*British Columbia Chronicles special bonus section for Members Only.*
(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 MoreWelcome to the ‘new’ Chronicles!
British Columbia Chronicles.ca, that is, rather than CowichanChronicles.com.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how some Facebook posts can generate an emotional response from readers. One that I wrote recently appears to have struck a chord.
It's a subject I've written about numerous times over the years, inspired by some of the fascinating, sometimes saddening, finds I've made in my travels. Let me explain...
Read MoreWell, the kids are back to school and the PNE is on again. I’m referring to the Pacific National Exhibition, of course, which everyone knows by its initials.
The PNE has a special place in my memory bank. Back in the dark ages when I was a kid, it was the harbinger of death for me.
Read MoreIt's not a very big book: half an inch thick, yes, but only 4 1/2 inches wide by less than six inches deep, and the type covers only 3 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches. It really is a pocket book.
But, proving that good things can sometimes come in small packages, there's a lot of great content in Chinook Days' 200 pages, 1000 copies of which were published in 1926 by the Vancouver Sun as a souvenir for the opening of the Grouse Mountain Highway.
Read MoreI’m absolutely amazed by the wonders of our technological age, particularly as it applies to my fields of researching, writing and publishing.
Read More(Conclusion)
Last week’s Part 1 of A Tale of Two Soldiers was to be a doubleheader, the stories of both Gunner Ratcliffe, the villain, and Private Michael James O’Rourke, VC, MM—war hero, labour activist and, by all measures, an outstanding man.
A reluctant latecomer to social media, as I’ve admitted before, I’ve come to recognize its outstanding potential as a conduit for feedback from readers.
I can burn the midnight oil, researching, writing and polishing posts for the Chronicles, then my graphics guru Patricia hits the send button and—poof!—they’re in your morning mailbox.
Read More(Part 1)
They couldn’t have been more unalike.
About the only thing they had in common was that they both served in uniform.
One was a hero, winner of the Empire’s highest medal for gallantry, the Victoria Cross, and the Military Medal.
Read MoreThe recent reopening of the Royal BC Museum’s controversial Old Town exhibit drew an interesting letter to the editor of the Victoria Times Colonist. Bob Miers welcomed the return of this popular attraction with its more “socially inclusive themes” but lamented that there’s no mention of Sir James Douglas, our first colonial governor and, without doubt, an unrecognized Father of Confederation.
Read MoreBuild it and they will come.
It may have worked in a novel and in a movie but, sad to say, it seldom works in real life. If ever you wanted proof, take the sad story of George Turner and his church.
He poured heart and soul, every penny he had and years of his life into building the Church of Jesus Christ of Christian Brotherhood that, today, minus its tower and bell, is a sales and service shop.
Read MoreTowards the end of my accompanying post on cigarettes I note the multi-billion-dollar cash settlement between the tobacco companies and 46 American states, to be paid over 25 years.
In 2015 JTI Macdonald Corp., Imperial Tobacco and Rothmans-Benson and Hedges were ordered to pay $15 billion to Quebec smokers in the biggest class action suit in Canadian history.
Read MoreHow times have changed. It wasn’t all that long ago that almost everybody smoked cigarettes, cigars and/or pipes.
But the latest statistics for Canada (2020) show that just one Canadian in 10 smokes cigarettes, down from 12% the previous year. More men (12%) smoke than women (9%). These statistics include those who smoke only occasionally.
Read MoreA mention in last week’s Chronicles of an email from friend and subscriber Stephanie Walter re: her having found a copy of my evergreen book, Ghost Town Trails of Vancouver Island (as it was originally titled in 1975) drew a quick response:
Read MoreThe demolition, several years ago, of the 1890 Officers’ Mess and Quarters at Work Point, Victoria, inspired a letter to the editor of the Times Colonist warning against disturbing its two resident ghosts.
Read MoreAs the son of a career Royal Canadian Navy man, and the writer of many, many stories on shipwrecks, a recent article in the Nanaimo News Bulletin piqued my interest.
Read MoreReaders are forgiven if they’ve come to think of me as an unabashed union supporter based upon Chronicles that have been sympathetic to the struggles of the labourers of old. Such as the Vancouver Island coal miners and the unemployed (many of them veterans) who staged the occupation of the Vancouver post office then the great Trek to Ottawa in the depth of the 1930’s Great Depression.
Read MoreIn my recent series on the Leech River gold rush I made several references to Vancouver Island colonial governor Arthur Edward Kennedy.
Read MoreAs His Majesty’s Ship Nabob this small aircraft carrier—Canada’s ‘first’ flattop—has gone down in naval history for surviving a torpedo in August 1944 during an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz.
To the amazement of many, and thanks to the heroism of her crew, she made it safely back to port.
Read MoreThe B.C. Aviation Museum has scored another great acquisition, the latest being a CF104 Starfighter from the Cold War era. This supersonic jet goes down in aviation history as being the first aircraft to break Mach 2—twice the speed of sound.
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