Innholdsfortegnelse for 58.2 Summer 2025 i British Columbia History

When thinking of shipbuilding in BC, you'd probably picture coastal cities and towns where, indeed, most BC ships have been built. The last place you'd imagine is the rugged Interior. However, look at the extensive array of lakes and rivers that subdivide this province and the major north-south transportation routes they represent—there must have been local vessel construction to serve these important travel and trading routes. Ship construction in the Interior has seen cycles of activity over time, beginning with the gold rushes in the Yukon and in BC in the late nineteenth century, and then again when the oil exploration boom and potential pipeline construction in the 1960s and 1970s in the Northwest Territories resulted in vessels being built for operation in the northern rivers of BC and Alberta…

Inland lighthouses in BC are unusual but not unheard of. A surviving one, built in 1904 at Pilot Bay, on Kootenay Lake, is a wonderful heritage attraction and the subject of a book by Susan Hulland. Another lighthouse, at Procter, also on Kootenay Lake, was more modest and obscure. Plus there were other lights and navigational aids that were not actually lighthouses, although the term was sometimes used loosely, even by officialdom. But I was very surprised to find a 1932 civic directory listing a lighthouse keeper named Joseph A. Irwin at Wilson Point, near Robson, a community on the Columbia River near Castlegar. I'd never heard of a lighthouse on the Columbia or the Arrow Lakes. Nor was I familiar with Wilson Point. So I went backward and forward…

In the summer of 2020, my colleague Louis Pelletier, a historian of early cinema in Quebec, and I learned some very old newsreels were to be auctioned off in England and bids would be accepted online. The reel that caught our attention related to the Empress of Ireland. Louis and I grew up on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, close to where the CPR-owned liner sank on May 29, 1914, taking the lives of over a thousand people. While much of the world forgot about the Empress of Ireland, it resonates more deeply than the Titanic in our region and has permanently marked our collective consciousness. The auction was the beginning of an adventure that would make Arthur Conan Doyle proud. We bought the film sight unseen…

Openings and Reopenings Just a reminder to readers that the Lytton Chinese History Museum had its Grand Reopening on Saturday, May 3, 2025. The Chinese Canadian Museum is opening a historic exhibition and permanent gallery to the public this week, in collaboration with the Chinese Canadian Military Museum, called “A Soldier for All Seasons.” This powerful exhibition shares the heartfelt and often overlooked stories of Chinese Canadian soldiers who risked their lives to serve a country that, at the time, regarded them as “second-class” citizens. For more information, visit chinesecanadianmusuem.ca Sarah Ling Surrey Sequoias Dear Editor, I enjoyed Rick James’ article on Victoria's Sequoias in the Spring 2025 issue of BC History. Sequoias are not uncommon on residential streets of Greater Vancouver, presumably much younger than the featured Victoria trees.…

Seven years after acquiring a last-of-its-kind Japanese Canadian fishing boat, the Slocan Valley Historical Society (SVHS) is excited to share that construction of the vessel's shelter is underway. “After many unexpected delays, we have finally broken ground on the next step in this project,” says Joyce Johnson, president of the SVHS. “The Merriwake has been restored to the condition she was in when she was confiscated during the Second World War. We are excited to display the boat and share her history, as well as tell part of the internment story.” Located at Main Street and Fitz Avenue in the Village of Slocan, the display will be accessible and free to all. To learn more about the Merriwake’s history, watch a short video series by Ted Fitzgerald hosted by the…

The SS Sicamous Marine Heritage Society in Penticton is dedicated to preserving and presenting the marine history and heritage of the Okanagan Valley. Founded in 1988, the Society initially focused on restoring the SS Sicamous, a historic paddlewheeler, on Okanagan Lake. Our mission has expanded to include the SS Naramata, the Canadian National Tug No. 6, the Dredge Shed, and the SS Okanagan Stern Saloon. The Society works closely with the City of Penticton to take care of the vessels and heritage buildings. Rich Okanagan marine history Visitors to the SS Sicamous are often surprised to learn that the Okanagan Valley relied heavily on an extensive network of lake boats and tugboats that used to travel on Okanagan Lake. And that the SS Sicamous, a 1914 luxury vessel that transported…

After a century and a half of systemic oppression by church and state including the Potlatch ban,1 Indian residential schools,2 and the public education system,3 along with the significant loss of many of our Sulsalewh (Elders)4 our world changed. With the loss of the Sulsalewh, teachings around balanced connections with the natural and supernatural worlds5 were not readily available or, in some cases, were lost for all time. Significant teachings and knowledge were brought forward when Coast Salish cultural specialist Willie Pierre from the Katzie First Nation visited the Nanaimo Museum on May 3, 2021, to view and spiritually “read” the energy of Coast Salish/Snuneymuxw artifacts. We learned much more about the creation of objects, and what was learned revealed just why our old people deemed them sacred. Pierre said…

What did an early twentieth-century drive on the Malahat look like? Thanks to a short documentary film called The Malahat Road 1912, we can enjoy glimpses of what a ride on one of Vancouver Island's most important transportation routes looked like just one year after its opening. During a royal visit in 1912, the Duchess of Connaught and her retinue climbed into high-end touring cars for what the Daily Colonist dubbed “a day of personal pleasure” (October 3, 1912, 1)—an excursion on the recently completed Malahat Drive. Fascinated by black-and-white video footage from the Canadian Automotive Museum that features scenes from the Duchess's journey, old-car enthusiast Steven Park and automotive historian Dr. Harry Lerner put together the documentary to share the story of the Malahat's beginnings. The video has racked…

Reprinted from Nikkei Images1 with permission from the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre. Special thanks to Hikaru Ikeda, and Reiko Pleau. Today, in the peaceful Dollarton area of North Vancouver's shoreline, condominium buildings overlook the Burrard Inlet near Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen, in the heart of the traditional lands of the səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nation. However, before becoming a residential development, the area was a historically significant shipyard operated by a Japanese Canadian family for nearly four decades. While evidence of the shipyard has disappeared, the remarkable story endures of the family's perseverance, ingenuity, and dedication to craft. Ichijuro Matsumoto Before the Second World War, Ichijuro Philip Matsumoto, an immigrant from Japan, and his sons built boats in Prince Rupert. The success of their business, like those of so many Japanese Canadian…

For over 125 years, starting in the 1890s, shipbuilding played a small but important role in the settlement of both the West Kootenay and Okanagan Lake districts. Rich and colourful in its traditions, shipbuilding has evolved from the construction of stately wooden-hulled sternwheelers to the fabrication of today's modern steel ferries. Early days The first sternwheelers constructed in the southern Interior were built by master builders from the west coast of BC or the lower reaches of the Columbia River. They brought with them experience, practicality, resourcefulness, and common sense. To satisfy their clients’ needs, they were willing to experiment, albeit cautiously, with proven hull designs. They modified standard hull dimensions depending on the steamer's intended route, service on a lake or a river, intended speed, required draught and carrying…

A project spanning more than 50 years, and now encompassing histories on over 95,000 vessels, including records of 14,000 shipwrecks, The Nauticapedia has become a formidable and reliable database on the maritime history of the Pacific Coast. After much work, its future is assured as the Maritime Museum of BC has recently agreed to take over its stewardship. Founder and curator John MacFarlane recently took some time to compile information about Interior shipbuilding from The Nauticapedia's files—and to share a few thoughts on the importance of this history with us. The history of the Interior fleet is a big story that has not been well covered in articles or books previously, and it extends to northern rivers as well. It is a story that has been completely obscured by the…