootlegger whose brother also lived up penders. She described them as dedi a farmer or a pioneer.”2’ Bute, in 1930, after sixteen years of resi cated beachcombers who “used Henry and Alfred probably would dence, the Leasks had managed to build, everything they found.” The yachting have remained at Fawn Bluff forever beyond basic habitation, rock walls and party left with fresh cherries and straw were it not for a string of tragic acci a rock walkway out to the point, a net berries for their supper.’6 dents. Sometime during the winter of shed in the middle of the bay, and a set Canon Alan Greene, pastor of the 1933-4, Alfred was hard at work on an of ways capable of hauling a forty-five Columbia Coast Mission boat Rendez outdoor project when a heavy cable foot boat. They had also piped water in vous, visited the brothers on trips up snapped, breaking his legs and causing wooden pipes from the lake to power a the inlet. The recollections of Doug internal injuries. Henry, partially blind small sawmill, built a stone kiln and Morton, Rendezvous engineer, pre and much older cared for him as best poured and were grinding a large piece served in the ship’s log, indicate the by he could. Then, in an early spring wind of glass to be used as a lens for a tel then-octogenarians were vegetarians storm, a huge Douglas fir toppled to the escope.” Neighbors remember their in and food faddists.’7 Leask relatives, ground pinning him, breaking a leg and stallation of a Pelton wheel to generate though, speculate that was power.’2 For a time they used a large not the case. They attribute log for a float, though their goal was to the oldsters’ unusual eat construct a substantial pier of boulders ing habits to a healthy up from the property. Throughout all this bringing of hard oatcakes industry, they managed to post regular and cheese, and barley letters to those at home in Scotland.’3 bannocks. As boys they Inside the humble exterior of their had gathered gulls eggs home, bookshelves covered the walls, from the Orkney cliffs and holding “hundreds of ancient books — carageen sea weed to whole sets of Ruskin and Shakespeare. thicken rich blanc mange The shed at the back was another custards. In the bush, all storehouse of old literature, old news things gain new perspec papers piled in great heaps and pre tive, and another niece, served as treasures of great price.”4 Jean Crerar, remembers Al The Threejolly Bachelors ofBute Inlet - The Leask Brothers. Pictures courtesy of Maisie Rannie The nearest post office and store, run fred’s description of crow

25 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 ous and friendly Alfred enjoyed be- ing with his relatives, including short visits back to Orkney, niece Jean SImItZ . ‘ Crerar contends that “his heart was in Canada.”26 Today, Fawn Bluff has returned to wilderness. In summer, the gently curving cove, cobbled with small : gravel, still welcomes an occasional overnight yachtsman. The brook still gurgles down from the lake to the \\ ‘ .. calm seawater, a green mirror of al ders and evergreens. Though the ‘ , , main dwelling and sheds are gone, , an old apple tree struggles for light > through the undergrowth. And, in the c woods, a thick layer of moss forms fJ_ rounded cushions along the old ) •Bute Inlet housepath, made of cemented stones c’ ‘. S0dN to last forever, nearly, by three en Th\4• 4 lightened, industrious brothers.

Ufll.4 The author; a US citizen has been F Ba cruising B.C. west coast for over ‘a.’ T,flft. forty years. She has written over a Ladt,rn_ hundred articles for boating and travel magazines, including many on c campfire cookery. This story of the Leask brothers took considerable in genuity to research and we thank this Bainbridge Island residentfor shar Bute Inlet - Leask Brothers ing berfindings with us.

FOOTNOTES bringing on further blindness from a about twenty miles from Edinburgh. 1. Letter from Maizie Rannie to Mortensen, Nov. 30, blow to the head. Already crippled him With them came a trunk of treasured 1994. self, Alfred crawled to his rescue, belongings including a lynx fur, a wal 2. Letter, Rannie to Mortensen, March 19, 1994. 3. Ibid. splinting his legs with kinding and torn rus tusk and a large volume of wild ani 4. Letter, Rannie to Mortensen, May 24, 1994. clothing.22 mals of North America. Later, Alfred was 5. Noted, Jean crerar, May, 1994. 6. Ibid, p. 4. The two old Orkneymen were found to buy his niece Jean the book All About 7. Ibid, p. 3. by a chance visitor, possibly Kelsey Animals by Lydia Gaff and “put a check 8. Rannie letter, March 19, 1994, P. 3. 9. AntIc, John, “Memoirs ofJohn Antle” 1905-36, p. 25/6. Moore who sometimes delivered sup mark by all the North American ones, 10. Diary, Olaf Holtz, campbell River Archives # 77-52, plies to remote cabins and lumber marking PUMA ‘cougar’ in his own firm Oct. 30, 1914. camps. They were ferried to the hospi writing.” He delighted in his nieces’ and 11. Parker, Marion & Tyrell, Robert, Rumrunner, Orca Book Publishers, Victoria B.C., 1988, p. 148. tal at Powell River where their injuries nephew’s projects and urged them into 12. Phone interview, Brimacombe, Bert, March 18, and condition of near starvation was new endeavors they hadn’t contem 1994. 13. Letter, Rannie to Mortensen, May 24, 1994, p. 4. found to be so serious that their return plated. Alexander’s children have fond 14. Johnson, Lukin, Beyond the Rockies, London, to Fawn Bluff was unthinkable. Kelsey memories, especially of the wonderful Dent, 1929, p. 63. 15.Ibid. Moore sent a telegram to nephew Alex stories the uncles told in broad Orkney 16. Phone Interview, Snellgrove, Barbara, March 24, ander Leask, then residing outside of accents. While Henry’s voice seemed 1994. Edinburgh. Al more cultured or New 17. Anderson, Doris, The Columbia is Coming!, It read only, “Come. with a London Gray’s Publishing, Ltd. sidney, B.C. 1982. fred.”23 Zealand influence, Alfred’s speech was 18. Crerar, notes, p. 5. Alexander left immediately, arriving in “more jerky, excited, enthusiastic.”25 19. Rannie, letter, Nov. 30, 1994. 20. Pinkerton, Kathrene, Three’s A Crew, Horsdal & early June to fetch his uncles back to Following cataract surgery later in Schubart Publishers, Ltd., Ganges, B.C., 1991, p. their homeland. They travelled across 1934, eighty-three year old Henry died. 114. (A praam was a type of dinghy, a small rowboat). Canada by train and lounged in special Alfred, permanently crippled from the 21. Crerar, notes. “gyroscopic hospital beds” aboard the accident at Fawn Bluff, remained with 22. Scotsman, June 25, 2934. Duchess of Bedford 23. Rannie, May 24, 2994, p. 4. during their At the family until Alexander’s wife Nettie 24. Scotsman, June 25, 1934. lantic passage.24 became ill. He next went to live with 25. Crerar, notes. Alexander settled the pair at his small other relatives, the Tom Robertson fam 26. Ibid, p. 5. farm, Mayfield, Drem, East Lothian, ily of Edinburgh. Though the gregari

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 26 How British Columbia Got Its Roads by Winston A. Shilvock

British Columbia is one of munication trail crossing it. the most atrocious pieces of The country was now begin real estate on the North Ameri ning to open up. Transporta can continent when it comes tion of goods on a large scale to building trails, roads and was available from south to railways. north over the Cariboo Wagon For decades the rugged Road and smaller amounts mountains and rivers rushing could be moved from west to through narrow gorges de east by mule train over the terred such men as Alexander Dewdney Trail. Mackenzie and Simon Fraser These two arteries laid the from establishing any kind of groundwork for the network trade route, by land or water. of roads that would eventually It wasn’t until 1826 when the encompass the entire prov 1-ludson’s Bay Company, fol ince. lowing a path explored by Vancouver Island had been David Stuart in 1811-12, laid formed into a Crown Colony out the Fur Brigade Trail. Furs in 1849; in 1858 New Caledo were collected from all over nia became a Crown Colony New Caledonia (northern B.C.) and in 1866 both were united at Fort Alexandria and sent by as the Crown Colony of Brit pack horse south through ish Columbia. Five years later, Kamloops and the Okanagan Edgar Dewdney, roadbuildcr andfuture lieutenant-governor in 1871, this unit entered the Valley to Fort Okanogan where ofBritish Columbia. Keeping all-British routes to the gold Dominion of Canada as the fields basic they were shipped by canoe was to the colonial governments control ofBritish Columbia. Dewdney was a chieffigure in building the trails Province of British Columbia down the Columbia River to and roads that connected the coast with the mushrooming on the understanding that a Fort Vancouver. mining towns ofthe interior trans-continental railway Pack horses were changed would be built to link east and at Kamloops and that place became the In 1859, coincidental with this activ west. first major trading centre in the interior. ity, gold was discovered at Rock Creek After blasting its way through several This was the beginning of routes opened on the Canada-U.S. border just east of mountain chains the Canadian Pacific up for commercial purposes. the Okanagan Valley. The following year Railway reached Vancouver in 1887 and In 1858 gold was discovered on the hordes of miners rushed in and supply great things were looked for. Most of Fraser River at Yale and some 30,000 ing and collecting taxes from them be the 36,000 odd provincial population men stampeded into the area. When came a problem. was centred at the coast with a concen they tried to follow the river north the Although he was desperately short of tration of economic activity being car hazardous canyon proved a major ob money, James Douglas charged Edgar ried on there. stacle so Governor James Douglas built Dewdney to build a four-foot-wide mule By 1912 the population of the prov a 100-mile trail from the top of Harrison trail from Fort Hope on the Fraser River ince was about 400,000, a number that Lake to Lillooet on the Fraser River and over the rugged Cascade Mountains and began to demand more lines of com from there to Clinton, meeting with a though the Similkameen Valley to Rock munication. In 1914 the Grand Trunk trail to the Cariboo. Creek. The objective was reached in the Pacific Railway was built across north So great was the influx of miners need fall of 1861. ern B.C. and the Canadian Northern ing supplies that this trail soon proved It wasn’t long, however, before an Railway tapped the north and ran south inadequate. To meet this need, in 1860, other problem arose. In 1863 gold was to reach Vancouver in 1915. Both these Douglas ordered the building of a found at Wild Horse Creek, far to the lines proved unprofitable and in 1922 wagon road through the canyon and east through rough, uncharted country. they merged to form the Canadian Na north to Barkerville. This stupendous job Dewdney was again called upon to con tional Railway with terminals at Prince was completed in 1864 and for the first tinue his trail from Rock Creek to Fort Rupert and Vancouver. time the interior was opened up for the Steele. When work was completed in The boundary country in the south large scale movement of supplies and September, 1865, the southern part of was also opened up. In 1916 the Kettle equipment. the country had a narrow, 290-mile corn- Valley Railway was built from Midway

27 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 ______

to Princeton to Hope where it linked pressways came into being. They were City of Vancouver had the parochial idea up with the CPR. Rail lines to the east blacktopped for speed and smooth rid that they were the sum total of every were brought in and B.C. had transpor ing and commerce expanded rapidly. thing. Jumping Jehoshaphat, we made tation across the south into Alberta. The government soon became known the province of British Columbia! We While the railway activity was going as the “Blacktop Government.” With wanted highways in places where there on little attention was given to roads. road expansion came a need for im was absolutely nobody because we By 1900 it’s been estimated there were proved and new bridges and 1955 be knew that they would be arteries that only 1000 miles of roads and trails, came known as the “Year of the Bridges.” would carry the wheels of industry to mostly trails. By any standard the roads Cece Bennett considered the B.C. ferry all the four corners of the province. And were pretty crude affairs to which I can system which ran to Vancouver Island that’s what they did.” personally vouch. as part of the highways and it took only But more was to come. For several In the mid 1930’s going by car through two decades to build a fleet of two years people in the Okanagan Valley had the Fraser Canyon was a scary ride. The dozen ships which became known as agitated for a shorter, faster route to the road was narrow and at various inter “Bennett’s Navy.” The system was effi coast than the long drive to Kamloops, vals an indent was made in the canyon cient and quickly became known as”.. Cache Creek and down the Fraser River wall where a car could pull over to let the world’s largest and best run ferry to Hope, or through Washington State. another pass. The road base was gravel service.” and one had to be careful not to skid During the first six over the edge and fall into the canyon years of the Bennett below. Since there were no guard rails regime more money many drivers did just that. was spent on roads, Even in the early 1950’s a trip on gravel bridges and ferries roads from Kelowna to Prince George than during the entire required 12 hours of hard driving and history of the prov on almost every occasion a windshield ince to date. The ef had to be replaced when it was smashed fect was to create a by rocks thrown up from passing trucks. boom such as had This was the condition of roads never been seen be throughout the whole interior until 1952. fore. That year W.A.C. Bennett was elected Phil Gaglardi suc premier of B.C. and chose Phil Gaglardi cinctly summed it up from Kamloops as his minister of high when he stated, ways. It took these two men from the “When we became interior to grasp the necessity of open government the prov ing up the hinterland to large-scale re ince of British Colum source development. bia stopped at the A frenzy of road construction soon Pattullo bridge: the Narrow began and it was everywhere. Site ofopening ofRogers Pass road by Premier WAC Bennett roads were widened and four-lane ex onJuly 31, 1962. 19km east ofRevel.stoke.

A ten-horsefreighter on the Cariboo Road circa 1864.

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 28 In 1949 a tortuous road, following in except to improve and maintain our part the old Dewdney Trail, was opened wonderful system of roads. between Hope and Princeton. A good The dreams of British Columbia’s two two-lane road was later built through great road builders, Sir James Douglas the West and East Kootenays to the Al and the Honorable W.A.C. Bennett, have berta border and became Highway 3. come to pass. British Columbia has be For about two decades a miserable come the fastest growing area in Canada road called the Big Bend had followed and there seems to be no end in sight. the Columbia River north from Golden to Mica Creek and south to Revelstoke. Only the very hardy traveller made the trip. Most opted to ship their vehicles by rail from Golden to Revelstoke. In the mid 1950’s Premier Bennett decided that if the interior of B.C. was to attract immigrants a proper road must be made available for people to travel easily from east of the Rockies. He ca joled the federal government into co operating and in 1958 the task of constructing a 92-mile road from Golden to Revelstoke was begun. The going was tough and it took four year, but on July 31, 1962, Premier Bennett cut the rib \ç bon and an estimated 7,000 people streamed over the Rogers Pass. It was like opening a flood-gate and in the years that followed hundreds of thousands of people drove the road and the population of the interior especially in the southern half, soared. Phil Gaglardi had built a good speed- road from Vancouver to Hope to Cache Map showing Indian Trails. Creek to Kamloops to Revelstoke and with this final link, Highway No. 1, the Trans-Canada Highway came into be ing. The population in the southern inte rior grew and grew and demand accel erated for a shorter, faster route to the coast other than the Kamloops-Hope or Hope-Princeton roads. Like his father, premier Bill Bennett understood the needs of the interior and during his ten-year tenure (1975-85) he constructed the four-lane Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt to Kamloops to link up with the Trans Canada (No. 1) and Yellowhead (No. 5) highways. This didn’t solve the demands of the Okanagan Valley residents, so in 1990, during the term of premier Bill Vander Zalm, “The Connector” was built to give access from Peachland to the Coquihalla at Merritt. Today access has been given to al most every populated centre in the prov ince and there isn’t much left to do

29 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995

Historical B.C. News 1995 30 Summer -

some the on the on and was

snow sides around looking Mary, for heard she her

1926 the of fall in

operations these

There on. were going morning when was Ursula wandering

The Route Wragge Robertson

Motor -

for too and Ursula while Mary warm the in pretty crude were hotel next and

that curtains be could none was up, put ahead. toilet The facilities like such and

which car, open an was side Ford appreciated with very were much the in days

and the Robertson road down The bank. car. the in ing may I open these say items

by little slid little off until be could it the such and was as like, quite it driv chilly

heading was along down was hill, eased for ping long undies, heavy wool gloves

half about hour’s an the work which tree, oldest the B.C., in hotel went and shop

ing, and here and after now there, now Hotel Clinton “Cariboo the of Rush” days,

pry had and me and Hugh and heaving Clinton. to on We the at stayed old

situation the over. he Then charge took entered we Cariboo the and road drove

was ner to tight too and looked move, of miles few Cache east Creek, where

loggers driver The in his out, got part it. time on wall old the ranch, Cornwall a

behind up with us drunken two to Swede Ashcroft stopped we Mrs. visit Corn

late. quite “oh Then, joy”, pulled a but truck very and dusty leaving After dry.

place ing be could getting found, us for and Cariboo started road then, rough

a winding back to road until turn down Ashcroft. to The drove we on real

across solidly the icy an dry road! axe, No bone a as sage of full and so brush,

turn, or back came we tree real a on the tried course but there, golf was it

where ner, almost to was it to impossible went then Vernon. on That we day

road and a winding cor around then the at golf little nice course and very

ran we part and ice into narrow a where the very morning following played we

got weather colder on and highest the next The drove we day to Kelowna,

off As again. were the climbed we from over Rossland. ing with inwards mosquito on netting

we and trouble no had a in had and not moving car single the on it room Our passed one had way open window, small

take to tree out! it smallish a was there When Well we it but after we dark days, arrived and clean good with meals.

water of pail tighten to forgot and up, ahead gone down us it Grand to Forks. of unchanged was tel from coach stage the

head and loose put a in was had he truck the of weaving it tracks done. which 150-Mile had 1-b- was nothing House

axe”! ‘no then He remembered the that further road he but we as on, followed it tor the and thought nothing of

he when discovered wise the drain to radia

to

axe the get

to cut it be might Hugh that it & Mary Robertson; Wragge LC Wragge Ursula Goif Vernon at Course.

and road got Hugh out ing, so to I suggested

a tree small across the some was sort brew

road Hump to came we looked storm a like of

a miles few gone the on 150 Mile and House it

road). we After had at stop next Our was

Cascade wagon City !! ciable arrangement

(the Hump infamous so washroom a quite -

and road the the same of corner the over

headed Rossland to off partly partitioned off

month therefore we Mary in was a who

trip. joint in Early the a on with conversation

Cariboo on Country a carrying

basin the and

/ ‘:

them to up with the old an at

shaving timer

/

//

like go to would we she door, a on came

asked us Robertson if on and sound opening

and Mary Hugh following and the

1926 In of October to talking someone

by C. Edmund Wragge

1926 to the Cariboo -

Motoring From Nelson it, and in the morning when we woke the very greasy road runs up it was pitch dark and when I got up down the bank of the Fraser I found the window full of snow which to a lower level, we took a had banked up against the netting. very nasty skid and just When Hugh went to the car he found avoided going over into the the radiator frozen and what more he river. That night we stopped could not tell, nor whether it had burst at Quesnel which we all found or not! However, after cranking for some quite attractive.

I Picnic lunch at Lac La Hacbe, 1926 time he got the engine to start and ran From Ashcroft to Soda Creek it for a minute or so before steam came we had been in pretty rolling from the radiator. Then by feeding snow cattle country and admired at Knocking the icy mud offcar on the Cariboo Road in to the radiator the engine began to run tractive Lac la Hache, and now Septeinbet 1926 for longer and longer periods. It looked were getting into a more tim on the road. I got out and walked to as if the radiator and engine were intact bered country, out of the gumbo and wards him to take a snap but when he so we started off, running for a quarter onto sandy gravel roads and we could began to wave his head around I took of a mile and then feeding more snow, speed up, though when Hugh did this my picture and retreated to the car. The then half a mile for additional snow, and on gravel Mary always sat down on the fall is the mating season when the bull then everything was all well again. Af floor where she felt safer! moose is “Monarch of all he surveys” ter that the radiator was drained at night. The following day we drove from and brooks no trespassers! In those days there was no antifreeze Quesnel to Prince George which we did Our next day saw us on the Barkerville and cars were not what they are today. not think much of. Spent the night there, road, passing on the way a farm where There was not too much snow but we saw Pete Wilson, a former Nelson City two moose were feeding in a meadow were now in the gumbo country and Solicitor, and then back to Quesnel. On with three or four horses. This was quite going down hill to Soda Creek where the way down we saw our first moose an interesting road as we passed a number of the old placer camps like Stanley, also places where some placers were still being worked in a small way. We arrived in Barkerville and went to the old original log hotel which we were told was un changed from the sixties when it was built. Meals were served at a long table as they always had been the piano, which had been packed in during the golden days, was still there, and some beautiful glass that no doubt had come around the Horn by sail, was still to be seen. The room we had was quite a good size. My bed was by an inside wall and Ursu’s by the outside log wall. In the morning Ursu could hardly get up as she was very cold during

31 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 the night and now had a bad attack of all of whom had been in Barkerville for bank, where Mary Robertson sat on lumbago. There was snow at Barkerville quite a long time but none going back the floor of the car, not because of when we arrived and it was quite cold to the boom days. The next day we the gravel surface, but so as not to and when Ursu was out of bed you drove up Antler Creek and were shown see the sort of tight rope road we could see out onto the snowy street over the Placer Development Company were driving on. where the chinking had come out from dredge, quite interesting but they were From Lytton we drove down the between the logs!! The next day we not doing as well as they hoped as when Fraser Canyon, a poor road but called on a brother of Al Tregillus of they got down to bed rock they found beautiful drive, before all the tim Nelson and were received with open where the old timers had tunnelled and ber had been logged and the mod arms. He invited us to his home that taken the cream off about sixty years ern highway had scarred the evening to meet some of the few old ago. A nice drive back to Quesnel, pretty hillsides. time residents still there. This was some country by Devils Lake and Jack of Clubs After a night at Chilliwack and a day in Vancouver we headed south for Seattle but stopped for the night at Bellingham as there was quite a lot of traffic and car lights in those days could not be dimmed, and driving into a glaring string of lights was far from pleasant. After a short stop in Seattle we drove over the Snoqualmie and Blewett Passes, through very pretty Cashmere Val ley to Wenatchee and then on to Spokane where we stayed over night at Davenport and had a very nice, if expensive, double suite, and home the next day. We had a most interesting trip Cottonwood River Bridge, 1926 and, with the exception of the snow years before reef gold mining was started Lake and nice weather. storm in the Cariboo, had wonder in the camp and the only real placer The next day was a long one back to ful weather all the time and of mining being carried on was by Placer Clinton as the road was in terrible shape, course got lots of pictures along the Industries dredge on Antler Creek and the car sinking to the hubs in gumbo way. some small workings here and there. Tregillus arranged with a real old timer named Joel Stevens, to take us up Williams Creek, passing a number of the old workings, to show us the first cabin built on the creek and to the old Court House where there were still old printed forms of one sort or another scattered around. The building was not in bad shape though it had not been used for a good many years. The valley of Williams Creek is now a conglomera tion of boulders, largely brought up by the old miners when sinking shafts and tunnelling along bed rock, where the placer gold, owing to its greater weight, Hugh & Mary Robertson with E.C Wragge, at Cottonwood Rive, 1926 had been concentrated. We also drove Edmund Wragge was a lawyer in down to see the old cemetery, which for miles on end and arriving well after Nelson from 1899 - till the late was very interesting as most of the dark and glad to be there! 196O. He was assisted in writing names on the memorials could still be The following day, instead of going his memoirs at age 93. He died in made out, one described as ‘Overlander south the way we had come, we headed 1972 at age 99. We have been from the East, having been one of those south west over Pavilion Mountain to granted permission to print this who came by way of Edmonton, the the Fraser River Valley and Lillooet and excerpt from his memoirs by his Yellowhead Pass and the Fraser River. Lytton. The road, if it could be called daughters, Mrs. j Cannon of West We had a very interesting evening with one, was a one-way track, very twisty Vancouver and Mrs. Aloise Cameron Mr. and Mrs. Tregillus and their friends, and near the edge of the cliff or river ofOttawa.

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 32 B.C.H.F. Conference 1995

The Chilliwack Museum and Histori liament (Curator of Kilby Store & Farm); the winners of the 1994 Writing Compe cal Society hosted delegates from twenty and “The Restoration of Fort Langley tition. Chair Pamela Mar asked President organizations across the province for an Historic Kitchen Garden” by Wendy Alice Glanville to present the Lieutenant- enjoyable May weekend. Visitors were Johannes. The afternoon concluded with Governor’s Medal to Tom Henry for The welcomed by Major John Les, Society displays by Sto:lo artisans. For 10 minute Good Company; An Affectionate His President Fred Friesen and Museum intervals visitors learned about tory of the Union Steamships. Henry Director Ron Denman. A crisp and beadworking, bannock making, raffia acknowledged Art Twigg as the collector cheerful commentary with a slide show basketry, weaving, cedar root baskets, of the material and thanked many others gave listeners “A Brief History of drum making, playing a traditional game for supporting his preparation of this Chilliwack.” Attendees then selected and mask carving. Modern carvers must book. R.G. “Bob” Harvey was honored three of six presentations by district her start by making their own set of carving for his Coast Connections and Aif Bayne itage specialists. The topics offered were tools while the resulting masks can be for A Candle on the Coast. Best Article “The Euro-American in Sto:lo History” used to illustrate a parable or legend. Winner, Lesley Cooper of Victoria, re by Keith Carlson; “Land Beneath the The Heritage Singers, under the lead ceived recognition in absentia because Lake: The Sumas Lake Story” by Lynn ership of Jean Scott (winner of the Gov she was busy at a Cub Camp. Gordon Wright; “The Mountain Project” by Neil ern-General’s Person Award in 1990) Mitchell earned many a chuckle during Granger; “Clayburn Village: Preserving entertained at the Friday luncheon while his introductions as M.C. Then the after a Company Town” by Lynn Wright; the Chilliwack Community Band played dinner speaker Andreas Schroeder in “Forest, Farms and Floods: The Chang during the prelude to the Saturday Ban voked smiles, giggles and side-splitting ing Life of Harrison Mills” by Bob Par- quet. Two busloads of sightseers were roars of laughter as he described the real conducted through Chilliwack and estate deals, 6 mile railway, and small Rosedale to the lovely Minter Gardens. pox quarantine in his “Outrageous Sto Saturday afternoon was devoted to busi ries from the History of Mission.” ness at the Annual General Meeting. All Thanks to the organizers. They deserve officers remain the same. a medal for the well balanced program The Awards Banquet was attended by with a very happy conclusion.

Neil Granger - who visited local mountains namedfor servicemen lost in WWII.

Andreas Schroeder - After Dinner Speaker May 6 1995

An attentive audience - including Tony & Mrs. Farr Mary Rawson, Barry Cotton & Wayne Desrocbers.

33 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 1995 Annual General Meeting ofthe R C. Historical Federation

President Alice Glanville ran a most ety is now in the Dogwood/CHIN Index. moting Rails to Trails in B.C.. efficient meeting in the Fraser Room of Arrow Lakes Historical reports progress Chemainus Historical Society has cus the Rainbow Inn in Chilliwack. Treasurer on Volume 3 of their history; it will fea tody of the Kuper Island cemetery. This Doris May reported a slight decrease in ture Arrowhead, Galena Bay, Comaplix cemetery has a central mound which membership as one society failed to re and Beaton. New volunteer staff has as marks the mass gravesite of Kuper Island new. Ron Welwood presented a planned sumed duties at the Nakusp Museum. native peoples massacred by raiding and BALANCED budget for the coming Kootenay Museum Society reported Haidas in the 1880’s; there are also year. Workshops funded by the new that Volume 1 of the History of Nelson is graves of 22 white settlers buried in later Canada’s National History Society will being produced by Oolichan Press; the years. add an extra day to the 1996 Conference. Forestry Launch Amabelis is being re Aldergrove Heritage Society has a few Pamela Mar reported on the 1994 Writ stored and a special exhibit on West copies left of its 600 page history book, ing Competition and advised us that Pixie Kootenay Loggers and Small Sawmills is selling at $55. McGeachie will chair the committee in now available for display in other muse Nanaimo registers 84 members cur future. Anne Yandle stated that seven ap ums. rently and Vancouver 185. plications for the scholarship have been District 69 have acquired more Craig Two major resolutions were passed. received and await adjudication. Tony family artifacts to add to their Museum Daphne Paterson urged all present to Farr reminded all Federation societies that complex at Craig Bay in Parksville. become “Advocates for Archives.” Ar their member subscriptions will increase Koksilah School Historical Society will chives are used increasingly by real es to (still a bargain price) $10 per year com hold a reunion for all former students on tate agents and general public. More than

mencing January 1,1996. August 29th - the date for opening the genealogists and researchers of history John Spittle gave us a satisfying mes displays in this renovated school. need accessible archives. The Provincial sage that the Church of St. Andrew the Surrey Historical Society has interested Government has been lobbied to pass Great in Cambridge, England has been high school students in volunteering to Archival Legislation (B.C. is the only saved from destruction or possible com interview pioneers for an oral history province in Canada without these guide mercial use; the Round Church raised project. lines.) £2,000,000 for remodelling and restora Victoria Historical has created a new Leonard McCann won a sympathetic tion to make it their place of worship. St. $500 scholarship for a student at the ear when he reported that Canadian Andrews holds a memorial to Captain University of Victoria. Recent guest Forces Base, Chilliwack was soon to James Cook, 1728-1779, the earliest re speakers included Peter Baskerville on close. The Military Museum at this base corded white visitor to Vancouver Island, “The Women of Victoria 1860-1916.” has been built for a B.C. audience. We and the grave of Mrs. Cook and two of and Robert Turner on the S.S. Moyie. must lobby each M.P and the Minister of their children. Alberni Historical Society members Defence to request that all exhibits remain

Some very interesting reports from work regularly in the Archives. They have in British Columbia .. . preferably in its branches were presented: been consulted by city council to suggest present building but if this is not possi Boundary Historical will hold its sum names of new streets in the expanding ble, transfer contents to some other ex mer picnic at Carmi on June 18. community. hibition area. Cowichan Historical reports that 8700 Princeton hosted a group of 26 mem Williams Lake is to host the 1996 Con came to the museum in Duncan, mainly bers of the Vancouver Paleontological ference April 26-28. Nelson will host the

during the summer of 1994. This Soci Club and are active in the research pro- 1997 Conference May 29 - June 1st.

A Mi & Mrs. Fougberg ofBowen Island WendyJobannes inperiodcósturne, Burnaby ,.k Roff with Helen Akrigg of Vancouver & Celesta talks ofher students and the andMa .gareiMatovicb. restoration ofthe Historic Kitchen Gardens at Fort Langley. PtiotosbyJohnSpittle

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 34 NEWS & NOTES

Nanaimo’s Adam Grant Home Columbia River History II ver. From the Cosgrove estate they were given a trunk containing WWI memorabila, 107 lbs. Adam Grant Home became storekeeper for the History buffs with particular interest in the of artifacts from the 6th Field Artillery Regiment Hudson’s Bay Company in 1852 in Nanaimo. Columbia Department of Hudson’s Bay which was commanded by Captain Cosgrove. He was one of those welcoming the new Company operations take note. There is to be arrivals on the Princess Royal in 1854. He symposium held at Fort Vancouver National married 19 year old Elizabeth Bate, sister of Historic Site on September 29-30 & October 1, the future mayor, Mark Bate, in February 1859. 1995. Actually the conference will be held in Stikine RiverSong Captain Charles Edward Stuart, chief HBC the Red Lion Inn at the Quay in Vancouver, Dan Pakula of Telegraph Creek happened to Factor in Nanaimo gave as a gift the family Washington. Those wishing more information start his subscription to The B.C. Historical Bible which is still extant. When the HBC left or registration forms should contact: News with the Winter 1994-95 edition. He read Nanaimo, Home built a store on the waterfront “Navigation on the Stikine River 1862-1969” Fur Trade Conference, Centre for Columbia opposite today’s Dorchester Hotel. In 1865 he with great concentration. He wrote to inform us River History, 802 C Officers Row, Vancouver, rejoined the HBC and served at the posts at that there are still boats navigating the River WA 98661. Telephone enquiries to: (360) 737- Port Simpson and then Comox. He returned to from Telegraph Creek to Wrangell. 2044. There are Nanaimo when the Comox post closed and two charter companies, Trina Anne Boat again opened a store; this time on Victoria Charters and on the bank of the Stikine River Crescent. He became an Alderman in 1886 his own RiverSong Boat Charters, plus local and was active in other aspects of community Haig Brown House and nonresident river users. The Stikine life. He died in 1901 and his wife passed away For those of you travelling on Vancouver Island RiverSong Cafe, Lodge and General Store in 1905. Adam and his wife had a large family. a treat awaits at the Roderick Haig-Brown operate out of a historic building, the renovated In 1994 the Nanaimo Historical Society property, now under the Heritage Properties Hudson Bay Post, built originally at Glenora a requested that the lane between Bastion Street Branch with Curator Jennifer Iredale supervis few miles down river. This was moved in 1903 and Wharf Street be named Adam Grant Home ing all activities. There is now a resident to its present location. Pakula has lived in Lane. On March 24, 1995 this became official. manager in the person of Kevin Brown who Telegraph Creek since 1975 and with his Almost 40 relatives of Adam Home attended has long been interested in educational partner David Fisher offers wilderness the ribbon cutting. This was followed by a party programs in heritage sites. There is a B&B exploration experiences from that base. in the Museum at which the present manager (bed & breakfast) for devotees of this literary Telegraph Creek used of the Hudson’s Bay Company cut the cake legend. The head gardener stayed on after to be as remote and inaccessible as Timbuktu but now is and publicized the HBC’s 325th birthday. (The Anne Haig-Brown relinquished the property. it possible to drive into this community by gravel road HBC came into being in May 1670). The party The Campbell River Museum is working very a off Highway 37 which goes through the top was attended by the Mayor, a few out of town closely with the documentation of books and of Mount Edziza Park. Anyone who guests, and about 70 citizens. artifacts held in the house. The fishing tackle would like to make reservations with RiverSong should collection is supervised by Ban Egan of the phone Kingfisher Creek Society. (604) 235-3196 or Fax (604) 235-3194. 1997 Conference in Nelson, B.C. For information or reservations call (604) 286- 6646 or write to: The Haig-Brown House May 29th - June 1st. Education Centre, 2250 Campbell River Road, This event will be a joint meeting with the Campbell River, B.C. V9W 4N7. Heritage Society of B.C.

Victoria Archaeology Post Costumes at Craigfiower The Canadiana Costume Museum & Archives Contact Era presents interpretation and displays of period Recently it was decided to examine a midden clothing at historic venues in Victoria. They created in 1891 close to the nursing wards and served in Helmcken House in the early part of kitchen of the earliest phase of the Royal this year. They have traditionally been at Jubilee Hospital. Most numerous items were Craigflower Farm House during the Christmas fragments of plain white dishes, cups and season and summer holidays. Starting with saucers but there were also fragments of weekends in May they will be representing the patterned dishes. Most of these fit the 1891 residents of the farmhouse then in the summer date of British manufactured ware. There were season they will also open Craigflower also Lea & Perrins Worcester sauce bottles, a Schoolhouse. marmalade jar, wine bottles, a dinner fork and The Canadiana Costume Museum is a a carving knife, plus a large Holland gin bottle. carefully supervised collector of clothing Medical items included several thermometers, artifacts. Anyone wishing to make a donation of medicine glasses, an inhaler and a great many historic garments should contact Mrs. Iris safety pins. Medicine bottles included patent Emerson, 1195 Portage Road, Victoria, B.C. medicines such as “Maltine a beef, iron and V8Z 1 L3. Phone: (604) 479-5202 or Gwen wine restorative.” Personal items included an Spearman at (604) 642-6953. ebony comb, brooch, brass thimble and parts of clay pipes. These collected items unearthed by the Victoria Archaeologists were shown to members of the Victoria Historical Society at a North Shore Field Artillery meeting. President Roy Pallant of the North Shore Historical Society and his wife visited Britain by Shirley Cuthbertson last fall. They made a point of contacting families of former residents of North Vancou

35 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 BOOKSHELF Books for review and book reviews should be sent directly to the Book Review Editor: Anne Yandle, 3450 West 20th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6S 1 E4

First in the Field; the pioneer years of and surveying, feasibility studies, contract plaining the most interesting parts of an Garden, Hermon, Burwell, Civil documents and site supervision, and, as interesting life, thoughtfully peppered with Engineers and Land Surveyors in the ever, good provincial and federal politi insights gained along the way. Province of British Columbia 1890- cal connections. While B.C. had a tremendous growth 1920. Burwell in particular was closely con spurt after the turn of the last century, By H. Barry Cotton, BCLS (ret’d) 180 nected with what became the Greater construction never really speeded up p., illus., index, paper cover. Salt Spring Vancouver Water District, designing the again until the 1950’s when this book Island, Cranberry Eclectics. (1994) systems for the Seymour and Capilano begins. Charles Ripley, recently gradu $20.00 plus $3 postage. Watersheds, the pipe crossings across the ated from the first soil mechanics school There are remarkably few books on the beds of the First and Second Narrows, in Canada, started his pioneering consult history of civil engineering in British Co and the balancing reservoirs at Stanley ing business in Vancouver in 1951 when lumbia. Fortunately, we now have Barry Park, Little Mountain, Vancouver Heights soil mechanics was essentially an un Cotton’s publication, which chronicles and Point Grey. Any movement of water known field, but nevertheless very rel British Columbia’s first big industrial ex interested the partners, whether sewers, evant to the business of heavy pansion, and the start of large scale natu dykes, ditches, flumes, pulp mills, placer construction. Thus the firm got work on ral resource extraction. This surge began mining or power development. many important construction projects, with the arrival of the Canadian Pacific On the land surveying side of their busi from the huge Aluminum Company Railway, 1887, and continued until the ness, apart from routine lot surveys and smelter project at Kitimat, to many of the end of the First World War. These three subdivision, the partners recorded the massive pulp mills, mines and dams that decades were the Garden, Hermon and “as-constructed” location of the Canadian form the basis of B.C.’s industrial Burwell years, when much of the early Pacific Railway across B.C., and numer economy today. infrastructure of British Columbia - par ous mineral claims and timber berths. It certainly is compulsory reading for ticularly Greater Vancouver, was put in Barry Cotton’s book gives us 27 pho any person associated with the business place. tos of personalities and projects of those of civil engineering and any student con Their names appear as civil or consult days, and extracts of 14 plans and maps sidering entering the field. You can’t get ing engineers and surveyors for such well made by the partnership. His book is rec information like this anywhere else. known local agencies as the British Co ommended to all those who would know Despite the occasional technical con lumbia Electric Railway and the Greater more of the early days of civil engineer tent of the book, the scope of the book is Vancouver Water District. All three men ing and land surveying in British Colum such that it will appeal to readers inter had graduated as civil engineers in On bia. ested in the post-war history of western tario; Hermon also as a mining engineer. R.C. Harris, PEng. Canada and in the realities of work life in To British Columbia, they each brought No. 2202 a growing B.C. company. commissions as Dominion Land Survey Leonoff skillfully touches on many in ors and Ontario Land Surveyors, which timate details of corporate life a lesser validated their work in B.C. until Provin A Dedicated Team: Klohn Leonoff writer would not have dared to explore. cial Land Surveyors were authorized in Consulting Engineers 1951-1991. For example, he carefully explains how 1891. Garden, Hermon and Burwell was Cyril Leonoff. Vancouver, B.C., Klohn Ripley, Klohn, Leonoff, founded by the only firm to be authorized as Provin Leonoff, 252 p., illus. $49.95 (available Ripley, prematurely became Klohn cial Land Surveyor. All other entries were from BiTech Publishers, 11860 Hammer- Leonoff. In explaining Ripley’s early de as individuals. smith Way, Richmond, B.C. V7A 5G1 parture, he quotes Ripley’s three reasons, Civil and other professional engineers (277-4250) $50. goes on to offer three of his own and con formed a self-governing association in Would you think a book about the his cludes “As it is with most people, 1920. H.M. Burwell was a founding tory of a local consulting engineering firm [Ripley’s] greatest asset sometimes led to member, registration No. 10. Barry Cot written by an engineer could possibly be his greatest liability. His profound inter ton, BCLS, as one of the partnership that a good read? I didn’t Which goes to show est in integrity and quality contributed to inherited Garden, Hermon and Burwell’s you how wrong we can be! what some employees believe was a cer records, is uniquely positioned to describe Cyril Leonoff’s secret is the use of his tain lack of business acumen.” their activities. candor and intelligence to broaden the For long-term B.C. residents the story For the B.C. Electric Railway, Buntzen telling of a corporate history to encom telling will doubtless range over some (Trout) Lake was harnessed for hydro pass the more intriguing human aspects memorable moments of their own per electric power in 1903, then in 1905 of the story. sonal histories. Describing field work in water from Coquitlam Lake augmented Reading this book evokes an image of the 1950’s, Leonoff quotes an employee: Buntzen Lake via a 2-mile tunnel. These siffing in front of an after dinner fire and “when you got up the Fraser Canyon projects required topographic mapping listening to a revered grandparent ex there was actually one stretch around a

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 36 BOOKSHELF vertical cliff where you went out on a you prefer), and be back Sun credit for, he caught not only the ascetic wooden boardwalk that had been built day night. Bright sunlight and urge, but the human element: “charac hanging out over the edge of the cliff.” fine dry air up there are the right ters” with names like Podunk, Buck, and Similarly a ferry from Nanaimo to Horse holiday change for anyone liv Brass Jaw; the Depression as seen from shoe Bay in a winter storm is forced back ing on the Coast You can ride Princeton and the rails; friends in the to Nanaimo after eight hours of rolling horseback, drive around in cars, Chilcotin; and the spirit of our West con seas and sliding furniture. fish, picnic and wear old clothes, trasted with the spirit of the Western A Dedicated Team contains a wealth all in completely different sur States. of career and business anecdotes. The roundings. With three days for This is a timely little book. It’s about writer makes a point of describing as your weekend trip instead of our past, and the past of our land. It’s much as he can about the family history two, you can reach the great also about our future, and the human and background of each of the main play open region above 6,000 feet, reasons for looking after our land: ers, their strengths and weaknesses, and with scenery equal to the world’s I lit a small fire and toasted the their context in the scheme of things. We best — real unspoiled old-time wholewheat bread that, with observe the career developments of a fas West. Take two or three days warm water, made my supper. cinating variety of individuals, including more (as in a summer vacation) The stars came out bigger and secretaries and draftsmen. We see the and you can travel the alpine more brilliant than when seen importance of this firm’s close association meadows at 7,000 to 8,000 feet. from lower country. I sat in my with Karl Terzaghi “the father of soil me We can still enjoy that high “great open shirtsleeves brooding over space chanics, the unchallenged leader in the region” and “scenery equal to the world’s and stars and dark looming stu world.” We follow the company through best” — thanks to Martin Grainger. Histo pendous mountains, with a lump growing pains, through years of losing rians Jean Barman and George Wood in my throat at the magnificence money, through economic slumps and cock mention him as a handlogger whose of it all. All I remembered of the changing circumstances to the present novel Woodsmen of the West (1908) agitated city life 100 miles away Klohn-Crippen, a successful firm of 350 yields invaluable source material. But he and far below shrivelled to pin employees in five Canadian cities doing was also one of the drafters of British Co point size. That is one reason work around the world. lumbia’s first comprehensive forestry leg why I make these mountain This book is a unique, quality product. islation (1910), Chief Forester of British trips, it cools one’s mind. It contains many photographs, many foot Columbia (1916-1920), a manager of the notes, a glossary of technical terms and Alberni-Pacific mill, and a lumber tycoon Phyllis Reeve series of organizational charts (but for with an office in Vancouver. Most impor Phyllis Reeve is a co-editor of Witness to some reason, no index). It is a rare shar tant, at least for the purposes of this book, Wilderness: the Clayoquot Sound Anthology ing of a life spent in a major sector of the he was a major lobbyist for the preserva (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1994). B.C. economy about which there are few tion of the Hope-Princeton mountain books of any kind. It is a good read. country, later named Manning Park after Bruce Macdonald another Chief Forester, and for its access Bruce Macdonald is a Vancouver by highway. Reflections: Thompson Valley researcher and writer. On weekends he travelled by the Ket Histories. tie Valley Line from Vancouver to where Wayne Norton and Wilf Schmidt, eds. his horses waited to take him over the Kamboops, Plateau Press, 1994. 198 p., old Skyline Trail. On the way home, he illus. $16.95 (P0. Box 283, Kamboops, Riding the Skyline, wrote the letters and essays which Peter B.C. V2C 5K6) M.Allerdale Grainger. Edited by Peter Murray has collected into an attractive The collection of essays, Reflections: Murray. Victoria, B.C., Horsdal and volume exactly the right size for a Thompson Valley Histories accomplishes Schubart, 1994. 118 p., illus. $22.95 backpack (or the arm of a garden chair). what the editors set out to do, namely, to No true British Columbian is ever en If he were a poet, Grainger said, he would draw attention to an era of British Co tirely an urbanite. Our mountains are al write of: lumbia where the writing of history has ways within reach and our forests not far the ascetic urge, the ceaseless been largely neglected up to now. away. In 1928 Martin Grainger took time effort to reduce food and cover Kamboops has always been the centre of from his business hustle to write to the ing to their bare essentials (so as research, while the smaller surrounding Province and his fellow Vancouverites: to travel light), the perception of communities such as Savona, Barriere You can take the train out of elegant simplicities, as in going and Chase have rarely been mentioned. town any Friday evening, have to bed on hard ground under The twenty-seven articles included in two great days east of the moun neath a tree by the mere act of this volume have historical information tains on trails, sleeping in camp, taking off one’s boots. about fifteen locations from Lytton to shack, ranch or hotel (whichever More of a poet than he gave himself Chase and Kamboops to Blue River, in

37 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995

Historical B.C.

News Summer 1995 38 -

in Books, 1994.

Thomson Dr.

has

in-

“home”, they why had forgetting left peasant is of”. master stubborn And Old

through his

local own

company,

Godwin

never had had, really dream going of his hand any to the of crafts good a that

ver, edited n republished and

the

novel

homeland, past a romanticise htthey that vives because could he also “turn skilfully

nephew, S.

Robert

Thomson

Vancou of

ones fail who adapt to pine a for lost knows who to buy enough cow, a sur

Appleton’s

New of

City;

York

his

grand

successful only to adapt if they reality; the Johansson, jack a all of a trades, realist

first and

published

it

1929 in

through

Canada. Once they happy are here and does necessarily not succeed elsewhere.

Valley

Fraser

between

and 1912

1916

of parts the States, in United eastern another but frontier returns because he

novel his Eternal The

the in

Forest

Lower

London land’s Manchester, or various in less, Olsen Kurt temporarily takes to off

The

Englishman George

Godwin

set

Sweden in or Italy, Norway or Eng in hemmed when in, feeling anxious rest or

$19.95

paper.

indefinable in the something homeland, them in of full salmon. When feeling

$29.95 B.C.

ver, V6B 4A4)

- cloth hemmed been and in restricted by an nets their the into Fraser and when haul to

P0.

Godwin

Books,

Box 4781, Vancou

they had had not because

had they it brothers who exactly know how cast to

p.

Books,

1994.

320

(available from

thing had they had and not feeling efficient that to logger, like men Olson the

S. Robert

Thomson.

Vancouver,

Godwin

have someplace left search in of some frontier goes to man the action, of to the

George by

Stanley Godwin. Edited by

restless, often troublesome people who frontier. eknows He that respect on the

The

Eternal

Forest,

Valley is up also made of adventurous, Protestant not or all is important on the -

communities,

in the

one this Lower Godwin Fraser

knows that the okethic work -

depicting the of frontier. Like such most they live.

University B.C. of real The this of strength novel in is rations, its and about frontier the which on

Librarian Fine Emerita, libraryç Arts erate, brutal, crude though he may be. them, about their natures their and aspi

Dwyer, Melva of ity the well-adjusted country man, each illit meeting later learn bit a about more

region particular. in sinful city which destroys true the nobil meet ers people the one a at at time, and

history local the and Thompson Valley pig or spring, the rain, of sound and the of post office. the Like Newcomers, read

are who interested British Columbia’s scriptions in landscapes of or the small of arrival who usthe runs store general and the

collection This be will welcome all to many wildly romantic 19th-century de late salesman, and real-estate Blanchard

photo reproduction. of nings so many chapters, and with those London, then England, Bob always- the

a fhigh of for work quality both text and those with florid passages at begin the Preedy, the station agent homesick for

use The cluded. gloss of paper produces low. modem A also reader difficulty has they stepped the from train, first Tom

cession numbers, available, if are in not season to and year year difficult to to fol munity by one one as natural in order

of collection the is Individual given. ac that ries he makes moving from season search there of and land the meet com

complete, since the only location or name tell to these fairly standard western sto Ferguson’s Landing (Port Haney) in

of photographs the be little a could nately more so Godwin takes often couple, much time “The Newcomers”, at arrive

siderably to the text. The a identification in gold brothel Vancouver. in Unfortu The central characters, an unnamed

accompanies article each which con adds when a meeting a whore with of heart forgotten city.”

of A selection well-chosen other, photographs the comes parson who senses his to “rooted the in fast shattered a of money

elsewhere. who separate eventually but find each wealthy upstart metropolis, be would

local giving information unobtainable of lines of murder, the young the eventually couple over triumph the decadent but

assisted the authors by their in research Godwin carefully introduces h story the the anti-city view that eternal would forest

lived lives their the in region. hyhave They the in life Valley this in century. early epresents he century 19th the Romantic

r frequently are made who people have clave to ink the 1840’s, gives it a going to picture of to Vancouver property, his sell

and cles includes footnotes, the references a her picture in life of Ontario rural beside the At en end the this river. of novel,

edgements fe the after which appears Moodie’s arti in it the Roughing with Bush home, and had failed adjust to in bush the

the and section In on sources acknowl because, read reminiscent Susanna of had ignored opportunities at offered

des substantiate this. social the the of in area history perhaps, should had changed and jobs positions,

about authors the which follow arti the theless one every that person major interested here, character Godwin himself

part province. the of biographies Short this is novel great a not one, is but that think people city never did The them in.

searching the this history pages. 320 of interesting as Finely crafted may it be, in failed now city the mistrust city the and

have They realized of the photographs, importance re for new, a and old to total of their environment. new Those who

region the of rapidly. to began extracts increase Godwins from journal, and ity to many also often adjust. They to fail adjust

World since the War when II couver, population including Sapperton, moved footnotes, escape wyto away their own inabil

individuals the into who area moved have from Hammond Ruskin Port to to cut it and civilisation Van and in who have

The authors the of map a articles of often are the of the side north are up made River Fraser misfits, of of people unable

the has largest number articles. of of raphy Godwin himself In (1889-1974), all one sense frontier communities

Thompson Valleys. by Kamloops again Here tion George Woodcock, short a biog “home” they never had known.

words, other South and the cluded North a contents, an table of home introduc in and a creating their minds BOOKSHELF BOOKSH ELF

Anderson knows how and where to build idealistic: always optimistic, everything for Columbians to think about how much a solid house and why to build it exactly sale, powered by every money-making their society has changed over the past where he does build it. Such work-con idea that comes along - land speculation ninety years. scious people, both men and women, or the possibility of oil discoveries across Gordon R. Elliott. succeed in the world in which they live; the river or gold farther north, or money Gordon Elliott is a member of the Heggerty and others who do nothing, and in shingles or strawberries. From his read Vancouver Historical Society can do nothing, fail, are losers. ing, Old Man Dunn knows that frontiers On the other hand the work-conscious men with such boom or bust mentalities Vancouver Voters 1886; frontier is certainly not Puritanical in its eventually fail, and those who do succeed a biographical dictionary. attitude toward any intellectual life. Books face the jealousies of those who do not. Ed. & Comp. by Peter S.N. Claydon are the first objects taken by people mov Even more galling than the success of and Valerie Melanson and members of ing from civilization to where civilization others is the fact that after working end the British Columbia Genealogical is not, and on arrival, within one genera lessly to produce something to sell - shin Society, Richmond, B.C. 1994. 892 p., tion, self-sufficient settlers who can do gles or fish or berries - fluctuating prices, illus., map. $65 (Available from the everything themselves except read begin seemingly controlled down-river or in the B.C. Genealogical Society, P0. Box to look suspiciously and jealously upon a city, prevent the valley men from mak 88054, Lansdowne Mall, Richmond, reader because they must always rely to ing any headway at all. They cannot even B.C. V6X3T6). some extent upon those who can read. sell their apples in a market glutted by The B.C. Genealogical Society is to be Old Man Dunn, educated, and worse, cheap American imports. commended for the monumental task self-educated, passes on his book-learned Godwin also modifies the myth of the they undertook to publish this book. I’ll knowledge to the others but because he frontier’s being made up of a collection admit I have not read the book from cover does not work his land effectively they of egalitarian noble savages. He occasion to cover but have browsed through look hold him in contempt, call him The Sage, ally writes about how Christian white men ing for names I recognize. not respectfully but sarcastically. The have stolen the Indian’s land, but he usu The information forthcoming from Newcomer himself reads Shelley while ally sees native Indians as worthless families and the lack of same from others sitting on a log in the bush, but what else drunks who will steal you blind, and he is fascinating. Divorces, second mar could you expect from a man who, with gives the impression that he would like riages, adoptions, deaths, burials, etc., are his wife, dressed each night for a candle- to see each and every one of them bite included. Those who chose to talk about lit dinner! Until he needed his dress-suit the dust. But his attitudes toward the their families give a personal view to Van pants to go out to work. Chinese, the Sikhs and the Japanese are couver’s history lacking in many general Godwin paints his characters with a just as extreme. The Chinese he some histories. bold brush. Blanchard is a crafty fellow, what accepts because they come as in The price is a bargain considering many an unpleasant man who knows and uses dentured labour, but the Japanese he coffee table picture books cost the same the backgrounds of all the others. The detests because, presumably Japanese or more. For a researcher this book has Newcomers, the Cheechako, also sizes up government sponsored, they are buying many hidden gems of information. the others and cleverly informs us about land and settling in as equals while rais The Society chose not to imitate them. Godwin does not state flatly, but ing better produce than anyone else. Burke’s Peerage, for which I’m grateful; only hints that the stipend from home Heggerty faces social damnation because in Vancouver Voters 1886 the surname is allows one deadloss-but-arrogant remit he was the first to sell to Japanese, a step always used for the family’s descendents. tance man to have no need to be “punc our hero refuses to take. The editor ad Vancouver has not had a general his tual, uncharitable, thorough, or in a mits to having toned down some of his tory since Alan Morley’s Vancouver in hurry.” He does not denounce Agnes, the great uncle’s racist slurs, but to be true to 1961 and Eric Nicol’s Vancouver in 1970, unhappy wife of the Anglican preacher the era he should really have left them neither an in-depth overview of the city. in this godforsaken bush, but realistically intact. With Vancouver Voters 1886, Chuck shows her living behind a facade of up All in all Godwin’s book is a satisfying Davis’ 1976 Vancouver Book and the per-class snobbery while trapped with a read. Its basic realism, while somewhat forthcoming revised edition, the Vancou husband who is on the edge of disaster. undermined by the romantic view, should ver Historical Society’s Vancouver Cen In general, Godwin recognizes the terri force modern British Columbians to ad tennial Bibliography, and Bruce ble plight of women in this world of men just their thinking about much of the past, Macdonald’s VancouverA Visual History, hacking out a living by grubbing in the about the attitudes toward money and the research tools are available for some soil and felling the trees in order to sup work, about education, about periods of one to start writing. port those women they are slowly under boom and periods of bust, about attitudes mining. toward Orientals and Indians, both na Peggy Imredy. And throughout Godwin shows us that tive and Asian, about snobbery and hy Peggy lmredy is a member of the the frontier is more money-grubbing than pocrisy. It should force British Vancouver Historical Society

39 B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 the voyage, make the story come alive faint heart who take exception to the Joseph Baker; Lieutenant on the Van for the modern reader. When the voy punishments inflicted by ships’s captains, couver expedition, British naval officer for age was completed in 1795, Vancouver Vancouver among them, the Court Mar whom Mt. Baker was named. turned the command of the Discovery tial found Private Browne guilty of the Robert C. Wing, Lakebay, Wash. Gray over to Lieutenant Baker who brought additional offence and sentenced him to Beard Publishing, Seattle. the ship home from the Shannon to the be stripped of all pay and to receive 150 120 p., illus. 1992 Cloth US $39.95 Thames, his first command. lashes! One of the most interesting addi In the section of Joseph Baker’s Five generations of Baker tions to the historiography of the North life that follows, the reader is introduced offsprings are diagrammed on a family west Pacific is to be found in Robert to the relationship between the families tree that includes Andrew Daniel Twiddy, Wing’s Joseph Baker, a companion work of the Bakers, Vashons, Rainiers and M.A., a great-great-great-grandson of to his earlier book on the life of Peter Pugets, names that are so familiar to those Joseph Baker, who has provided the Puget. The same high production stand living on the coast. The second wife of Foreword to Robert Wing’s work. At the ards have been applied to this latest work Capt (later Admiral) James Vashon, Bak time of publication, Mr. Twiddy was an and make Joseph Baker a most worth er’s patron, was Sarah Rainier, sister of instructor at Malaspina College in while addition to any library in spite of its Capt. (later Admiral) Peter Rainier. Capt Nanaimo. rather high price. Vashon also had a young niece, Elizabeth Robert Wing’s research has un The author has recorded Baker’s Weyerman, living in Ludlow, Wales and covered much that is new and adds to early sea experiences, beginning as a thir it was possible through that family con the enjoyment of learning of the life and teen year old cabin boy with Capt. nection that Joseph Baker made her ac character of one of the more quiet men Vashon in the sloop, Alert, in December quaintance. Early in 1797 they were whose devotion to the sea gave so much of 1781 and a year later as an Able-bod married and took up residence in to his country. There are but few typo ied Seaman at the Battle of the Saints, in Presteigne, Wales, a short distance from graphical errors, one noting the builders a lively description of the action under Ludlow. Robert Wing’s careful research of the Discovery as Ramdall and Brant Admirals Hood and Rodney. When Capt gives a most moving account of the life (p. 25) which is a carry-over error from Vashon transferred to the Prince William of Elizabeth and Joseph Baker and re Peter Puget, which in turn had its origin in 1782, Baker followed and was pro calls the close association with Peter and in an illustration in the Pacific Northwest moted to the rank of Midshipman to be Hannah Puget. Quarterly Vol. 44, No. 3 of July 1953. gin his career as an officer in His Majesty’s The Epilogue to Joseph Baker in The builder’s Randall and Brent, are cor Navy. In December, 1786, Baker joined cludes a most moving letter by Elizabeth rectly shown on the painting of the ship the Europa and made the acquaintance Baker written in 1828 to her son William (p. 28). However, the author and artist of Peter Puget, a fellow Midshipman, and Erskine, then serving in India. It is a fare have improperly included the expression one of the ship’s Lieutenants, George well letter in which she offers guidance “H.M.S.” with many of the ships’ names Vancouver. They would shortly be joined and religious counsel for a life in a coun which is a convention that did not ap by Midshipman Zachary Mudge and be try in which Christianity was largely un pear until after the end of the century. It come members of that band of brothers known and is a testimony to the strength is a bit galling to see it on a painting of a who in 1792 began the monumental task of character that shaped the lives of her brig, the Chatham (p. 31). These com of charting the coasts of Washington, Brit 10 children and the life that she shared plaints barely make nit-picking and ish Columbia and Alaska in His Majes with Joseph Baker until his death in 1817 should not dissuade an interested reader ty’s Sloop, Discovery and the Armed at age 51. from the chance to learn of the life and Tender, Chatham. Baker’s active naval service ended times of the man commemorated by Baker’s service as one of the Dis with the unfortunate loss of the frigate, Mount Baker, from the hand of one of covery’s Lieutenants is noted in a most Tartar then under his command, which the best writers of local history. concise recap of Vancouver’s voyage and ran aground in 1811 off Dago Island on J.E. Roberts the text is augmented with a fine selec the Estonian coast in an action against Mr. Roberts is a Victoria resident and an tion of charts, many prepared by Joseph Danish forces, in circumstances that enthusiastic student of British Columbia’s Baker, with a natural emphasis on the matched the near loss of the Discovery early exploration. Pacific Northwest coast. In addition, nu in 1792 in Queen Charlotte Strait. An ap merous illustrations and photographs, pendix includes a transcription of the including excerpts from John Hamilton court martial held into the Tartar’s loss, Other Publications Flood Damage North Moore’s The New Practical Navigator, in which Baker was completely exoner Rainstorm and in Columbia 1891-1 991 give the non-expert on surveying matters ated of any blame. Included in the lengthy west British Septer and J.W. Schwab 1995. a better grasp of the procedures involved investigation are charges brought against By Dirk This is available from the Pro with this great enterprise. A series of maps Marine Private Thomas Browne, for be 200 pages. Group, showing the locations of the family homes having in a blasphemous and insolent duction Resources Research Ministry of Forests, 31 Bas and the naval actions that influenced manner to his Captain after receiving Branch, B.C. Victoria, B.C., V8V 3E7. Baker’s career, together with illustrations punishment of 36 lashes for insolence and tion Square, of the Discovery and Chatham at places disrespect to the Lieutenant of Marines. along the coast and during the course of In an action that must astound those of

B.C. Historical News - Summer 1995 40 THE BRITISH COLUMBIA HISTORICAL FEDERATION

HONORARY PATRON

His Honour, the Honorable Garde B. Gardom Q.C.

HONORARY PRESIDENT J. Arthur Lower 4040 West 35th Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V6N 2P3

OFFICERS

President Alice Glanville Box 746, Grand Forks, B.C. VOH1HO 442-3865

First Vice President Ron Welwood RR #1, S22 Cl, Nelson, B.C. Vi L 5P4 825-4743

Second Vice President Marjorie Leffler 516 WillowSt, Parksville, B.C. V9P 1A4 248-3431

Secretary T. Don Sale 262 Juniper St, Nanaimo, B.C. V9S 1X4 753-2067

TO SEPT 30/95 Recording Secretary Arnold Ranneris 1898 Quamichan St, Victoria, B.C. V8S 2B9 598-3035 FROM OCT 1/95 George Thompson Qualicum Beach, B.C.

Treasurer Doris J. May 2943 Shelbourne St, Victoria, B.C. V8R 4M7 595-0236

Members at Large Wayne Desrochers 8811 — 152nd St, Surrey, B.C. V3R 4E5 581-0286 Melva Dwyer 2976 McBride St, Surrey, B.C. V4A3G6 535-3041

Past President Myrtle Haslam Box 10, Cowichan Bay, B.C. VOR1NO 748-8397

COMMITTEE OFFICERS

Archivist Margaret Stoneberg Box 687, Princeton, B.C. VOXiWO 295-3362

B.C. Historical News Publishing Committee Tony Farr 125 Castle Cross Rd, Salt Spring Island, B.C. V8K 2G1 537-1123

Book Review Editor Anne Yandle 3450 West 20th Aye, Vancouver, B.C. V6S 1E4 733-6484

Editor Naomi Miller Box 105, Wasa, B.C. VOB2K0 422-3594 Membership Secretary Nancy Peter #7 -5400 Patterson Avenue, Burnaby, B.C. V5H 2M5 437-6115

Subscription Secretary Margaret Matovich 6985 Canada Way, Burnaby, B.C. V5E 3R6 522-5049

Historical Trails and Markers John Spittle 1241 Mount Crown Rd, North Vancouver, B.C. V7R 1R9 988-4565

Publications Assistance Jill Rowland #5 — 1450 Chesterfield Aye, (not involved with North Vancouver, B.C. V7M 2N4 984-0602 B.C. Historical News) Contact Jill for advice and details to apply for a loan toward the cost of publishing.

Scholarship Committee Anne Yandle 3450 West 20th Aye, Vancouver, B.C. V6S 1E4 733-6484

Writing Competition (Lieutenant Governor’s Award) Pixie McGeachie 7953 Rosewood St, Burnaby, B.C. V5E 2H4 522-2062

(NOTE: All phone numbers listed use the area code 604) ______

The British Columbia Historical News Publications Mail P0 Box 5254 Stn B Registration No. 4447 Victona, B C V8R 6N4 ,— ADDRESS LABEL HERE

BC HISTORICAL FEDERATION WRITING COMPETITION

The British Columbia Historical Federation invites submissions of books for the thirteenth annual Com petition for Writers of B.C. History. Any book presenting any facet of B.C. history, published in 1995, is eligible. This may be a community history, biography, record of a project or an organization, or personal recollections giving a glimpse of the past. Names, dates and places, with relevant maps or pictures, turn a story into “history.” The judges are looking for quality presentations, especially if fresh material is included, with appropriate illustrations, careful proofreading, an adequate index, table of contents and bibliography, from first-time writ ers as well as established authors. NOTE: Reprints or revisions of books are not eligible. The Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing will be awarded to an individual writer whose book contributes significantly to the recorded history of British Columbia. Other awards will be made as recommended by the judges to valuable books prepared by groups or individuals. All entries receive considerable publicity. Winners will receive a Certificate of Merit, a monetary award and an invitation to the BCHF annual conference to be held in Surrey in May 1996. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: All books must have been published in 1995 and should be submit ted as soon as possible after publication. Two copies of each book should be submitted. Please state name, address and telephone number of sender, the selling price of all editions of the book, and the address from which it may be purchased, if the reader has to shop by mail. SEND TO: B.C. Historical Writing Competition do P. McGeachie 7953 Rosewood Street, Burnaby, B.C. V5E 2H4 DEADLINE: December 15, 1995. LATE ENTRIES: Three copies of each book must be submitted and must arrive before January 15, 1996. Please phone (604) 522-2062 to clarify shipping arrangements for late entries. ********** There is also an award for the Best Article published each year in the B.C. Historical News magazine. This is directed to amateur historians or students. Articles should be no more than 3,000 words, typed double spaced, accompanied by photographs if available, and substantiated with footnotes where applicable. (Pho tographs should be accompanied with information re: the source, permission to publish, archival number if applicable, and a brief caption. Photos will be returned to the writer.) Word-processed manuscripts may also be submitted on 3.5” disk (DOS or Macintosh) but please include a hard copy as well. Please send articles directly to: The Editor, B.C. Historical News, P.O. Box 105, Wasa, B.C. VOB2K0