Second S.S. Beaver Now at the Bottom of Cowichan Bay
Well, it would appear that it’s the end of the line and Davy Jones’s Locker for the good ship Beaver II. As if Cowichan Bay hasn’t had enough trouble in recent years with derelict ships and barges that, seemingly beyond the government pale, are free to rust away at anchor then to sink and to a foul a public waterway. Go figure. The Beaver II is, or was, a replica of the historic Hudson’s Bay Co. steamship Beaver which has been termed “the first smokestack on the northwest Pacific”. What a difference in just six years! It was in June 2008, in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, that I wrote that the modern S.S. Beaver was going to star in her fourth Centennial celebration in 40 years after undergoing a $1-million dollar refit in time for British Columbia’s 150th anniversary....
Read MoreCapt. William Grant gave us the Scottish broom plant
“He came here when he was 22, in 1849, made himself a figure, a dashing figure, apparently; everyone liked him, though he was always borrowing; always broke and in debt; full of fun; in general, a carefree adventurer…” So wrote one historian of Capt. Walter Colquhoun Grant, Sooke’s first settler and inspiration for Sooke Inlet’s Grant Rocks. Orphaned at the age of 7, the adventurous pioneer was raised in comfort by an aunt and two uncles. His doting relations seem to have given him a taste for the finer things in life and, having quickly squandered his father’s estate, Grant had to sell his army commission in the Royal Scots Greys. To Fort Victoria He then conceived the idea of emigrating to the tiny outpost of Fort Victoria, Vancouver Island, to establish a grand estate where he’d play...
Read MoreHelicopter sale awakens fond memory
A small headline on the business page of the Times-Colonist reporting the sale of VIH Aviation Ltd., the descendant of Vancouver Island Helicopters, brought to mind another headline that chose to coincide with–and almost subvert–one of the most memorable days of my life. I’d been writing and prowling about the historic gold-bearing Leech River country in the Sooke hills for several years, my articles appearing in The Daily Colonist’s weekly magazine section, The Islander. It was in response to one on the 1860s Leechtown gold rush that a Mr. Henson phoned me. Disabled in the First World War, he’d supplemented his disability pension and fed his family through the dirty ‘30s by prospecting in this historic area, some 16 air miles west of Victoria. The gold, up to 22 karats, is among the purest to be had, he told...
Read More‘Second Largest’ Douglas fir recalls Westholme giant
For years, environmental groups such as the Western Canada Wilderness Committee have been urging the provincial government to identify the 100 largest and oldest specimens of each of B.C.’s tree species and legislate protection for them. Sadly, even should they succeed, it will be a matter of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Other than a few notable exceptions, those trees which will qualify for this register are unlikely to be truly representative of the biggest and best of their species at this late date. Just those which have escaped the logger’s axe or Mother Nature’s tempests. There was a time within living memory when the Westholme Valley, between Duncan and Chemainus on the Island Highway, would have made such a list. Long before the arrival of the first white settlers, the ‘Old Guardsman’ was a...
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