Editorially speaking...
Can’t remember if I already told you about this one but...there are some great new B.C. historical websites out there; in fact, they seem to springing up like mushrooms.
The latest, on my radar at least, is Daryl Ashby’s Vancouver Island – Early History Group on Facebook. In the past week he has touched on two subjects of particular interest to me, Nanaimo’s Pioneer Cemetery and the No. 1 Mine disaster, Canada’s second worst colliery catastrophe. I’ve been researching the latter for 20 years!
Daryl solicits input from readers so Chronicles subscribers have an opportunity here of turning the tables by not just reading what he has posted, but of providing editorial content themselves. You can also Google new historical Facebook websites for Maple and Cowichan Bays.
I’ve been flooded with mail lately from readers and others. Friend Tom Too (okay, Tom W.) likes to drop a line from time to time. Recently, he wrote in reference to my ongoing research into the lost airmen of Pat Bay Airport during the Second World War, that it was his father’s sad duty to clean up these wrecks. Several years ago, Tom gave me his father’s collection of photos of these all but forgotten tragedies. How sad to think that these young airmen died in the service of their country without ever getting overseas...
I’ve had several requests lately for directions to what’s left of Mount Sicker’s copper mining history. You can still find evidence of that turn-of-the-last-century’s short-lived boom that drew, it’s said, 2000 residents while it lasted. But it didn’t last long and, just over a century later, Little Sicker Mountain is deserted but for its ravaged landscape and memories...
From Australia, a request to help a man researching his family history find the grave of an ancestor who’s interred in St. Ann’s Cemetery. Also, word that the Nanaimo Historical Society is working to secure funding for “scholarships and Nanaimo-related heritage projects”. These could include “producing a series of sort videos that highlight, persons, places and events in our community’s history and developing an archaeological survey program to document what remains of mining and military sites, for example.”
It always pleases me to see historical groups be pro-active instead of, to all appearances, sitting on their hands. Particularly during this time of pandemic when our institutions, threatened by lack of attendance thanks to social distancing, need to remind people of their existence and of the valuable contributions they make to the community. Children must be made aware of their heritage and museums serve this essential service well.
Victoria’s iconic Craigdarroch Castle has received $288,000 to restore its kitchen as it was during the Dunsmuir family’s tenure. Both the kitchen and the pantry were radically altered in 1919 when the former mansion, built between 1887 and 1890, was converted for use as a veterans’ hospital.
—Wikipedia photo by Michal Klajban
The costly reno is expected to “broaden the visitor experience,” according to the Castle’s executive director John Hughes. Almost 90 per cent of those who participated in a survey of what they wanted to see in the Castle expressed an interest in seeing a kitchen “and to learn more about the servants’ activities and food preparation in the Dunsmuir era”.
The restoration will include replacement of shutters, new wainscoting and mouldings around windows and doors, repair and painting of plaster surfaces and the installation of flooring.
To think that, not so long ago, the City of Victoria viewed the Castle as an albatross and seriously considered demolishing it for development!
On the educational front, the University of Victoria has published a booklet, Challenging Racist British Columbia’s 150 Years and Counting, for use by teachers, scholars, policymakers “and others”. How sad that we’ve taken so long to address our racist past.
Speaking of which, and my final thought for today, it was recently reported that the bill for residential school compensation has topped $3.2 billion. Over $3 billion that could have been better spent on health and education going instead to pay the bill incurred by our mean-minded forebears. Many believe that it’s wrong to apply the knowledge and beliefs of today to those of the past. In many instances this is so—but racial prejudice and forcibly removing children from their parents, of physically punishing them for speaking their own language, of trying to “civilize” them by brute force and coercion, were just as wrong then as they would be today.
Make no mistake: Canada is one of the greatest and one of the luckiest nations on earth. But it isn’t perfect and it’s essential that Canadians understand our mistakes of the past if we’re to have any hope of improving upon them.
Cheers, TW.
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