When we left off last week, California badman ‘Judge’ Ned McGowan had barely escaped a vigilante neck-tie for his alleged role in planning the murder of crusading San Francisco newspaper editor James King.
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I see ‘history’ is in the news again. Close to home, Duncan has ditched its town crier and North Cowichan its coat of arms, both symbols of our European roots the casualties of “inclusion” in our new age of colonial atonement, racial awareness and reconciliation.
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Bloodless it may have been, a tempest in the proverbial teapot, a farce, even. But bland, never!
Read MoreThis will be an abbreviated 100 Years Ago as fully one-half of this front page is dedicated to a report of the just-held Fall Fair and a list of prize winners.
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again when Elder College, subject to COVID restrictions, resumes at the Cowichan Community Centre and, in some cases, on-site.
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I have no idea what young boys read today. My favourites were Mark Twain (in particular Tom Sawyer which I’ve read a half-dozen times) and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Read MoreThe big news story of the day was the Union of B.C. Municipalities Convention in Alberni; the main topic of concern, at least for the Duncan delegates, Mayor Pitt and City Clerk Greig, was roads. (An issue that has ever been with us, it seems.)
Read MoreIn a world of constant change it’s heartening to know that the Fall Fair aka Cowichan Exhibition, is still with us (even if, in pandemic times, in a virtual state).
Read MoreThere is hope for the future. In response to my recent two-part series on the 1900 Ladysmith train wreck, a new subscriber kindly wrote to tell of taking his 11-year-old son metal detecting.
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Situated on Vancouver Island’s west coast, between Long Beach and Ucluelet, Florencia Bay (until 1930 known as Wreck Bay) marks the final resting place of the Peruvian brigantine of this name.
Read MoreA problem with telling a story in a neat and structured form is that some good ‘nuggets’ just don’t fit, not even as sidebars. There are three that didn’t make the cut for this week’s bio of Gerry Wellburn.
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One of the downfalls of having to work most of the time is the number of lost opportunities. Over the years there have been many. One I truly regret is not having known Gerry Wellburn, father of the B.C. Forest Museum, today’s B.C. Forest Discovery Centre…
Read MoreFor the second week in a row the big news in the Leader was agricultural, this time headlined, GROWING SEED INDUSTRY - Cowichan’s Sweet Pea Far Superior to that of California -Harvesting Now.
Read MoreAgriculture, particularly dairy farming, is still a major player in the Valley economy, but nothing like it was a century ago. Back then, most residents operated their own small farms…
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Being an armchair adventurer has never been my thing. I’ve always wanted to see it for myself, to touch, to take photos—to feel—then write about it. And you can ‘t get much more hands-on than by using a metal detector.
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You won’t find this in Bob Dougan’s book, A Story To Be Told. It’s something he told me personally; of growing up on the family farm on Telegraph Road, Cobble Hill, and of knowing ever so vaguely, even as a child, that there was a skeleton in the family closet.
Read MoreLet’s begin with this quote from Capt. George Vancouver as a follow-up to August 5th’s post on Military Mapmakers.
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“I’ve written a book.” This statement, from almost anyone else, would have been no outrageous thing in itself. I heard if often when wearing my publisher-printer hat.
Read MoreIt’s by no means the biggest news story on this front page of the Leader but it’s the most eye-catching. Harry Blake, 74, had died in Chemainus hospital 16 days after falling onto a jagged rock from a haystack. He suffered fractured ribs and a dislocated spine.
Read MoreAt least another week of sun, heat, no rain and wild fires ahead of us, alas...if you pore through back issues of the Cowichan Leader as I do regularly, hot and dry summers weren’t a novelty in the Cowichan Valley or on the Island. But I’ve not seen references to a summer such as we’re experiencing now, thanks in part, we’re told, to global warming.
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