As 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.
Read MoreWhen is a heritage home or building not a heritage home or heritage building?
Why, when they get in the way of development, of course.
Read MoreI 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.
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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.
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