I begin with the sad news that the poster we placed in memory of Molly Justice who was murdered in January 1943 has been removed by persons, and for reasons, unknown.
Read MoreOne of my Achilles Heels is organization. Almost a lifetime of files, photos, books etc., etc., have become an ongoing challenge to keep properly sorted. You know, a place for everything and everything in its place.
Read MoreWe begin this week’s editorial on a happy note, a press release from the Cowichan Valley Museum:
Together We Did It! Duncan Train Station, Winner of the National Trust for Canada’s Next Great Save. Update!
Read MoreFrom this month’s Cowichan Historical Society newsletter:
May is B.C. Mining Month - The Britannica Mine Museum is commemorating “100 Years of Mill 3” in a feature exhibit that will run until November 5, 2023.
Read MoreOne might not, at first blush, think of Gordon Lightfoot, Canada’s legendary troubadour, as an historian. But, in many ways, he was. He wrote about real life, about real Canadians, about real events, such as the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald and its lost company.
Read MoreI’m sure you’ve heard this expression before: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Well, the provincial government appears to be on a course of fixing things up real good when it comes to our—I repeat, our—heritage.
Read MoreHistorically speaking, it’s a mix of good news/bad news this week. On the positive side, this article on Union Bay’s post office: Canada’s only wooden post office stamping its way into history in Union Bay - Marking more than a century of mail in the Comox Valley community.
Read MoreI am curious as to whether any of Victoria’s streetcars are still alive and well or did they all end up in the trash bin? I was told by my Dad that the old Jolly Friar that served a minimal menu of delicious burgers, fries, etc was also a converted streetcar.
Read MoreIf you care to make the trip to Nanaimo this evening, guests are welcome at the Nanaimo Historical Society’s April 13 general meeting. Tonight’s entertainment is of interest to Cowichan residents, a video by NHS directors of the old Hillcrest Chinese cemetery at Sahtlam.
Read MoreI’m sure that not many Chronicles readers grew up in post Second World War Victoria as I did so they won’t remember downtown businesses as I knew them in my childhood and teenage years.
Read More
Historically, the big news story of the past week is the closure of one of Victoria’s most significant historic sites, Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens, for want of sufficient government funding.
Read MoreIt’s Spring and I’ve been housecleaning my files.
Among the many newspaper clippings that have been gathering dust, this one since last September, is an obituary for Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, aged 89.
What an amazing career.
Read MoreEverywhere I go, everything I do, everything I read....there’s history there!
I read three regional newspapers each week, daily seek out past and present events and personages online, and I’m forever surprised by the nuggets that I continually find in today’s news that link to or recall past happenings.
Read MoreAs I hope you noticed, the Chronicles was off the air last week thanks to a four-day power outage. Which also meant, of course, that I was offline, so there was no way to go to press with last Thursday’s latest instalment of “Cowichan’s ‘Hanging Tree.’”
Read MoreTwo weeks ago I told you the sad story of a German man, ‘Albert Ehmann,’ who committed suicide in a Victoria hotel room in 1909.
Read MoreSo the Royal BC Museum has blinked.
Read MoreAs some Chronicles readers may have discerned, aviation history is another passion of mine. What a treasure trove of fascinating stories is available in books, newspapers and online!
Read MoreWell, we finally did it, a little bit late but better than not at all. For two weeks we’d tried to make it down to Saanich to mark the 80th anniversary of the murder of 15-year-old Molly Justice.
Read More
Chronicles readers have a chance to save some local heritage, downtown Duncan’s venerable E&N Railway (our Cowichan Valley Museum) as explained in this press release by the Island Corridor Foundation, the building’s owners:
The Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives Needs Your Help!
It was in the news earlier this month that a Gabriola Island man had lost his great-uncle’s ‘Dead Man’s Penny’. This First World War memorial plaque was made from bronze and became popularly known as the ‘Dead Man’s Penny’ among front-line troops. It was also known as the ‘Death Penny,’ ‘Death Plaque’ and ‘Widow’s Penny’ even though it’s 120 millimetres in diameter.
Read More