Editorially speaking…
Historic postcard courtesy of Hilary Everitt. Digital colourization by Nigel Robertson.
Welcome to the ‘new’ Chronicles! British Columbia Chronicles.ca, that is, rather than CowichanChronicles.com.
As readers well know, the Chronicles have always ranged afar from the Cowichan Valley, as they did over the 23 years they appeared in the Citizen.
It’s a matter of harsh reality. Even with the massive archives I’ve created, I could never come up with the volume of historical content—several million words over the past 26 years—with purely Cowichan Valley provenance.
But British Columbia, the province as a whole, is a different kettle of fish!
There’s simply no limit to the amount of subject material available to me and to other historians. As I’ve noted before, researching history is like digging a hole—it just gets bigger. For all my efforts of most of a lifetime, when I finish my earthly journey, I’ll have hardly scratched the surface.
Every day without fail—without effort on my part—I add to those archives. Potential writing topics actually seek me out. I find them in current news, in conversations, from my online subscriptions, from tips from readers and online research, as one story leads to another and another and another...
So, www.BritishColumbiaChronicles.ca it is.
The .ca means Canada, which I prefer, and is more appropriate than the coldly commercial .com. Not that it matters to anyone googling the CowichanChronicles.com as they’ll automatically be redirected to the BritishColumbiaChronicles.ca.
As a non-tecchie, I had—still have—no real understanding of all that’s involved. Fortunately, my computer person does know these things and what might, at first glance, seem a small matter of changing a name, is actually pretty involved. My thanks to Patricia who found her way through the maze, as is shown by today’s issue of the www.BritishColumbiaChronicles.ca.
My thanks, too, to the late Hilary Everitt of Chemainus who gave me the great photo of the Victoria Lumber & Logging Co. train and crew. Originally black and white, the wonder of digital colourization was performed by local computer guru Nigel Robertson.
After all that, what readers can expect each week are more great stories (I’m referring to their content, not my writing) about British Columbia people and events as well as those about people and events of the Cowichan Valley. This is my home, after all, and it’s story is, since October 1974, part of my DNA.
The great photo of the Kinsol Trestle by Toad Hollow Photography is, alas, like the name Cowichan Chronicles, too geocentric for a website that casts its net over the entire province.
So, it’s onward and upward. I can promise readers this much: no end of fascinating tales of human courage and sacrifice and adventure: war, love, hate, challenge, endurance, struggle, achievement and victory. (Did I miss anything?)
History dull and boring? Get real. History is the human drama in 3-D and technicolor! May it long be so here at www.britishcolumbiachronicles.ca.
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The amazing thing about the Point Ellice Bridge disaster of 1896 is that no one has written a book about it.
This streetcar crashed through the Point Ellice bridge with great loss of life. —BC Archives
Well, that’s about to change. Robert Clark of Qualicum Beach is on the job, according to his letter to the editor of the Times Colonist. He’d like to hear from anyone with a family connection to the disaster who might have stories, letters, photographs, etc., they would be willing to share. He can be reached at traducteur@hotmail.com.
I’ve always wanted to do the job myself but my bucket list is full.
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Another historic Island tragedy is the subject of a new book. Nanaimo author Kim Blank has written a fictionalized account of the murder of a young couple while parked in a Lover’s Lane in the 1960’s. It took the Nanimo News Bulletin reporter three paragraphs to identify the victims but I knew immediately he was referring to Diane Phipps and her boyfriend Leslie Dixon.
Besides the obvious tragedy, their case is a remarkable example of outstanding nation-wide police work that ultimately led to the arrest and conviction of their murderer.
Personally, I’ve never understood the rationale of writing a fictionalized account of a true life event such as this one. Why? Because I believe truth really is stranger than fiction! How do you improve upon that?
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A recent news report that Victoria ranks highest on the “crime severity index for any municipally police jurisdiction” in the province is a chilling reminder of how times have changed within my own lifetime.
Many a time (in the old days) I’ve wandered downtown streets and the docks to take photos. I never felt apprehensive, never had a frightful encounter, never even gave it a second thought. (I was never challenged by police either, come to think of it.)
How better to capture the feeling of Victoria’s colourful history than to explore its back alleys, side streets and waterfront when there’s no one else about, and no traffic. You can feel, almost visualize the history.
But I sure wouldn’t try that today.
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