Editorially speaking...
I’ll begin this week on a sombre note, courtesy of the British Columbia Historical Federation:
Glen Mofford, 1954-2022
Feb. 24, 2022
The BC Historical Federation was saddened to learn of the death of BC writer and historian Glen Mofford.
Glen wrote about BC’s historic hotels and their drinking establishments for many years, his work culminating in the books Aqua Vitae: A History of the Saloons and Hotels, Bars of Victoria, 1851-1917 [published 2016], and Along the E&N: A Journey Back to the Historic Hotels of Vancouver Island (published 2019).
Glen was an avid social media user, sharing his passion for BC’s history with others.
Historian and author Glen A. Mofford. ---Touchwood Editions
His publisher, Touchwood Editions, described him as a historian and a writer with a passion for sharing the social history of British Columbia who graduated from Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University and wrote about BC’s historic hotels and their drinking establishments for more than 10 years.
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I didn’t know Glen personally and met him virtually through his Facebook website which was devoted to his next book project, this one province-wide, on frontier hotels.
Glen’s collection of photos and postcards must have numbered in the high 1000s, every FB post being not one but several photos of fascinating historical scenes and pioneers.
I join with the BCF is acknowledging Glen’s contribution to the saving of our history, mourn his loss and express my condolences to his family. I understand that his work is to be continued, online, by others. I surely hope so; we need more devoted historians like Glen A. Mofford.
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On a happier note, a new book has been released across the line in Washington. Byron Riblet: Forgotten Engineering Genius by Ty A. Brown is the story of the man who perfected the tramlines that are in use and identifiable, today, as ski-lifts.
But they started out as tramlines to carry ores from isolated and mountainous mining operations. Mr. Riblet brought one of his effective and economical cable systems to the Cowichan Valley just after the turn of the last century. That’s when he was commissioned to connect the Tyee Mine on Mount Sicker to the E&N Railway at Tyee Crossing, the copper ores being carried in aerial buckets.
Looking up from the Lenora townsite on Mount Sicker to the ore pile of the Tyee Mine which Byron Riblet successfully linked to the E&N Railway with his aerial tramline.
It was far more efficient and less costly to build and to maintain than competing Lenora Mine’s narrow gauge railway to Crofton. With the Tyee’s closure, the tramline hardware was recycled at a mine in the Barkley Sound area.
Sadly, until recent years, two of the wooden towers still stood, tall and firm, but loggers downed them.
Sadly, too, although there’s an entire chapter on the Riblet tramlines in B.C.’s silvery Slocan, not a mention of the Tyee on Mount Sicker. A slight that I shall correct in a future Chronicle.
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In other news, it has been reported that the province is going to invest $35 million in Indigenous languages, arts, culture and heritage across B.C.
One of the initiative’s primary goals is rejuvenating First Nations languages, some of which are on the brink of extinction.
As a firsthand example of what this means to individuals, Autumn Cooper a young teacher from the Stz’uminus First nation near Ladysmith said, “The power you feel learning your language, there are no words for it—you feel so much more connected to your culture in so many ways because of your language.”
We’ve certainly come a long way from the Residential Schools where children were forbidden at the threat of physical punishment to speak their native languages. We still have a long way to go, of course, but this program sounds like a promising stepping stone.
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