Editorially speaking...
One of the Cowichan Valley’s best known former Paldi residents, Harjinder Kaur Doman, widow of the late lumber baron Herb Doman, died June 3rd.
Born in the long-ago King’s Daughters’ Hospital, Duncan, she married Herb in 1955 and they had three daughters and a son. She was described as having had a passion and a zest for life that touched everyone around her, [and she] radiated with smiles, sincerity and natural charm that lit up a room.”
I never met Mrs. Doman but remember the numerous parades in which she’d ride as passenger in the cab of the Doman Co.’s restored Dodge flat deck truck, smiling and waving at the crowds every foot of the way.
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.
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Victoria’s Point Hope Shipyard is marking 150 years of shipbuilding at the same site beside the Inner Harbour. Among the several owners over those decades were the Cameron brothers who founded what, at one time, was one of the biggest sawmills in the province at Genoa Bay.
There was a time, particularly in the 1920’s, when ships from around the world called at Genoa Bay to load Cowichan Valley lumber. —Author’s Collection
The connection being their building ships from Cowichan Valley lumber, much of it floated down the Cowichan River.
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One of the last two surviving Martin Mars water bombers appears to be heading for preservation at the B.C. Aviatian Museum in Sidney. If continuing negotiations between the plane’s owners and the museum go well, the famous Hawaii Mars will make her last flight to her last airstrip in the near future.
I sure hope they give adequate notice of her flight.
I well remember the great DC-3 regatta of 20-odd years ago. I’d just come out of the Overwaitea store, the former K&R Market, Duncan, when I heard the thunderous drone of numerous oncoming engines.
I looked to the north and the sky was filled with DC-3’s, perhaps 50 of them, in one of the largest formations since their heyday in the Second World War or, possibly, the great Berlin Airlift of 1948.
As I say, here’s hoping.
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Also on the museum front, the federal government has pledged $5M to Vancouver’s Chinese Museum. Finally the wonderful contributions that Chinese citizens have made to British Columbia are being properly recognized and promoted. Better late than never.
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Also close to home, a Vancouver mining company is looking at recovering overlooked ores in the waste piles of the Tyee, Lenora and Richard III mines’ ore dumps on Mount Sicker. Should this pan out I for one will miss the towering pile of the Tyee Mine. It offers a panoramic view of the old Lenora town site down to the Chemainus River (Copper Canyon) and the southern slopes of Mount Brenton.
How many hours I’ve spent prospecting the Tyee pile for pretty ore samples and artifacts. The main shaft of the Tyee, by the way, is smack in the middle of the pile but has long been filled in, or at least capped. This is where miner Charlie Melrose fell 100’s of feet to his death, breaking almost every bone in his body.
Jennifer looks up at the Tyee mine waste ore dump from the Lenora Mine. The pile may look small at a distance but, believe me, it isn’t. —Author photo
But you’d never know anything about that or anything else of the fascinating history of this abandoned mine site by visiting it today. Not, of course, unless you’ve read my many magazine articles, newspaper columns and online posts over the years.
Or, better yet, read Riches to Ruin: the Boom to Bust Saga of Vancouver Island’s Greatest Copper Mine.
I’ll tell you more about Mount Sicker’s possible regeneration in a future Chronicle.
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