Innholdsfortegnelse for 52.4 | Winter 2019 i British Columbia History

As a German-born coal miner, Herman Elmer was an exceptional member of local union 2334 United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) at Michel, British Columbia. In a community populated by British, Canadian, American, Italian, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian immigrants, his German national origin was remarkable because it was so rarely encountered in the years just before the First World War. He stood for vice-president of District 18 UMWA in July 1913 and polled impressively; in August he became secretary of the Michel local union and won immediate praise; in February 1914, he worked successfully for a dramatic change to the constitution of District 18. Yet in the autumn of 1914, Elmer was arrested for sedition and imprisoned without trial. In both his arrest and his imprisonment, he was also exceptional. Throughout…

This is an edited excerpt from a policy paper prepared by Karen Aird, Gretchen Fox and Angie Bain on behalf of First Peoples’ Cultural Council for release in August of 2019. The complete version can be found at www.fpcc.ca A footprint of the past Cultural heritage is more than just celebrating and protecting built heritage. It is all the aspects of a community’s past and present that it considers valuable and desires to share with future generations. Indigenous cultural heritage (ICH) is a footprint of the past, reminding us who we are, what we have done and how we might improve upon our work. A critical part of rebuilding Indigenous cultures and nations requires that Indigenous Peoples reclaim their voices, choose how the past is documented, described, understood, managed, and…

The broad street is paved now. Trees obscure the facades, and the sidewalks are concrete. The famed Mile 0 Post, created in 1947, stands at the intersection of Dawson Creek’s 102nd Avenue and 10th Street. When I was a little girl growing up at the southern terminus of the Alaska Highway, 102nd Avenue looked much as it did a few years earlier when the United States Army photographer captured the street view of the mid-1940s. Thursday was shopping day. After lunch, holding tightly to my mother’s hand, I tried hard to avoid stepping on the cracks between the sidewalk boards. Sometimes, we shared greetings with someone working in a front garden, but our first stop was Spittal’s Meat Market, just west of 10th Street. The Rexall Drug Store (just behind…

Past Forward profiles websites, podcasts, and apps that explore British Columbia’s diverse history through stories and experiences. Two of the websites profiled are Virtual Museum of Canada online exhibits, which are developed with museums across the country. I’ve profiled two recent exhibits that delve into BC history but there are many others (and several hundred exhibits across Canada!). Check them out at: http://www.virtualmuseum. ca/home/ Secret Victoria: Rush to Freedom  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7tvk15vzKU In 1858, African American settlers arrived in Victoria at the invitation of Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor James Douglas to prevent American expansion. This important story is investigated in a short documentary that features interviews with filmmaker Anthony Brown and Dr. John Lutz, professor from the University of Victoria. Members of this group were profiled, including Louis and Sylvia Stark…

It’s a perfect day for paddling. Clear skies, mild, and Mount Baker’s peaks are bathed in fall sunlight. We watch a huge sturgeon surface and splash nearby, and feel the rumble of trains as we paddle beneath the 1909 CPR bridge that crosses the Fraser River at Mission. Hauling our kayaks onto the shoreline we notice five pieces of brick neatly arranged in a square. Fit together, they spell CLAYBURN. Here is BC history, right at our feet on the beach. Clayburn bricks built some of the province’s most famous landmarks, including the 1913 Hotel Vancouver, St Paul’s Hospital, and the spectacular Marine Building. The Union Club and new wing of the Empress Hotel in Victoria were also fashioned from Clayburn bricks. These bricks hide in driveways, basements, and gardens…

A collaboration between oral historian Robert Budd and northwest coast First Nations artist Roy Henry Vickers that illuminates the history of the Skeena River region. An ecologically diverse area in the path of the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline, the Skeena is known as Xien (“water of the clouds”) to the Gitskan and Tsimshian. Oral histories collected by CBC radio producer Imbert Orchard in the 1960s reflect on how the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Omineca gold rush, and the railway impacted the Skeena River’s people and landscape and are paired with forty pieces of contemporary art created by Roy Henry Vickers. Read this for the: stunning fusion of art and history, prompts in the book that guide readers to listen to Orchard’s corresponding recordings (preserved at the BC Archives) and the…

I love when research works. When you can focus the lens of time a little bit more, so looking back through the years and misty half-memories you can see more clearly, and find that one crisp moment that shines so brightly it lights up all the corners of the room. This focus came to me as a gift when I realized that I had been led astray by a famous artist on the path of researching my book, Talking with Grandmothers, about our family history and the origins of Vancouver. (In fairness, though, this artist passed on in 1945 and had no idea I was following her!). After three years of research, one special thing had continued to elude me, and that was the birth name of my third great-grandmother,…

Craigdarroch Military Hospital patient Private Ralph Forrester, Regimental No. 524673, came to my attention through an email from his grandson, Dr. Hugh Whitney, chief veterinary officer for Newfoundland and Labrador. Dr. Whitney’s mother, Mary Whitney, visited the Castle in 2004 and shared her father’s story. A few years later, Dr. Whitney shared his research on his grandfather Forrester. His research and his mother’s recollections inform the following paragraphs. Though born in Mexico, Ralph Forrester emigrated to Canada from Oldham, Lancashire in 1911. His wife, Violet, and young daughter, Edith joined him in New Westminster three months later. They moved to Qualicum Beach two years later, where Forrester pursued his trade as a master painter. Two more children had been born by the time the First World War started. Forrester joined…

When I first arrived in Nelson, to take up the role of Archivist at Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History in 2017, I was immediately struck by the size of the museum’s bound newspaper collection. The great bulk of this collection consists of the Nelson Daily News. The Nelson Daily News was founded in 1902, and for much of its existence, was one of the leading newspapers in the Interior of British Columbia. When it ceased publication in 2010, the newspaper was arguably the longest-serving daily newspaper on the BC mainland. In speaking with long-time Nelson Museum manager and archivist, Shawn Lamb, it became clear that digitizing the paper would create a valuable resource for anyone wanting to find out about Kootenay history. From the 1910s to the 1970s,…

When skiers at SilverStar Mountain Resort, 22 km northeast of the city of Vernon, BC,launch themselves on any of the 133 named downhill runs, they are playing with history.1 The downhill runs have been named for old mining claims; flora, fauna and natural features of the mountain, people who have played a role in recreation development on the mountain and the star theme. Many of the SilverStar run names evoke playfulness and humour, often through double meanings. While there is usually a story behind each run name, it may be obscure and require visitors to question the origin of the name, digging into history that may not be readily obvious. The story behind the Three Wise Men run that branches off the Aunt Gladys run suggests prudent decision-making. When the…