Editorially speaking...
Just finished Maria Tippett’s excellent biography of Emily Carr. I still have a problem with Emily’s later, more impressionistic work but I certainly have come to know her a little better as a gifted artist and as a woman.
When I was growing up there was a standing joke that Canadian artists had to go to the United States or Great Britain to be successful, and to die to be recognized in Canada. Fortunately for Emily, although acknowledgement of her genius with both paint and pen came late in life, it didn’t come too late; she died knowing that after all her years of struggling alone, of being true to her inner self at great sacrifice her genuine greatness as an artist and as an author had been recognized by both the public and by her peers.
Recently, South Wellington historian Helen Tilly was “checking out the [Canadian Railway Association of Canada] website...and came across an old E&N schedule from 1895 that mentions Alexandra [a Dunsmuir coal mine immediately north of South Wellington village] as one of their stops going up and down the Island. A neat find and a very interesting website. I am going to print out the schedule to add to my displays for the future [South Wellington] days.”
Note that the last stop is Wellington, just north of downtown Nanaimo; this is before the E&N Mainline was extended to Courtenay. Only a shallow sink-hole marks the general location of the entrance to the late 1800s Alexandra/Alexander/Alexandria Mine today. (There’s a story behind the variations of name but not today.)
COVID permitting, on June 19th, 2021 the Cumberland Museum will celebrate the 36th annual Miners Memorial Day “to commemorate and pay tribute to the workers of yesterday and today”. (Most Cumberland workers in days gone by were coal miners.)
The CMA is also offering educational tours of the historic Cumberland Chinatown and Japanese communities this spring. Geared towards grades 5-12, these tours are 45 minutes to an hour long and are guided by local historians and museum staff “who have worked directly with the descendants of both the Chinese and Japanese communities of Cumberland to shape these cultural landscapes’ narratives.”
Jennifer and I thoroughly enjoyed a Miners Memorial Day several years ago so it pleases me to recommend it to readers. For more information on tours and bookings, contact info@cumberlandmuseum.ca for rates and availability.
Pacific Coast Colliery Mine, South Wellington.--Photo courtesy Helen Tillie
An article in last week’s Cowichan Valley Citizen reported that a former member of the 1970s rock band Trooper, Frank Ludwig, has written a musical tribute to ‘The Day They Closed the Old Mill Down,’ the historic Chemainus sawmill. I was reminded of South Wellington rock-blues star David Gogo’s beautiful ballad, ‘She’s Breaking Through.’ It’s his tribute to the men of the morning shift of the Pacific Coast Colliery Coal Mine who inadvertently punched through into the abandoned and flooded Southfield No. 4 Mine workings.
Which explains the title of the song; among the lost was David Gogo’s great grandfather. He received a Juno nomination for this poignant ballad.
Another gifted Gogo, this one, John, co-wrote and starred in a nothing less than outstanding musical revue, ‘Good Timber: Songs & Stories of the Western Logger,” in the Chemainus Theatre several years ago. The songs were based upon the poetry of famous whistle-maker Robert E. Swanson. That’s one of the few occasions I’ve spent $20 on a CD and ‘Good Timber’ has been entertaining me ever since. I’ve always hoped that John Gogo and company would give the same treatment to railroaders and miners.
Vancouver-based Tiller’s Folly has also recorded some great B.C.-locale workings men’s songs and the late Charlie Fox of Ladysmith recorded a haunting tribute to Island coal miners, ‘A Million Tons of Coal.’
My all-time favourite song is Rita McNeill’s ‘Working Man’ sung by the Men of the Deeps (all retired coal miners). My all-time favourite lyrics are from Tennessee Ernie Ford’s 1950s classic, ‘16 Tons:’
If you see me coming, better step aside
A lot of men didn’t, a lot of men died.
The late country music star Lorette Lynn promoted herself as “A Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ Merle Travis wrote ‘Dark As a Dungeon Way Down in the Mine,’ and, the last that I can think of in this genre, is Jimmy Dean’s classic ‘Big Bad John.’
So, you see, I’m not the only one who has a thing for the coal miners of old!
A last word on coal mining: a full-page in a recent Times Colonist extolling Royal Roads University’s 25th anniversary was illustrated by a striking photo of Hatley Castle, now part of the university. This was coal magnate James Dunsmuir’s retirement estate beside the Esquimalt Lagoon; both the castle and the waterfront acreage must be among the most beautiful pieces of real estate in all of Greater Victoria. Too bad, as I’ve written several times before, that James Dunsmuir built his pleasure palace on the backs of his workers. The sad fact is, he was British Columbia’s own robber baron—which didn’t stop him from becoming premier and lieutenant-governor, however. There was some justice, I guess, in the fact that he didn’t enjoy either position, took early retirement and died a very unhappy man.
I’ll conclude for now by acknowledging an equally down-note, this also from the TC: columnist Anny Scoones’ recommendation of a seven-part series of books, Righting Canada’s Wrongs (Lorimer and Co.). There are seven titles aimed at a younger (teenaged and up) audience; published in hardcover they cost $34.95 each, as I was informed by Volume One Books, Duncan.
To date they deal with: Africville (black Canadians); Anti-Semitism and the MS St. Louis; the Chinese head tax; Italian Canadian Internment; Japanese Canadian Internment; the Komagata Maru; and Residential Schools. How sad it is that some of these grievances of the past are still with us.
That’s it for this week but remember: If you see me coming....
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