Surely, you don’t expect the Chronicles to be about anything but Halloween on this propitious date, do you?
And why not? Old newspapers, the fodder for historians and writers, are filled with stories about encounters with the supernatural. After all, everyone loves a ghost story, right?
Read MoreOne of the joys of historical research is that it's like a treasure hunt. You never know what the next document or deed, the turn of a page of an old newspaper, or a tip from a reader might lead to.
This nugget from the Nanaimo Free Press was sent along by a friend who’d been researching coal mine history at Vancouver Island University. It concerns lost treasure—the real thing.
Read MoreI wonder how many people ever pause to think that they’re literally walking on air as they go about their business in downtown Nanaimo.
The ‘air’ beneath their feet being that formed by abandoned coal mines—miles of them—now mostly flooded, but, in many cases, otherwise intact. This false floor is something that City building inspectors and contractors must take into account when they plan new works.
Read MoreI’ve mentioned before that history is ever with us, even in the breaking news which media prides itself on. It isn’t always apparent, as in a flashback or an overt reference to an historical event or personage, but often hidden between the lines.
In other words, you have to know something about history to recognize it when you see it.
Read MoreAn unsung jewel is the Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum at Naden, Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt. It’s open seven days a week (10-3:30), including statutory holidays. Admission is by donation.
As the son of a career Royal Canadian Navy man, I feel almost at home during my too infrequent visits. Almost every which way I turn, there’s an artifact on display—a bell, a crest, a model, a photo—of one of my father’s ships. About the only one that I didn’t notice this past Sunday was his last ship, the light cruiser HMCS Ontario.
Read MoreTalk about a labour of love. Fourteen years and 100 interviews later, Duncan author Lynn Starter’s opus, a coffee table took of 1200 pages of photos and facts is off the press and available.
Read MoreIn last week’s editorial I shrugged off the impending demolition of the historic Holt Creek trestle at Mile 59.7 on the Glenora stretch of the Trans Canada Trail as inevitable and, well, c’est la vie.
It’s to be replaced with a purely utilitarian span of steel and concrete with a wooden deck.
Read MoreWhen I was a kid, way back in the Jurassic Age, all that I knew about the Doukhobor people of B.C. could be summed up in a cynical four-line ditty which we kids bandied about in school. I still remember it, but won’t repeat here.
As the years went by and there were glaring newspaper headlines about arson, and scenes of naked demonstrations by the Sons of Freedom sect filled evening TV screens, what little thought I gave to their protests and beliefs wasn’t charitable.
Read MoreThere just ain’t nothing sacred any more...
It’s looking more likely that a Vancouver mining company will get the go-ahead to “process the large quantities of waste rock on land owned by Mosaic on Mount Sicker...” reads the lead of a front-page story in this week’s Cowichan Valley Citizen.
The waste rock referred is that of the ore dumps and tailings piles of the historic Lenora and Tyee mines on Mount Sicker.
Read MoreWhenever we see or hear anything in the news about whales these days, it’s about their being threatened (in the case of the Orcas) with eventual extinction, or of a whale being run down by a ship, or becoming entangled in discarded fishing gear...
Our concern for their general welfare is a dramatic turnaround from that of our pioneers, Indigenous and White, who harvested them for their meat and blubber, then for their oil and ambergris which were valued for industrial purposes.
Read MoreHaving a Facebook page can be like stroking a cat; rub it the wrong way and you can get scratched.
So I've learned over the past months of hosting T.W. Paterson History Author, which was set up for me by and at the urging of friend Blake Mackenzie, creator of the phenomenally successful FB site, Gold Trails and Ghost Towns.
Read MoreIt was over almost as soon as it began but still worth the time and trouble to drive to Crofton.
I’m referring to Sunday evening’s flypast by the famous Martin Mars water bomber, Hawaii Mars, on her final flight to retirement at Sidney’s BC Aviation Museum. (Bonus: She was escorted by the Snowbirds in perfect formation.)
Read MoreIt’s the dog days of summer so please forgive me if I begin this week with a ramble; specifically, a quote from immortal Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery who obviously was a lady after my own heart:
“I am simply a book drunkard. Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotees. I cannot withstand them.”
Read MoreFurther to this week's Chronicle, the conclusion to the tragic story of 1920s Cowichan Lake school teacher Mabel Jones, this is the second time in 15 years that the Mill Bay Malahat Historical Society has chosen to bring history to life via the stage.
Read MoreAs I write this, B.C.’s greatest icon of the Cariboo gold rush era is in danger of destruction by a forest fire.
It was back in 1967, Canada’s Centennial, that this ‘ghost town’ was rescued from eventual oblivion and since has become one of the province’s greatest tourist attractions.
Who hasn’t visited Barkerville?
According to the Quesnel Cariboo Observer, the BC Wildfire Service “has had sprinklers installed on every building...as the area remains under an evacuation order on Tuesday. July 23...”
Read MoreAlthough it sometimes feels like it, I’m not the only author who celebrates British Columbia history. Obviously, as Chronicles readers are sure to be aware, there are others beating the drum of history.
However, a full-page story in this week’s Cowichan Valley Citizen is a happy reminder that, right here in my own backyard, a dedicated band of volunteers is hard at work promoting Vancouver Island’s colourful past.
Read MoreJohn Milton Bryant (1887-1913), who’s acknowledged as “one of the first American barnstormers,” had acquired his aviator’s license only six months before his death. An inset on his headstone in the Los Angeles Odd Fellows Cemetery reads:
In Memoriam
August 6, 1913 – The first fatal airplane accident in Canada occurred when John M. Bryant, husband of Alys (Tiny) Bryant, was killed in the crash of his plane at Victoria.
Read MoreFurther to today’s story on the collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in June 1958....
History almost repeated itself in May 2006 when it took the combined efforts of seven tugboats to keep a freighter from crashing into the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing.
Read MoreFurther to today’s feature article on engineer extraordinaire Andrew Onderdonk, an attempt to answer: Hero or Heel?
Read MoreAs told in this week’s Chronicle, Stuart Henderson’s courtroom record was perhaps without equal: he lost just five cases of 50 over a half-century of defending clients accused of serious crimes, usually murder.
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