Well, it’s officially Spring. The birds are swarming my feeders, the snowdrops have all but come and gone, it’s the turn of crocuses and daffodils, Japanese cherry trees, choke cherry, Indian Plum...
Read More
If I and Chronicles readers had nothing better to do than my writing, and they reading, my mutterings on a daily basis, I still couldn’t keep up with yesterday’s news.
By which I mean current events that have their roots deep in our historical past. Sort of deja vu, if you will. Even when history doesn’t quite repeat itself, it certainly plays out, in sometimes eerily similar ways, over and over again.
Read More
There’s no room in this week’s post, ‘Zeballos Streets Really Were Paved With Gold,’ to introduce its best known resident of the late 1930s gold rush era, Maj. George Nicholson.
Read More
Last week’s post on patent medicines drew several responses.
Two readers pointed out, too late, as I’d realized upon reading it myself in the cold light of day, did I remember that I meant to bring the story up to date with a reference to over-the-counter cold medications, specifically, decongestants.
Read More
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla—the best of its kind
To strengthen the body and brighten the mind!
Then what is more worthy of pencil or song
Than Ayer’s Sarsaparilla? IT MAKES THE WEAK STRONG.
Last week, I wrote that “one of the occupational hazards of being a writer of history is that some people come to believe that I actually know what I’m writing/talking about and they seek me out for answers to questions or for more information...
Most recently, Duncan librarian Marina emailed to ask about one Oliver Pike at the behest of a VIPL user.
Read More
One of the occupational hazards of being a writer of history is that some people come to believe that I actually know what I’m writing/talking about and they seek me out for answers to questions or for more information.
Sometimes, I do have an answer for them, from off the top of my head or from my files. But sometimes, too, I’m stumped. Most recently, Duncan librarian Marina emailed to ask about one Oliver Pike at the behest of a VIPL user.
Read More
A little known Youbou geographical feature is in the news these days, most recently because CVRD directors have voted to support changing the name of Coonskin Creek.
This, because of its, in the words of the BC Geographical Names Office, “potential harms from derogatory language in geographical names”.
Read More
Not so much an editorial as an introduction to this week’s Chronicle:
A century has passed since the ‘Silver Slocan’ of southwestern British Columbia yielded millions of dollars in silver—billions by today’s measure. The fabulous Enterprise, Standard, Slocan Star, Rambler-Cariboo, Last Chance, Whitewater, Mountain Chief—and so many more productive mines—all have been relegated to the province’s colourful history.
Read More
Today, for a change of pace, a guest columnist. Retired Vancouver newspaper reporter and environmentalist Larry Pym publishes an excellent newsletter at www.sixmountains.ca.
What makes his article on Norm Tandberg so resonate with me is that Norm and I are following the same historical trails in the Cowichan Valley— without, so far as I know, ever having crossed paths. In fact, I’d never heard of him until Larry graciously passed along this piece he just wrote for Six Mountains.
Read More
A century and a-half later, the 1875 sinking of the paddlewheel steamship Pacific by collision off Cape Flattery remains one of the greatest marine tragedies in B.C. and Washington state history. There were only two survivors of almost 300 on board.
The Pacific is remembered for another reason: the likelihood that she was carrying a fortune in Omineca gold in her safe and in the personal luggage of some of its San Francisco-bound passengers.
Read More
There’s been another change to Vancouver Island maps, this one at Tofino. Mackenzie Beach, named for a previous owner, is now Tinwis, meaning “calm waters” in the language of the local Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, although it’s a combination of the words “tin,” meaning calm, and “wis,” meaning beach.
An online campaign for the name change garnered 2000 signatures.
Read More
Well, here we are, at the end of another year in a world of strife and environmental crises. Sometimes, I must admit, I do begin to doubt my lifelong obsession with the past when our global present almost seems to preclude a long-term future. It feels sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic...
Sorry! A note of doom and gloom is a heckuva way to begin a new year. So let’s get down to the work at hand, history…
Read More
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Or was.
I still remember that day at school. I was in the library when a classmate cynically informed me there is no Santa Claus. No Santa Claus? I was way too young to surrender my ideals!
Read MoreI’m pleased to be able to report that local history is alive and well, as I observed firsthand at the annual craft shows, Christmas Chaos, Providence Farm and at the Shawnigan Recreation Centre.
These shows are an opportunity for me to meet some of my readers; some of longstanding, some new. I usually gain as much from our conversations as I hope they do in return.
Read MoreCoincidental to my reading a great book, Last Man Out, the story of the Springhill Mine disaster of 1958, there was a news story in the Times Colonist about Indian construction workers trapped in a collapsed tunnel.
Their rescue with modern mining equipment took two weeks but all were saved and, it appears, were in good health and spirits.
Read MoreOne of the challenges of researching and writing B.C. history on a regular basis isn’t—usually—finding quality content, but finding quality photos to support that content. 100’s of 1000’s of wonderful photos exist in various vaults (archives, libraries, historical societies, private collections, etc.) but tracking them down is quite time-consuming.
Fun for the most part, but time-consuming.
Read MoreWell, another year and another Christmas Chaos, the annual mid-November mega craft sale in the Cowichan Community Centre.
It must be almost 30 years that I’ve had a table with my books at Chaos. It’s a chance to show the corporate flag, so to speak, and to meet new and old readers.
Some of us have grown grey together!
Read MoreWriting is, as I’m sure most people will accept, a solitary craft. I once used a lighthouse for a company logo and named my first publishing/printing firm, Solitaire Press.
The name said it all!
But, being solitary by nature, doesn’t necessarily mean one is non-, let alone, anti-social. Not a party animal, but hardly a hermit, either.
Read MoreI can still recall the shock, followed by rage, all these years later.
The shock that a former soldier had died in a veteran’s hospital where he’d been laid up since the First World War. And the rage at the thought that he’d spent two-thirds of his lifetime, disabled and suffering in a hospital bed—far, far from the trenches, and long, long after Armistice.
It wasn’t right! It was so unfair!
Read More