Another Remembrance Day is upon us. It’s a day of great importance to me; more important, in fact, than any other day of the year.
Both my grandfathers came home disabled from the First World War; Great Uncle Jim didn’t come home at all.
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British Columbia has long had statutes legislating the disturbance of Indigenous anthropological sites. On paper, anyway. I still remember when they realigned the Island Highway in the Fanny Bay area and contractors cut right through middens that were 30 and 40 feet deep.
The mix of artifacts, clam shells and gravel made good ballast for road construction.
Read MoreHave you ever studied faces in old photos and wonder whatever became of them?
I sure have, this photo in particular. These young boys were coal miners, doomed to work underground for the whole of their lives. Pulled from school to help put bread on the table for their families, they had no hope whatever of improving their lot. They were trapped, just as their fathers and grandfathers had been before them.
Read MoreI frequently receive queries which I try to answer reasonably promptly.
But it isn’t always easy. If I have to dig into my files it can be a while as my days are programmed—and long.
Read MoreI’ve been researching, off and on, the lost airmen of Pat Bay for 20 years, a motivation for my third visit to the B.C. Aviation Museum, Sidney, last week. Then on to, for the first time, the new memorial on Mills Road, on the opposite side of Victoria Airport.
Read MoreTwo weeks ago, I wrote about some of the interesting old photographs I’ve found over the years (Some Old Photos are Real Heart Breakers, September 14,2023, and how some of them have “gone home” again.
But I keep turning them up, such as these two.
Read MoreAfter going missing for 50 years, this striking chandelier from the ca 1927 Nelson’s Capital Theatre has been returned. (Photo by MyNelsonNow)
Read MoreWelcome to the ‘new’ Chronicles!
British Columbia Chronicles.ca, that is, rather than CowichanChronicles.com.
Well, the kids are back to school and the PNE is on again. I’m referring to the Pacific National Exhibition, of course, which everyone knows by its initials.
The PNE has a special place in my memory bank. Back in the dark ages when I was a kid, it was the harbinger of death for me.
Read MoreI’m absolutely amazed by the wonders of our technological age, particularly as it applies to my fields of researching, writing and publishing.
Read MoreA reluctant latecomer to social media, as I’ve admitted before, I’ve come to recognize its outstanding potential as a conduit for feedback from readers.
I can burn the midnight oil, researching, writing and polishing posts for the Chronicles, then my graphics guru Patricia hits the send button and—poof!—they’re in your morning mailbox.
Read MoreThe recent reopening of the Royal BC Museum’s controversial Old Town exhibit drew an interesting letter to the editor of the Victoria Times Colonist. Bob Miers welcomed the return of this popular attraction with its more “socially inclusive themes” but lamented that there’s no mention of Sir James Douglas, our first colonial governor and, without doubt, an unrecognized Father of Confederation.
Read MoreTowards the end of my accompanying post on cigarettes I note the multi-billion-dollar cash settlement between the tobacco companies and 46 American states, to be paid over 25 years.
In 2015 JTI Macdonald Corp., Imperial Tobacco and Rothmans-Benson and Hedges were ordered to pay $15 billion to Quebec smokers in the biggest class action suit in Canadian history.
Read MoreA mention in last week’s Chronicles of an email from friend and subscriber Stephanie Walter re: her having found a copy of my evergreen book, Ghost Town Trails of Vancouver Island (as it was originally titled in 1975) drew a quick response:
Read MoreAs the son of a career Royal Canadian Navy man, and the writer of many, many stories on shipwrecks, a recent article in the Nanaimo News Bulletin piqued my interest.
Read MoreIn my recent series on the Leech River gold rush I made several references to Vancouver Island colonial governor Arthur Edward Kennedy.
Read MoreThe B.C. Aviation Museum has scored another great acquisition, the latest being a CF104 Starfighter from the Cold War era. This supersonic jet goes down in aviation history as being the first aircraft to break Mach 2—twice the speed of sound.
Read MoreFor some, July 1st was a day for reflection.
As the Cumberland Museum and Archives pointed out in a news release, July 1, 2023 marked “the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Immigration Act, a policy that banned Chinese immigration from 1923 to 1947.
Read MoreOne of the Cowichan Valley’s best known former Paldi residents, Harjinder Kaur Doman, widow of the late lumber baron Herb Doman, died June 3rd. Husband Herb Doman, of course, made his mark as the founder and owner of one of the largest forestry companies in the province—a long way from delivering firewood in Paldi in his early years.
Read MoreFor quite some time now it has been apparent to me that the internet address, www.CowichanChronicles.com, is too geocentric. The digital world is just that—global.
Too, as readers must realize by now, the Chronicles isn’t purely about the Cowichan Valley. Generally, I tell a story about the Cowichan area about one in five-six weeks. This became the pattern over 23 years in the Cowichan Valley Citizen which, for 20 of those years, appeared twice weekly.
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