I sometimes wonder how historical writers were able to research before the internet.
I remember the 100s of weekly trips I made to Victoria to risk eyestrain while “surfing” on the newspaper microfilm machine in the Victoria Press Library, and visits to the Provincial Archives, the Public Library, the Douglas Building, repository of the Department of Mines annual reports and photos, and the Post Office building which housed various federal government offices of value to me...
Read MoreCoincidental to this week’s Chronicle on the Fraser River bridge tragedy of 1916, time is ticking for the iconic Pattullo Bridge linking New Westminster and Surrey. Named for B.C.’s 22nd premier, Thomas Dufferin Pattullo, it officially opened in November 15, 1937.
Its replacement is slated to open for traffic in December.
The new bridge will have its work cut out for it, the existing crossing handling an average of 75,700 cars and 3840 trucks daily (these are 2013 figures)—about 20 per cent of the cross-river traffic.
Read MoreI know I’ve asked this before, but, well, progress, or what purports to be same, is ever-astir.
My question: When is heritage, even purportedly dedicated heritage, no longer safe from change? Why, when it gets in the way of progress and, in particular, ever-morphing social change, of course.
The latest victim is Victoria’s Cedar Hill School, 1912-13, proof yet again that nothing is really written in stone in our society.
Read MoreI don’t think I’ll ever really understand Facebook. Or even, as in this case, email.
I mean, what kind of digital genie delivers a message four months after the fact? Where has it been all this time, up in the ether? Talk about snail mail!
To begin at the beginning: Years ago, I told the story of Cobble Hill pioneer and part time author George Cheeke who wrote one of the most enjoyable ‘ghost’ stories I’ve ever read, better even than TV’s Rod Serling and Twilight Zone.
Read MoreThat old adage, “Better late then never” certainly proved to be the case in Nanaimo, two and a-half weeks ago.
That’s when a special memorial service was held in the Nanaimo Cemetery to honour the victims of a 1951 air crash, at that time the worst in Canadian history.
Read MoreEven as a kid I knew what the Broad Arrow stood for.
As the son of a career navy man, I’d seen it from time to time on various things such as trunks and tools, etc.: a three-pronged arrow head pointing straight up, sometimes beneath a crossed bar.
I noticed it among Dad’s things and, later, in the treasure trove of maritime memorabilia on display or for sale at Capital Iron & Metals.
Read MoreNever let the facts get in the way of a good story. Was it Farley Mowat who said that?
I was reminded of his alleged quote when a lady suggested that, perhaps, I should change my initials to B.S. Paterson. She was joking, of course. Wasn't she?
Read MoreIf you don’t think history is alive and well, you’re not following the news.
By alive, I mean, current stories whose roots go back—often way back—in time. Sometimes, alas, they’re in the news because they’re still festering like an unhealed wound.
Read MoreMany B.C. communities will mark this week’s 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. From my archives, this historical column I originally wrote for a Nanaimo newspaper on the 60th anniversary.
Read MoreSasquatch aka Bigfoot hasn’t been in the news lately but some Williams Lake residents were reminded of the elusive giant recently when they found a B.C. Forest Service bulletin attached to their windshields.
Headlined SASQUATCH ALERT, the notice advised of recent Sasquatch sightings in the area and urged that anyone encountering one of the hairy creatures not to be alarmed, that Sasquatch come down from the mountains to feed on fish, freshwater clams, vegetation and to mate.
Read MoreThis week’s story is about the great avalanche of March 1910 that killed 62 railway crewmen and navvies in Rogers Pass, the worst such disaster in B.C. history.
Last month, I told the story of the province’s second worst snow slide, that which entombed 26 miners at the Granduc copper mine in February 1965. (Snow Slide, June 12, 2025.)
Read MoreThis week, the Chronicles concludes the sad tale of Canadian Pacific Airlines Flight 21, British Columbia’s worst unsolved mass murder.
How is it, one might ask, that hardly anyone, besides journalists and family descendants, seems to know about it? Is 60 years that long ago? It’s almost as if many us have placed a statute of limitations upon memory.
While researching and writing this story several thoughts have come to mind.
Read MoreIt’s so easy to think of history as being, well, long ago and far away. In the past. Come and gone. Done with. Move on.
The reality, of course, is that history walks among us as a living, vibrant being. Rather than being static, it’s happening every minute of every day, even in our own backyards. Okay, sometimes it takes a while to be officially recognized and recorded as such; that’s what historians and archivists are for.
Conversely, and it’s happening more frequently these days, we turn the telescope around and, like the revisionists of Communist infamy, we try to undo history—making even more history.
Read MoreAs noted last week, I’m finally working on my tribute to the coal miners of mid-Vancouver Island after 25 years of field and archival research.
This week’s Chronicle about the 1909 Extension mine disaster, and a revisit to Granby two weekends ago, brought back old memories and prompted these reflections on how transitory history can be.
Read MoreNow the company that wants to salvage whatever valuable minerals are left in the ore dumps of the Tyee and Lenora mines on the Cowichan Valley’s Mount Sicker is looking to process the tailings piles of the Blue Grouse Mine.
Jennifer and I made several visits to the adjoining Blue Grouse and Sunnyside claims on the west shore of Cowichan Lake years ago, I’m happy to say, so it isn’t on my bucket list, or I’d be champing at the bit to check it out before they can go to work.
Read MoreLong gone are my feckless days of youth when I wrote with all the confidence of a new-born, all of it based upon my mimicking newspaper reports and the works of others, and none of it from the well of my own experiences.
But time has marched on, times have changed—and, thankfully, so have I.
Read MoreThere’s an interesting item in this week’s Terrace Standard about Japanese triplexes at “the last intact cannery on B.C.’s north coast” having been restored as a vital piece of the region’s multicultural fishing heritage.
The North Pacific Cannery in Port Edward, virtually unaltered to this day, goes all the way back to 1889 when salmon canneries were a major contributor to the provincial economy. Now it’s a national historic site and museum that offers visitors “an immersive glimpse” into the lives of cannery workers.
Read MoreOne of the joys of researching in old newspapers is discovering smaller news items, nuggets I call them, that just don’t make it to the big time. By which I mean, they’re what some would cruelly call trivia, so get passed by.
But this one recently caught my eye and, if only momentarily, sucked me down the rabbit hole. I share it with you today. It’s from the Victoria Daily Times of Jan. 25, 1929.
Read MoreThere’s an interesting footnote to today’s Chronicle about Louisa Townsend who came to B.C. on the bride ship Tynemouth and married Edward Mallandaine.
Their son, Edward Jr., born propitiously on July 1st, 1867, the same day as the Confederation of the Dominion of Canada, became an itinerant carpenter for several years after leaving school at the age of 14. He found himself (again propitiously) in the CPR construction town of Donald, B.C., in time to witness the driving of the Last Spike.
Read More“On this bright sunny day, May 13, 2025, the work commenced on our special project for 2025...”
So begins the latest issue of the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria’s newsletter. The special project referred to is the restoration of the grave of Edna Farnsworth, the subject of this week’s Chronicles.
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