Arts and Culture Came Hard to Nanaimo Pioneers
There was a time when arts and culture in Nanaimo were all but non-existent. Some early efforts to improve upon this sad status quo were doomed to, at best, minimal progress and, at worst, resounding failure. Among those who really tried were the founders of the Mechanics’ Institute on Bastion Street. If you think this was a school for mechanics, by the way, you’d be wrong. It was indeed a place of learning but in a totally different way. At the Institute you had free access to a library, could sit quietly and read or write a letter home, listen to a lecture or participate in spirited debates on religion, philosophy and politics. If there were any ‘mechanics’ there, they’d be doing the same. Taking things a step further, members of the Mechanics’ Institute raised $40 to start a...
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Old Photos Found at Flea Markets Make Me Sad
How many times I’ve found them over the years: old photos, scrapbooks and other very personal family memorabilia at flea markets and garage sales. All for sale, of course. Their very presence at these venues and the fact that they’re for sale like any other commodity always bothers me so I often ‘rescue’ them. These old photos are (or were or should be) some family’s treasured keepsakes. What are they doing on a dealer’s table, lumped among household goods and other everyday items? But this latest batch of old photos is unique—they found me, having been passed on after being retrieved from, of all places, the “free store” at Duncan’s Bings Creek recycling centre. There are eight old photos in total including a daguerreotype, the pioneering type of photo printed on tinplate rather than, as later, paper. Two are...
Read MoreCowichan Poet Robert McLay Honoured No. 1 Mine Victims
BACKGROUND: When Cowichan settler Robert McLay took pen in hand to honour the lost miners of Nanaimo’s No. 1 Mine, he did so as not just as a poet but as a former coal miner himself. His firsthand knowledge of the dangers of working underground made his tribute from the heart even more meaningful… As many Nanaimo residents prepared to sit down to dinner May 3, 1887, an explosion shook the workings of the Vancouver Coal Co.’s No. 1 Esplanade Mine. Then a second blast and the steady scream of the mine’s whistle confirmed yet another colliery disaster. Although coal towns Nanaimo and neighbouring Wellington were no strangers to tragedy over the industry’s 30-odd years, this one was the worst of all,:150 men. It’s Canada’s second worst colliery disaster. But the horrific story of the No. 1 Esplanade Mine...
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Forest Workers Memorial Park, Lake Cowichan
With everyone’s thoughts on the COVID-19 crisis, this year’s national Workers’ Day of Mourning passed quietly. For some years now April 28th has been officially designated the annual Day of Mourning to “remember those who have died on the job, and to reflect on what needs to be done to prevent more deaths and injuries”. Locally, it has become the practice of representatives of various labour councils and others to gather at Forest Workers Memorial Park, the first of its kind in B.C. It’s situated in Lake Cowichan because the Cowichan Lake region has a long history of logging and milling and because it’s where a loggers’ union, the IWA, first took root in the 1920s. Funded by the sale of Commemorative Bricks, the local Credit Union Legacy Fund and local industry, the small park consists of a fountain,...
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