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“Been out of food for two months. For God's sake pick us up."
Whenever tragedy struck the west coast of Vancouver Island during the years immediately preceding the Second World War, it usually was a Ginger Coote Airways plane to the rescue. Sometimes, however, even its dauntless pilots couldn't help.
So it was for Vancouver trappers James H. Ryckman, 56, and Lloyd Coombs.
Read MoreOf the innumerable attempts at founding the perfect society which have been recorded in provincial history, probably the best known is Sointula, ‘Place of Harmony,’ the ill-fated Finnish colony on Malcolm Island near Port McNeill. Northwest coast Vancouver Island’s Cape Scott colony was a more pragmatic approach to achieving social and economic independence but it, too, failed, albeit for reasons other than internal discord.
Read MoreAlmost a century has passed since the initials ‘J.N.T.’ last graced the pages of the Victoria Colonist. It was back in the winter of 1881 that James Nealon Thain, popular Victoria businessman and member of an illustrious pioneer family, was “struck by paralysis of the brain” and died in hospital the same day.
Read More(Conclusion)
For more than 30 years, respected civil engineer Robert Homfray kept his promise not to publish his account of a dangerous surveying expedition in search of a shortcut to the Cariboo in 1861.
Finally, in 1894, at the insistence of friends, he agreed to tell of his epic ‘winter journey of 1861’. That was when he and six others had suffered innumerable hardships and near-death during an attempt to survey a new, shorter route to the gold fields of the B.C Interior by way of Bute Inlet.
Read More(Part 1)
For more than 30 years, respected civil engineer Robert Homfray kept his promise not to publish his account of a dangerous surveying expedition to the Cariboo in 1861.
Finally, in 1894, at the insistence of friends, he agreed to tell of his epic ‘winter journey of 1861’. That was when he and six others had suffered innumerable hardships during an attempt to survey a new, shorter route to the gold fields of the B.C Interior by way of Bute Inlet.
Read MoreIn my recent caption for the coming Christmas Chronicle, I sort of joked that, thanks to email, hardly anyone mails Christmas cards any more, with or without an envelope.
Read MoreChristmas Day, 1858. For pioneer British Columbia journalist D.W. Higgins this was his most memorable Yuletide of all—the time Christmas dinner almost cost him his life.
Read More
