Editorially speaking...
Two heritage-related stories in the news this week—one with a happy future, the other on life support...
I’ve been telling you of the ongoing campaign to save the historic 1916 CNR station house in Hope which, despite having heritage designation and despite the protests of many Hope and B.C. residents, has been consigned to demolition by the District of Hope.
Said to be in sound structural condition, the venerable building was supposed to come down in March. But the Coalition for the Preservation of the Hope Station House filed a complaint to the office of the B.C. Ombudsperson against the District, “claiming unfair treatment and a lack of transparency when making decisions” on the old station’s fate.
Latest word is that the BCO office has issued a stop-work order, citing, among other concerns, Hope Council’s “omission of any consideration of the impact of the Station House’s potential heritage status at the time they voted to demolish it”.
Whether this stay of execution becomes a full reprieve remains to be seen, of course.
The historic (and photogenic) Alexandra Bridge in the foreground, its replacement farther downstream. —B.C. Parks photo
Now compare the Hope situation to this news account, courtesy of history professor Dan Marshall. He draws attention to readers of his Facebook page to the iconic (even legendary) 1926 Alexandra suspension bridge which has been granted $500,000 in funding from the Community Economic Resiliency Infrastructure Program (CERIP) to perform stabilization work.
According to the New Pathways to Gold website the funding will go towards repairing the bridge’s support towers and structural features, including cement works, restoration of mouldings and relief panels, repairing handrails and installing a plaque acknowledging this historic crossing point in partnership with the Spuzzum First Nation.
Here’s hoping that those on Hope Council read the news—and get the message.
Last week I sang praise to our Island coal mining heritage and mentioned that Rita MacNeil’s ode to her father and his workmates, Working Man, is my favourite song. Particularly (in all due respect to Rita) as sung by the Men of the Deeps. (Seriously, how could Rita, or anyone else for that matter, compete with these retired miners when the lights dim and they flick on their headlamps? It’s almost eerie!)
Until this week I had no idea that the legendary East Coast singer had composed 200(!) songs.
The only reason I know that now is because Rita is about to be inducted in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Known as ‘Cape Breton’s First Lady of Song,” she achieved national celebrity in her 40s after working in a series of low-pay jobs, including that of cleaning woman. Her breakthrough came in 1987 when Flying On Your Own, her ode to the struggles of single women, sold more than a million copies.
Rita MacNeil is also a member of the Order of Canada, the Order of Nova Scotia, and winner of 11 East Coast Music Awards including a lifetime achievement award. This is the latest, somewhat overdue, acknowledgement of her tremendous contribution to Canadian song and heritage.
Duncan lawyer Brian McDaniel is now a Duncan author, having published his history of Ocean Falls which, from 1908 through 1980, was one of the largest ‘company towns’ on the B.C. coast. It’s remembered for many reasons, in particular, for having had the highest annual rainfall (430 centimetres/170 inches) of any community in North America, and was only accessible by boat or seaplane. Most of the town and mill are gone and only 20-odd people live there today.
The son of one of the town’s two doctors, Brian McDaniel lived in Ocean Falls, 1953-1968, between the ages of five and 20. Ocean Falls was unique and its stories are worth preserving, he says, hence the book about which he gave a virtual talk to members of the Cowichan Historical Society last week. (I’d have given you a heads-up had I known earlier.)
I’ve joined another historical Facebook group, this one (https://www.facebook.com/MVSSBeaver/).
The historic steamship Beaver on the rocks off Stanley Park. Most of her best treasures were salvaged; much of her copper and brass survive today as commemorative medallions. —Wikipedia photo
The Hudson Bay Co.’s original sidewheel Beaver was the first steamship on the Pacific Coast and played a monumental role in British Columbia’s early development. The second Beaver, a replica, now lies at the bottom of Cowichan Bay. Back when I was a kid, it seemed that every other kid at school had a coin-like medallion struck from copper salvaged from the first ship when, for years, she perched high and dry on the rocks off Prospect Point (Vancouver’s Stanley Park) where she’d grounded while working as a tugboat.
S.S. Beaver, B.C.’s first lady of ships, is a neat subject for a social media site and I hope to contribute to it as time (and energy) permit.
Another historical subject with Hudson’s Bay Co. roots also surfaced with another FB group, this one the Vancouver Island – Early History Group. You may not recognize Capt. Walter Colquhoun Grant by name but you know his work: he’s the genius who brought us the Scotch broom bush, one of the most invasive of all Island plants.
An almost penniless former army officer when he arrived in outpost Victoria, he’s also credited, Wikipedia tells us, with having collected data about the flora, fauna, natives and trade for the Royal Geographic Society, having a map drawn of Vancouver Island, and for conducting a census (whites only) of Fort Victoria, Nanaimo and Fort Rupert in 1853.
In his memoirs HBCo. doctor John S. Helmcken gives an amusing description of life in the single men’s quarters of Fort Victoria where Grant quickly wore out his welcome by sponging from his fellows—to the point of borrowing (without asking) another man’s razor. His attempt to create a farm in the Sooke wilds without money and without any real sense of practicality was doomed from the start.
Site administrator Daryl Ashby, author of a book on Sooke pioneer John Muir, wrote this lively piece on Grant, “The Muirs’ Gaelic Neighbour.”
That’s it for this week. —TW
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