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Gold!
There’s no other word in the English language quite like it.
We of the nuclear and digital age can’t really grasp the full depth and meaning of the word that once held humankind in its thrall. That’s because we take it for granted that most men and women, at least those of us in the western world, are for the most part the masters of our own destinies.
The world is our oyster, right?
Read MoreThere was a time in the age of wooden ships and iron men when a ship’s captain was God, answerable only to his conscience—if he had one.
Read More(Conclusion)
Two weeks ago, I introduced you to N.P. Nathan Dougan, Cobble Hill and area’s foremost historian, and his son, Bob, who carried the torch until his death in the 1990’s.
Read More(First of two parts)
Over the past two weeks, I introduced you to N.P. Nathan Dougan, Cobble Hill and area’s foremost historian, and his son, Bob, who carried the torch until his own death in the 1990’s.
Read MoreYes, I’ve been writing the Chronicles for a long time now, first in the Cowichan Valley Citizen for 23 years and, since then, here online.
But Nathan Dougan was way, way ahead of me.
Read MoreDoes a mystery tunnel, complete with steps carved into a solid rock cliff—with a cache of gold bars—exist in a Vancouver Island rain forest?
The answer to this question would solve what must be one of the most intriguing tales of lost treasure in British Columbia history—and the key, like that to 'Rattlesnake' Dick Barter’s alleged hoard (another story for another time)—lies within 25 miles of Victoria!
Read MoreWas John Sharp really who he claimed to be—who many, in fact, also believed him to be—the infamous Confederate guerrilla leader, William Clarke Quantrill?
If he was an imposter, then who was he? No John Sharp appears in the existing records.
Read MoreIt’s generally accepted that the infamous Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill died a week after being shot and paralyzed from the shoulders down in a skirmish with Union irregulars in the weeks following the official end of the American Civil War. But—did he?
Read MoreLast week I outlined William Quantrill’s career as a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. I also described his death and the dispersal of his remains.
But there’s more to this part of the story that’s crucial to our understanding the belief that, 40 years after the end of the Civil War, John Sharp, Coal Harbour watchman, was in fact a fugitive Quantrill who’d escaped death in Kentucky.
Read More(Part 1) Google William Clarke Quantrill and you’ll find reference after reference to a man who’s immortalized not as a hero or great Confederate general of the American Civil War but as what we term today, a war criminal, a mass murderer. From school and Sunday school teacher to “the bloodiest man in American history” in a matter of just a few years, his was quite a career—one that ended violently at the age of 27 during a skirmish with Federal troops.
Read MoreMy intent this week is to focus on the growing trend of museums to surrender the priceless antiquities of ancient worlds—treasures often held by museums far from their creators and national origins—but particularly those much closer to home, right here in British Columbia.
Read MoreThe Royal BC Museum has certainly been in the news lately—most of it bad, unfortunately. You’ve needed a program to follow recent developments, all of which have been reported in the news media and in Chronicles editorials so don’t bear repeating today.
Instead, I’m gong to turn back the clock to the very beginning of our senior museum and archives, to the man who did so much to found the former by donating his personal collection of stuffed and mounted animals.
Read MoreUntil I embraced the digital age and all that it offers, including finger-touch research capabilities, my most thumbed reference books were the Oxford Dictionary, the B.C. Department of Mines’ Annual Reports, the British Columbia Gazetteer and Capt. John T. Walbran’s British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906.
Read MoreIt’s uncanny how history mimics if not actually repeats itself. Last month’s excitement over a series of so-called ‘scientific’ research balloons from China provided an eerie reminder of the Second World War. That’s when the Japanese attempted to ignite our forests with incendiary bombs delivered via the air currents of the aptly-named Japanese current.
Read MoreAs we’ve seen, throughout the 1850’s the Iroquois guide and interpreter Tomo Antoine was in the thick of almost every major exploration and police action that occurred on Vancouver Island. He was, in fact, Chief Factor/Governor James Douglas’s right-hand man in the field. For all that, he’s been all but forgotten.
Read MoreAs we’ve seen, two men were pivotal to the events leading up to the Cowichan Valley’s only recorded hanging. The first one is well known; in fact, Sir James Douglas is remembered as ‘the father of British Columbia’.
Read MoreWith Truth and Reconciliation has come a new awareness of and sensitivity to our colonial history. Everything about British Columbia’s formative years, once taken as gospel, is now under review.
Read MoreMany are the pitfalls awaiting the unwary history student.
Even the experienced researcher can be lured off course by these sirens of our colourful past. To a writer of ‘popular’ history, these detours can be profitable as well as pleasant; ofttimes, research of one story can uncover another. And another and another.
Read MoreBy the time I was in my 20’s I was deep into writing about British Columbia and Canadian history, including, of course, stories about the RCN.
Read MoreThere’s no getting around it: people and their actions—the good, the bad and the ugly—are fascinating. And the treasure trove of documented history available even to casual researchers is beyond calculation. I was reminded of this recently while reorganizing my library: a story I’d researched way back when I was writing weekly for the Victoria Colonist. It’s a sad tale, one so unlikely that I defy any fiction writer to make it up.
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