Can’t remember if I already told you about this one but...there are some great new B.C. historical websites out there; in fact, they seem to springing up like mushrooms. The latest, on my radar at least, is Daryl Ashby’s Vancouver Island – Early History Group on Facebook. In the past week he has touched on two subjects of particular interest to me, Nanaimo’s Pioneer Cemetery and the No. 1 Mine disaster, Canada’s second worst colliery catastrophe. I’ve been researching the latter for 20 years
Read MoreTwo heritage-related stories in the news this week—one with a happy future, the other on life support...
I’ve been telling you of the ongoing campaign to save the historic 1916 CNR station house in Hope which, despite having heritage designation and despite the protests of many Hope and B.C. residents, has been consigned to demolition by the District of Hope.
Just finished Maria Tippett’s excellent biography of Emily Carr. I still have a problem with Emily’s later, more impressionistic work but I certainly have come to know her a little better as a gifted artist and as a woman.
Read MoreI had begun to despair that Ladysmith would ever get off the pot but, at last, I’m happy to see that restoration of the old Crown Zellerbach No.11 locomotive is well in hand, perhaps even finished. All done by volunteers, I gather. When will governments of all levels ever learn that our history is a public trust, and accept that they have the responsibility of caring for it? Instead, they’re forever crying poverty and foisting the work and most of the expense off on taxpaying volunteers who, fortunately for future generations, do value their heritage enough to want to do something to save it. That’s my gripe for today.
Read MoreLots happening, some of it good, some of it not so good, on the museum front these days. COVID has obviously put a damper on public attendance at most museums. To cite but one, the B.C. Forest Discovery Centre has had to cancel its popular Easter Hunt and train rides, both of which drew mass attendance and income from admission fees.
Read MoreLast week I told you that Hope Council has decided to have that Fraser River community’s second oldest building, the ca 1916 Canadian National Railways station house, demolished. Even though it’s said to be structurally sound and was given heritage designation 40 years ago.
Read MoreIt has become obvious to me that I ain’t never going to keep up with, let alone get ahead of incoming subject ideas. They’re relentless—they’re in my emails, they’re in the news—there’s something popping up almost every day.
Read MoreI always acknowledge, if not immediately answer in full, requests for information from readers and others who track me down. But there are far more of you than there are of me and I’m finding it increasingly difficult to keep up, so please bear with me. But make no mistake: I’m not complaining. I’m simply pointing out that while my archives doesn’t always contain the specific answers I’m looking for, it usually points me in the right direction. It’s the ferreting out that takes time...
Read MoreAnother challenge to answering the numerous requests for information made of me is that my filing system over the years has occasionally proved to be something less than perfect. I never subscribed to the Dewey Decimal System and, overall, my ad hoc approach to filing has worked. There have been exceptions, of course, and they can be maddening.
Read MoreIt wasn’t a Nanaimo building but it certainly was a landmark beside the Trans Canada Highway just south of the Silver Bridge. I can remember, when still living in Saanich in the 1960s, driving my mother who was an avid collector of carnival glass and women’s things, to the cabin which was operated as a silversmith and antique store.
Read MoreI probably shouldn’t admit to this but I’m not the only British Columbia historical website available to you online. In fact, they’re growing in number all the time, to the point that I begin my work day by opening my email and checking, on average, 20-30 emails (plus more throughout the day). Some of them I subscribe to, some are of little interest to me, but rarely are they spam.
Read MoreIt’s no coincidence that for two weeks in a row the latest Chronicles have had their roots in the present. One of the first and most valuable things I learned as an historical storyteller was to forge, when possible, a vicarious link between then and now.
Read MoreYears ago, when I was invited to launch a weekly historical column in the Nanaimo newspaper (I think it was the Daily News which became the Harbour City Star then something else, I've lost track) a friend predicted that I'd be starved for research material "in four months". Not a chance, I said; in four months I'll have more to work with than I do now.
Read MoreAs mentioned in last week’s promo, this week’s post is a mixed bag of historical “nuggets in the news” drawn from my newspaper clippings file, and from comments, suggestions and queries from readers of the Chronicles.
It’s so easy to think of history as being, well, in the past and far removed from our present-day lives. But here we are, in effect replaying the great ‘Flu epidemic of 1919-20. So much for the distant past and far away!
We’re already mid-month January and the ‘new’ year is beginning to look more and more like a replay of 2020—more pandemic, more tragedy, more hardship, more inconvenience. Even with vaccines on the way it’s obviously going to be a long haul.
What did the British use to say in hard times, “Keep a stiff upper lip”?
As we, ever so unwillingly, go on struggling through these historic trials we can at least take advantage of our ‘down time’ (thanks to what amounts to self-imposed house arrest) by reading about and enjoying—maybe even learning from—history.
What interesting times we live in!
Well, another year gone by. And what a year it was!
2020, which began with just whispers in the news of a new contagion in China became, by March, full-blown global pandemic. For the first time in a century since the infamous ‘Flu of 1918-19, we—all of us—are in the front lines of defence.
Not since the Second World War has Canada had to mobilize to face a common and deadly enemy; not for 75 years have we all had to make personal sacrifices and endure personal inconvenience for the common cause.