I really wanted to begin the new year with more of an upbeat story. But...
I also didn’t want to do another shipwreck so soon after the S.S. M.G. Zalinski, either. But...
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It should come as no surprise that the yuletide spirit has influenced our mapmakers. In British Columbia it can be found, in variations, at least 18 times.
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More than three-quarters of a century after she sank in B.C.’s remote Grenville Channel, an American army transport is back in the news.
Oil is leaking from the wreck of the S.S. Brigadier General M.G. Zalinski, posing an immediate environmental threat that must be dealt with, according to the Canadian Coast Guard. This, despite the fact that 44,000 litres of heavy oil and 319,000 litres of oily water were extracted from the wreck nine years ago.
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From the man who brought us those memorable eccentrics, Messrs. David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Barnaby Rudge, Mr. Pickwick and Company—there came to Victoria in 1868 the slight figure, in flesh and in fact, of one Acting Lieut. Sydney Smith Haldimand Dickens, RN.
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Conclusion
It’s one of the Cariboo’s greatest mysteries—whatever became of the Halden family, Arthur, Adah and Stanley?
Part 2
As we’ve seen, in October 1920, Arthur, Adah and Stanley Halden appeared to have abandoned their Quesnel farm and left a number of outstanding debts around town. The biggest one, all of $1250, a large sum at that time, was a promissory note made out to their hired hand, David Arthur Clark. It was Clark who told those who asked that the Haldens had left for Spokane to attend Arthur’s brother’s funeral, but he’d had no word from them since.
Take notice that you have been sued in the Country Court, holden at Quesnel, by David Arthur Clark, and that a copy of the summons has been filed for you in the Quesnel Registry of the said Court. You are required to dispute the said action by filing a dispute note in the said Registry within twenty days of the first appearance of this advertisement.
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Tuesday’s issue of the Cowichan Valley Citizen marked the 25th year that I’ve written the Remembrance Day edition for my Duncan newspaper—a quarter-century-long labour of love.
For this week’s Chronicles, it’s a virtual visit to the CFB Esquimalt Naval and Military Museum. This amazing place, even though situated within CFB Naden, on the CFB Esquimalt naval base, is open to the public, seven days a week, 10:00 to 3: 30 except on statutory holidays, at the cost of a donation.
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Communities throughout British Columbia will shudder in mock terror tonight as, once again, ghosts and goblins haunt the streets for another brief Halloween.
Victorians are perhaps fortunate. None of them is old enough to have lived through a solid, spine-tingling week when readers of the Colonist thrilled to the eerie rattling and ramblings of a not-so-innocuous phantom, and marvelled at hints of a hidden murder...
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International borders, it seems, are an invitation to smugglers of humans and goods. You know, build it and they will come.
Certainly, the international waters between Victoria and Washington State, primarily those of the San Juan and Gulf islands, have been the arenas of illicit activities almost since the arrival of the first Whites.
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Throughout the Pacific Northwest at the turn of the last century there was no argument as to the Speed Queen of the Seas: the CPR flagship Princess Victoria. With three funnels belching black smoke, the sleek liner raced between Victoria, Vancouver and Puget Sound ports, showing her stern to all challengers.
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(Conclusion)
As we saw in last week’s Chronicles, John A. ‘Cariboo’ Cameron pickled his dead wife then then set out to haul her body 400 miles over the snow and ice by sled to take her, first to Victoria, then back home to Upper Canada.
(Part 1)
Anybody who’s ever read anything about the Cariboo gold rush has heard of John Angus Cameron.
Not by his formal name, maybe, but by the moniker by which he’s still remembered, ‘Cariboo’ Cameron.
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It happened in an instant, with a single flash of flame like that of a lightning bolt.
* * * * *
We know that more than 600 miners were killed on the job in Nanaimo area coal mines over that industry's 80-year history. If we take into account those who died later, sometimes much later, from their injuries or from work-related illnesses, the death toll must be much greater.
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In 55 years she steamed 2.5 million miles and won the affection of all, seaman and passenger, who boarded her. When she died, 1000s, from coast to coast, mourned.
In 1896, the Canadian Pacific Railway had assumed control of the defunct Columbia and Kootenay Railway’s steamboat service, comprising seven steamers, 10 barges, various other assets, and contracts to construct three more vessels for use on the Arrow and Spokane lakes. The Kootenay, Rossland and Nakusp entered service on schedule, the Nakusp being lost to fire at Arrowhead, Dec. 23, 1897.
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Iconic explorers and the builders of the Canadian Pacific Railway aside, not many Canadian land surveyors have achieved national stature.
In his day, Victoria-based Frank Swannell (1880-1969) was the exception, nationally recognized for his incredible feats with both a transit level and a camera. Over 40 years, on foot, on horseback and by canoe, he probably covered more British Columbia terrain than any other man before or since.
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Although totally unlike the characters in the 1970s TV sitcom, William and Amelia Copperman must be regarded as Victoria’s very own Odd Couple. Their strange and stormy marital partnership amused, amazed and outraged fellow citizens for 15 incredible years.
They’re yet another reminder that they just don’t make real characters like they used to!
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Conclusion
As we have seen, this was no Wild West town of false-front buildings lining a single street with a scattering of shacks. The Boundary Country’s Phoenix was nothing less than a city in every sense of the word: modern, substantial buildings, services, fine homes, a hospital, brewery, skating rink, and rail connection to the outside world—all the latest amenities of the first two decades of the 20th century.
Then—it was gone, just a man-made lake on top of a mountain in the wilderness.
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Part 1
This was no Wild West town of false-front buildings lining a single street and a scattering of shacks. The Boundary Country’s Phoenix was nothing less than a city in every sense of the word: modern substantial buildings and services, fine homes, a hospital, even a skating rink, and not one but two rail connections to the outside world—all the latest amenities of the first two decades of the 20th century.
Then—“the highest incorporated city in Canada” was gone, just a man-made lake on top of a mountain in the wilderness.
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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.
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