Innholdsfortegnelse for 56.1 Spring 2023 i British Columbia History

The Climate Atlas of Canada was developed by the Prairie Climate Centre under the leadership of Dr. Ian Mauro, an acclaimed environmental scientist, geographer, and filmmaker. Dr. Mauro is the new Executive Director of the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) at the University of Victoria. PICS was launched in 2008. Its goal is to develop innovative, evidence-based climate solutions knowledge that is actively used by decision-makers within BC, nationally, and internationally. To find out more about PICS and its work, visit: https://pics.uvic.ca/about To learn more about how PICS is developing strategies for wildfire and forest management that minimize climate impacts, visit http://pics.uvic.ca/projects/wildfire-and-carbon…

Karen Aird is Manager of Culture and Heritage at First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC), and we are delighted that she was able to spend time with us to talk about how climate change is impacting, or will impact, Indigenous cultural heritage in BC. FPCC is a First Nations-governed Crown corporation with a mandate to support the revitalization of First Nations languages, arts, cultures, and heritage in British Columbia. The organization provides funding, resources, and skills development, monitors the status of First Nations languages, develops policy recommendations for First Nations leadership and government, and collaborates with organizations on numerous special projects that raise the profile of arts, languages, cultures, and heritage in BC, Canada, and internationally. Indigenous cultural heritage (ICH) is holistic, meaning it includes physical, emotional, mental, kinship, and spiritual…

The gentle curve of the hillside draws me forward. With each step I see more of this grassland and more of Okanagan Lake’s northern reach. Here I am, on a random ecological walk, just twenty blocks from Kelowna’s downtown. This is Knox Mountain Park, in a remnant piece of Okanagan sublime. As I start on the trail, I’m on a dry and rocky southwest face. I see sagebrush and cactus, reminders of our ecological connection to the Great Basin desert biome and distant places like eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. Farther along the curving footpath I reunite with my signature Okanagan landscape trinity: bluebunch wheatgrass, arrowleaf balsamroot, and ponderosa pine. Still farther along the footpath come subtle ecological changes. As the hill’s aspect gently shifts from southwest to northwest, I…

Clayburn Village predates the City of Abbotsford, where it is located, with a significant historic, heritage, and cultural presence that dates back to 1905. The village was established as BC’s first company town by John Maclure, a former Royal Engineer who settled on a government land grant west of Clayburn. He developed the village and Clayburn Brick Company because he had discovered a specialized fire-resistant clay hidden in nearby Sumas Mountain, in 1904. The brick company provided housing and services to a very productive workforce in what was considered an isolated location until the early 1900s. In the 1930s the brick plant moved to Kilby, but Clayburn continued to thrive, and many ancestors of its residents from the time continue to live here. My family and I moved to Clayburn…

40,000 pages of Francophone newsletters digitized by the SHFCB I’m writing to let readers know that thanks to grants from the BC History Digitization Program and the Francophone Affairs Program of the Government of BC, and using the services of Arca at Simon Fraser University, the Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (SHFCB) has released its project digitizing the publications of the province’s Francophone organizations. Almost 40,000 pages are now available to everyone, free of charge and in searchable format, for consultation and research. At the link to the SHFCB, https://bchdp.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/shfcb%3Aroot, you can pursue your research through the whole of the publications, and also by year, publication, or organization. The British Columbia History Digitization Program (BCHDP) is an annual funding program run by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, at…

EXPLORER IN RESIDENCE Bert was Explorer in Residence at BC History throughout 2022 as he journeyed by foot and canoe from the Salish Sea to the Atlantic in the footsteps and paddlestrokes of a long genealogy of travellers. He made landfall at his final destination, at Shippagan, New Brunswick, on October 1. Staring up at what would normally be a boat launch, I couldn’t help but wonder where had all the water gone. Covered in lake-bottom muck, Kai Nani and I were close to 45 vertical metres below the launch and nearly half a kilometre away. Kinbasket Lake was a lake in name only. Normally, if such a thing still exists, water levels would have seen Kinbasket Lake mostly filled with spring run-off, the result of melting snow and ice.…

Trail, British Columbia, home of one of the world’s largest lead and zinc smelters, was the location of a historic union-organizing drive by a small band of determined trade unionists during the Second World War. The book Smelter Wars tells the story of how those unionists overcame the smelter owner, a company union, an anti-union church, and daily newspaper to form Local 480 of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers (Mine-Mill). This is not a new story in the rough and tumble labour history of the Pacific Northwest, but it has an unusual twist. With all the violent tales of union-employer confrontations in the western United States, the story told in Smelter Wars stands out because it was relatively devoid of physical violence. There was plenty of…

RESEARCHER-IN-RESIDENCE Terry has accepted BC History’s invitation to sit as Researcher-in-Residence throughout 2023 as he continues to learn about the story of his great-grandmother and the personal legacies of colonial and federal policies. This is the first of four parts. Why her? Why now? Few people in history are considered representative of their culture, yet my great-grandmother Mejade’sse is one such individual. She was born between 1871 and 1873, of Kaska ena-Tahltan-Tlingit ancestry. Personal correspondence documents her migrating throughout the territory, north to Ross River in the Yukon, south to Fort St, James, and west to the coast throughout the 92 years of her life. Her belongings are held today by the Canadian Museum of History and used by scholars to glimpse past times and cultural practices in British Columbia’s…

This piece was previously published by Climate Atlas of Canada and is licenced under creative commons (CC-BY-ND-NC 4.0). It was updated to include reference to the 2021 wildfire season. Doug Findlater, former mayor of West Kelowna, recalled seeing the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire sweep into town: “It kind of looked like a war movie, with houses blowing up all over the place,” he says. More recently, Canadians watched with horror as the immense Fort McMurray fire of 2016 threatened the city. The Fort Mac fire caused the evacuation of almost 90,000 people and quickly became the most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history, destroying 2,400 buildings and causing about $10 billion in damage.1 In BC, recently we have seen the three most active fire seasons (2018, 2017, and 2021…

This short excerpt from Smelter Wars illustrates the challenges farmers on both sides of the border faced in having their concerns about pollution addressed. Country farmers and other land owners along the Columbia River had long complained that the sulphur dioxide fumes from the Trail smelter destroyed crops, rendered soil unusable, and caused substantial smoke damage. Eventually the International Joint Commission (IJC), formed in 1909 to investigate such cases, concluded that the CM&S owed the farmers $350,000 in damages. It also demanded that the pollution stop, creating concern for the Canadian economy should the smelter shut down. Enter [company president] S.G. Blaylock, who promised to "end pollution" as soon as proper abating devices were in place. Dissatisfied with the IJC's settlement proposal the two national governments agreed to arbitration. The…

kʷikʷəƛ əm Frist Nation George Chaffee, Councillor of kʷikʷ əƛ əm First Nation: The kʷikʷəƛəm Historical Cemetery Revitalization Project is about healing and putting those who are buried there properly to rest. It is very disrespectful that so many of the gravesites and markers have been lost due to repeated and consistent flooding in the area for decades. The funding provided by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and First Nation Land Management Resources Centre is crucial in our long-term work to create a safer, sacred historical cemetery that allows us to protect, honour, and show respect to those who are buried there. I am very proud to be leading this project and to be giving a voice to our Elders and Ancestors so that their lives are remembered not only…

This year, 2023, is a time of celebration at the SS Moyie National Historic Site, in Kaslo. The sternwheeler Moyie was originally intended to work on the Stikine River on an “All Canadian Route to the Klondike” when the Klondike Gold Rush was at its peak in 1898. Plans did not work out as hoped, however. Instead, Moyie’s steel frames, boiler, and engines, which had been fabricated in Ontario by the Bertram Engine Works, were diverted for assembly to the Canadian Pacific Railway’s (CPR) Nelson shipyard, where the steamer was put in service on Kootenay Lake rather than in the North. The original hull was extended by 20 feet [6.1 m], making it a total of 161.7 feet [49.29 m] in length, plus the 19-foot, 4-inch [5.9-m] diameter paddlewheel. The…