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General correspondence

This page is the key to the on-line project which began in 1999 and led to the publication of the book Vanishing British Columbia in 2005.

The sites by region

1 Lower Mainland Fraser Valley 2 Hope-Princeton Tulameen Merritt 3 Okanagan-Boundary Country 4 Kootenays 5 East Kootenays-Rockies 6 Fraser River-Thompson Canyon-Shuswap-Lillooet 7 Victoria-south island-Gulf Islands 8 Howe Sound-Sunshine Coast 9 Up island 10 North Coast 11 Cariboo-Central Interior-The Peace

General correspondence

From Tony Broscomb about Jones Tent & Awning, 2009: Can anyone having any information about the Jones Tent and Awning Company please contact me at johny.maple@gmail.com.  Any information would be welcome, including copies of any relevant photographs. I was able to contact Edward Lipsett whose great grandfather started the company and found out that both Lipsett and Jones were sailmakers in Lunenburg and both ended up on the west coast.  I have been unable to find out anything regarding their time in Lunenburg. Note from Connie Quaedvlieg, 2009:  I am an undergraduate student at the University of Victoria, and am currently completing my BA in History in Art. I am working on my undergraduate thesis in which I am focusing on BC heritage and history, and many of the reasons why it's important to hold on to. I am focusing mypaper around the Quaedvlieg ranch in Keremeos BC, which has been in my family for 100 years. I have many resources on the history of my family in Keremeos, however I am finding a lack of information on the buildings at the site etc. I was wondering if you know about it all, it is currently owned by Mark Quaedvlieg, and run by him and his family. If you have any photos, images, information, or anyone you can send me to that would be wonderful! Note from Dudley Booth, 2009: My passion has been the collection of important old photographs and putting them on my website, www.historicphotos.ca.  With few exceptions, something is known about all my photos, which number a few thousand at present.        I try to discover where, when, who and what of the photos.  Even if I only know the where, the photo becomes of archival importance.  Through my website I hope to discover other photos from around the world that would give viewers a better picture of life in times gone by.        At present I have about a thousand photos on the site and am constantly adding more as time permits.        A few of the photos in the collections have been loaned to me for scanning, with the permission to make them public.  Others have been outright gifts, such as the glass photos of England and France circa 1895 that are on my site.  If by chance you happen to stumble across any early photos from Australia, I would dearly love to be able to borrow them,  or accept them into my collection.        So often I discover that photo collections passed down through generations ultimately find their way to a land fill.  Every photo on my site was saved by accidental intervention from this fate.         From Phil Megyesi, 2009: I am an avid British Columbia tourist. I have been poking around the backcountry of B. C. for 20 years and just recently discovered the area of Jesmond and beyond. Last year I spent a month across the Fraser river in the Churn Creek area and further south to China Head, Big Dog, and Blackdome. I have spent a week in the Jesmond area, on the mountain top, and poked around some towards the river. I would like to cross the river and further investigate west, but I had some questions regarding the Big Bar ferry. I did manage to get answers to all the questions I asked, a ministry spokesperson contacted me and now I have everything I need to proceed or not with my trip. 1.The road down to ferry is very steep with switch backs on both sides, thus unsuitable for a 26' motor-home and trailer. 2.The ferry will not allow unlicensed vehicles (4-wheeler quads) on the ferry, this is due it being part of the B.C. roads system and unlicensed vehicles are therefore prohibited. 3.The ferry cooperation will not allow transportation of large amount of gasoline across on the ferry due to a safety issue. 4. The hill on the west side of the river is extremely steep and not likely passable for a motor-home pulling a quad trailer, there is no place to pull over and camp as the steepness will not allow for this. Note from Krystal Cook, 2009: Have you ever been up around Namu BC? I think it is a fishing resort now, but years back my grandfather took my brother and me up there (you have to boat in). It was very eerie. It was an entire town that looked like everyone had just got on a boat and left. The shelves in the store were still stocked even! There was a very big hotel (the Namu Hilton, I think was the nickname) that we went exploring in. There was also a bowling alley and a large gymnasium. Also housing for the people who worked in the cannery, and a special part of town for the Japanese and Native people. This was back when I was probably about 12 or 13 years old, so I didn't have a good camera, I wish I did tho! Note from Linda about a vanished community, 2009: Sewell Inlet was a community of around 300 in its heyday. It was a logging camp with married quarters, bunkhouses, 2 schools and a commissary. It was moved from Moresby camp in 1969 and was in operation till 2005. I met my husband there when I moved up there with my parents in 1970. We were married there. We eventually had to move to Sandspit on Moresby Island; my husband continued to work there till the camp was completely turned back to the way the company found it in 2005. We moved to Sandspit in 1989 and have since moved right off of Haida Gwaii. Note from Roy McBride, 2009: I am wondering if you ever saw the old Chevron gas station & cafe in Kinnaird, B.C., now part of Castlegar. It was demoed about ten years ago and I am trying to find any pictures of the building as my familly owned and lived there from 1954 - 62. I was 10 years of age when we moved there from Penticton, B.C. ,and have some great stories about growing up in a war zone as the [Sons of Freedom] were constantly blowing up something and as close to our Gas Station as 100 feet. So, if you have anything or know where I can get any pictures please let me know.  [From Julian Polika, 2009: You had a gentleman by the name of Roy McBride write to you about a service station in Kinnaird. In his note he indicated he lived there until 1962. I am trying to locate  a fellow student who I knew at UBC when I attended way back in 1959-62. She was from Kinnaird and we lost touch. I have been unsuccessful in locating her. Mr. McBride may have some recollection of her or her family and may be able to put me on the right trail. Her name was Patricia Lewis. She worked for a local lawyer through the summer of 1961, Mr. Maran, who is now deceased. That fall she taught school in Castlegar. If you could pass this note on to Mr. McBride or forward me his address I would be grateful.] *** Boys Town on the Hope-Princeton Highway (2008) [background from MK: the Mile 14 ranch, also known as Trites', was bought by the federal government at the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1942 and became an internment camp called Tashme, an abbreviation of the names of the three officials of the BC Security Commission charged with moving Japanese-Canadians away from the coast: businessman Austin TAylor, John SHirras of the BC Provincial Police, and F.J. MEad of the RCMP. See pages 99-104 of my book Vanishing British Columbia.  There is some info on this website about the internment at the Wong's Market page and the Slocan Valley internment camps page.] Notes from Marilyn Jarvis: Do you know where and what Boys Town was? Apparently it closed in 1955 according to Chilliwack Archives. I was 8 in l955 and remember passing through Boys Town on our annual drive to Nelson to visit relatives and thinking as a child how beautiful the area was - just gorgeous. I wonder if the Hope Slide wiped Boys Town out? I heard from Ron Denman of the Chilliwack Museum and he said that it was a detention centre located east of Hope on Hwy. 3 at what was called 14 mile ranch. Apparently, part of the ranch was destroyed in the Hope Slide but that there might still be one building left standing, the kitchen/dining hall.  Sunshine Valley Resort's history page mentions that when the war broke out the Canadian Government took this valley over for the interning of the Japanese people and when the war ended it was taken over again by its original owner who raised prized beef and dairy cattle until 1955 when it was sold to the Boys Town Association. It was sold again in 1962 to an American Development Company etc. In 1965 the Hope Slide happened leaving a viewpoint at the west end of this picturesque valley. Then I received a note from Inge Wilson, Hope Visitor Centre & Museum Complex, via Ron Denman: 'According to the book “The Dewdney Trail – Hope to Rock Creek” by Frank W. Anderson … Stanley Trites sold the Trites Ranch in 1959 to “a Mr. Moore who was sponsoring the site as a Boy’s Town for delinquent youth. It appears that the delinquency was adult, for after collecting huge sums of money to develop the project, Mr. Moore vanished.”' So there's obviously a discrepancy between the dates here. * * * Note from Darroch Baillie, Victoria BC, SV Dragonfly: I've got a memory of a disapeared BC spot. Everyone I've been able to casually ask has never heard of this site. I'm sure I'm asking the wrong people! Perhaps you can post this and see if there is a response. ?  In the early '80s I sailed my 15 foot dinghy about the southern Gulf Islands. One day I drifted into the bay formed by Galliano and Parker Islands known as Montagu Harbour, a place where bizillions of boats anchor. At the head of a bay on the Parker Island side, there was a huge beached wooden barge. Next to the barge was a kind of a marina thing built of untreated logs half submerged with a couple of old wooden boats moored near the side of the barge. As I drifted closer on the last of the tide, a fellow climbed down from the odd open post and beam style superstructure built on the barge deck. Some how the superstructure struck me as a runaway set from a late 60s Nick Nolte movie about comunes, parties now long over. We chatted, I can't remember much about our conversation. He was thirtyish, with dark brown hair and a full beard. I remeber asking what the barge and boats were about and he told me that it was something called the "Barge Society".  We chatted some more, then I sailed away to camp on an ajacent beach. I never went back. An aquaintance of the time told me the barge man advertised his Barge Society and sold memberships or shares and there wereprivileges that went with the monies sent.  The barge was abandoned soon after and sat there, hard aground, for years.The barge is now long gone and luxury homes now ring the bay. If anyone can help fill in the gaps and has pictures I would love to hear the full story. Update 2008: Found the answer to my question about the barge(s) on Parker Island. Here's the link. www.salishsea.ca/parkerislandbarge/parkerislandstory.htm   A colourful story with a not so colourful conclusion. Note from Christopher M. Robinson: Over the last 9 years I have been working on a massive project to bring back the spirit, that was Athlone School, for the lads! Having published my first book on the school last year, I have dived rightinto a second publication regarding Athlone, which I hope to release in 2008. Here is my Athlone Website, www.athloneschoolforboysvancouverbc.com Note from Bob Murray, Merritt: I knew downtown Vancouver quite well, I worked as a lad of 14 years old for Ryan's Messenger Service in the summer of 1944. That summer, I gave up delivering newspapers and found a job with Ryan's Messenger Service. This was a real experience, pedalling around downtown Vancouver on my bicycle. A really good day would return about $5.00 for my efforts, this was big money for a kid in 1944. A double or triple price run would mean the Main Street hill would have to be pedalled. A free ride could usually be had by catching a tow on one of the Chinese vegetable trucks that were going up slowly. The Chinese Gentleman behind the wheel would give me a severe tongue lashing all the way up, but I didn't understand Chinese, so was not annoyed. There were quite a few close scrapes in the traffic, but was never involved in anything of a serious nature. Note from Connie Squire: Last night a friend and I were talking about British Columbia history and she mentioned that she saw a wonderful show at Expo 86 which was made up of folk songs about different events in the history of our province. She mentioned that she had wanted to purchase a copy of the music but nothing was ever forthcoming. As she spoke those words, I knew that I could find something about the songs on the internet. Here is a link to the concert performed at Folklife Expo 86: http://www.rainshadowgallery.com/studioF.htm A CD of the performance is now available. My friend will be tickled pink when I tell her tomorrow.:-) Here's another page on the same site devoted to other historic songs: http://www.rainshadowgallery.com/studioC.htm Note from Jan Barkley Baldwin, Eugene, Oregon: Hi, I came across your website quite by accident while Googling to find if Rose Lake Lodge out of Williams Lake, BC, still existed and whether they had a website. Talk about vanishing British Columbia! I'm sure it probably doesn't exist now the way it lives in my memories. This was such a wonderful place for a family to visit, esp. with one horse crazy kid (that would be me) and one fishing fanatic (that was my Dad) and two total princesses who wanted pampering in the middle of wilderness (my mother and sister). I could go on for hours about how Rose Lake Lodge fit every one of us to a T.  I did find that Rose Lake Lodge still is "there" at least it is listed on the Canluki campground directory and the address seems somehow familiar. I don't find a website for it, however. By the way, I did write to them at that address about two years ago inquiring about camping there, but they never responded and the phone doesn't seem to always work either, which is probably more a problem of rural telephone companies surviving in adverse climate conditions than anything else.  What an incredibly lovely place, Rose Lake. I suppose it is overpopulated by rich Euros in McMansions now, as it wasn't such a bad commute from population centers as some guest ranches, and proximity lures population. I wonder what the moose (what's plural for moose?) and loons thought of the development?! I met my first moose while he, or she, was elbow-deep in the lake grazing on aquatic plants while dragonflies swooped around - and I've never forgotten that. For decades (I'm in my fifties now), I fantasized about winning the lottery so that I could somehow go buy Rose Lake Lodge for my very own and be able to ride a horse forever-away and then nap by the cabins or on the dock with no noise but the wind in the birches - yes, in those days and maybe still, there was a huge grove of paper white birch trees in the cabin area; I think I still have some of the peeled bark in my "treasure" chest in storage. Well, enough reminiscing, I don't wish to bore you! If in your research for Vanishing BC you came across any information for Rose Lake Lodge, I believe the mailing address is at 150 Mile House in BC, I would be very grateful for anything you can send my way.   Note from Ivan Moldowan, Vancouver: Someone told me that you sketched or painted a picture of a old wooden rooming house that used to stand on the Northwest corner of Robson and Seymour streets in downtown Vancouver.[It was demolished in 1985.] The building, named the Orillia, had a number of stores, including the once famous Sid Beech's Mexican food restaurant, on the ground floor. My interest in this is because, for many years in the thirties and forties, my grandfather occupied the corner store, 601 Robson, which was a combination pool hall and cigar store. As I was born in the west end in 1936, I spent many years hanging around my grandfather's store, and bothering all the merchants in Blackburn's market across both streets. The barbershop that stood between 601 and Sid Beech's was run by a Mr. Evans, who cut my hair until he retired. (At that time, I then went to another barber, Mike Principe, (brother of well known barber and fight promoter, Al Principe) who had the barbershop in the basement of the building at the Northwest corner of Robson and Granville. As for old family photos, I looked into my collection to discover what there is from that area; so far I have found only one, taken in 1945 in front of Sid Beech's. Unfortunately, only a tiny part of the building is in the photo. Did you know about Blackburn's market, or have any photos of it? It was a very popular "farmers' market" kind of place to shop for fresh produce, meat, chicken, etc., in those days, and it was occupied by many colorful characters, as I recall. Hey, but so did the rest of that area. Did you ever see pictures of Benny Pastinsky's (The Mayor of Robson Street) jewellery store on the North side of Robson, half a block West of Granville? Or across the street from 601 Robson, Sid Young's pawn shop? Whatever became of all the old pictures Foncie's Photos took of that area? And did you know there was another street photographer - JO'S PHOTO CO., 867 Granville Street? Note from Kelly Berg: I believe that Sid Beech (the mexican restaurant owner) was my grandfather. I was just starting to do some research on my grandfather and found your site. Please if you have any information on Sid Beech, his restaurant, ANYTHING, I would greatly appreciate it!!! My name is Kelly Beech (maiden name). I would be his first grandchild. My dad is also Sid Beech, and we live in the Gig Harbor Washington area. My grandmother Patricia is 81 years old and lives close to me.Ê My dad was only 6 or 7 when his father died of cancer I believe, in 1954? [Send me any information and I'll pass it along to her. I used the obituary material below, and the illustration, in Vancouver Remembered, published in 2006]

Obituary submitted by Kelly Berg

Note from James Abbott re: the Maki site near Savona. I am wondering if you know anything about the Maki memorial with is in the hills above Savona. There is a geocaching site there, which is how I found it.

Note from Rose Delap, Williams Lake: I have been painting St Joseph's at the Bonaparte. It is an especially lovely building. Someone in the Band Office put me in touch with one of the elders who told me that the church had been built in 1890. A man called Jimmy Skinner came down from Hazelton to do the work. His price for the job was 100 horses and the band got together and collected enough horses to pay him. One wonders what he did with the horses, whether he drove them up to Hazelton or if he sold them along the way. Have you ever heard of him? There is a very fine church in your book, near Hazelton. I wonder if that is his work. it would be interesting to know how many churches he built.

Note from Kristal Atkinson, Nanaimo: I remember a place I visited in the mid 1990s on a Pathfinder hike. Just east of Sayward is Port Hkusam and I thought that if you had never been, it might still be a wonderful place to visit and paint. Located at the top of a small cove, there were several (I specifically remember three) old abandoned buildings. Just above the shore line, two buildings with the typical pioneer wooden frame front stood. The doors no longer closed and I remember one wall was covered with newspaper wallpaper. For the wet climate and proximity to the ocean, I was rather amazed how nice it looked. The third had a more recent history, with a concrete foundation and maybe a bit of squatting history. Behind it was an old orchard. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me, and being only 14 or so at the time my memory is not as crisp and I would like it to be. Unfortunately, I haven't heard how history has unwound for these buildings since visiting but I'll always remember how powerful the sense of history was at the time. I will have to return one day.

 

From Percy Lambert, Saskatchewan: Have your travels ever included Williams Lake, or any of the surrounding area? Before going any further I will tell you my reason for the question. I was born in Saskatchewan in 1918, so grew up during the years known as the dirty thirties. Like many young men of that era, I went further afield in search of something better. I arrived in Williams Lake in the spring of 1939, and eventually found work on a ranch in the area. I went to work for a rancher by the name of Sutton (Frederick Nasseau Sutton, though to me he was always Sutton, and his wife was Mrs. Sutton). I was with the Sutton's until the fall of 1941, and being military age I did as most young men did. I enlisted. I think they liked me, as I was made ranch foreman during my second year, perhaps they saw in me the son of their own that they were unable to have. (they had no children of their own).

Had there not have been a war my life might have followed a very different path than it did. During my years in the service I kept in touch with them by mail, and on my discharge Sutton wrote with an invitation to return to to work for him. However I declined as things were improving on the prairies, and with a bit of help from the V.L.A. and my father I became a rancher in my own right. My wife and I are now retired and make our home in Moose Jaw. I am however still interested in the Cariboo, and have read a number of books that outline some of the history of the area. There was one by Irene Stangoe called Cariboo-Chicotin (she has written others, as well as being a columnist for the Wms. Lk. tribune). Through Mrs. Stangoe's publisher I was able to contact her, and have been able to exchange a bit of chatter about the district, as well as people we both knew. In one of my letters I told of a number of my experiences while working for Sutton. Some of which she used in her Tribune Column, so my name appeared in a B.C. newspaper last summer.

Link to the Canadian Encyclopedia

From Grace Darney, Vancouver: I wanted to tell you about 3 old buildings in the Colony Farm GVRD Park. There are two houses and one bunkhouse. The Colony Farm Park Association will soon be raising money to restore the buildings -- one of the houses may be beyond repair though, but we hope not. Once all is restored, the main house will be used for a park caretaker, and the bunkhouse will be used for meetings and outdoors classes -- including a meeting place for those of us who belong to the Community Gardens. The buildings are found on Colony Farm Road, which is off the Lougheed Hwy -- here's a URL with a map: http://www.greenclub.bc.ca/Regions/Fraser_Estuary/Coquitlam/Colony_Farm/colony_farm.HTM and here's the CFPA website: http://www.parkpartners.ca/partners/colony%20farm/colony-aboutus.html I thought you might be interested in painting the old buildings prior to the renovation, esp since the smaller house has had water damage and may not be restored. They had to be rescued from blackberry brambles, and there are many rather tall trees surrounding the buildings. There are two species of bats living at either end of the bunkhouse attic -- the restoration will take into account their living spaces and habits, and they will not be ousted.

From Gary Sim, Vancouver: There were some things I noticed whilst working on the B.C. Rail Rock Gangs that are of historic interest. Some segments of the Cariboo cattle road remain in the woods around Seton Portage and Lillooet in excellent condition, they built (1879'ish?) some extensive rock walls which are quite amazing to come across in the forest. Also in Seton Portage are numerous early flumes and irrigation works, some are quite large and others in very tricky locations to build. An early lake freighter is clearly visible on the lake bottom at the east end of Anderson Lake at the old wharf when the wind dies down. An early pelton wheel rusts in the woods below the Seton Portage train station. It's interesting that the area has little in the way of historic buildings, but lots of historic bits of industry and early transport to the interior. The odd early locomotive and freight car lurks at the bottom of Anderson Lake, but since it's about 800 feet deep one would need to do a National Geographic to have a look at those.

I noticed recently that B.C. Rail has all the electric units, catenary lines, substations, transformers, switchgear etc. from Tumbler Ridge up for sale on their web site, and thus one can fairly safely assume that the whole Tumbler Ridge venture is now part of "Vanishing BC". A lot of work for a few thousand trainloads of coal! I took the attached photo during one of the three summers our Rock Gang worked on the Tumbler Ridge line. It shows a typical 99-car unit train heading south, just south of Tumbler Camp, and north of Wolverine Siding where our camp was. My ex super-trusty Toyota long-bed pickup gives a good sense of the scale of the head end - the electric units are massive, at least 1/3 again the size of a normal GE road unit.

From Stephanie Gould, Chilliwack: I'm looking for recyclable moulded and/or wire-cut bricks made by my great-great-grandfather's Bazan Bay Brick and Tile Company, a flourishing factory that began operations in the early 1900s at the east end of Bazan Bay near Sidney. The bricks are recognizable from the raised BBB stamp found on the top of each one. Recently, Bazan Bay bricks were found in a small cottage that was taken down on Galiano Island. I'm looking for enough bricks to build a small structure at my mother's place on Galiano Island, but I'm also interested in knowing about buildings constructed from BB bricks. If anyone has information and/or bricks to give away, please get in touch. James Treadwell Readings made bricks and drain tiles at a time when they were in great demand for local buildings and for draining the fields of the Saanich Peninsula for local farmers. Two types of bricks were produced from clay drawn from a huge deposit at the east end of Bazan Bay, originally owned by Mr. Woise and Mr. Warner who first established Bazan Bay Brickworks and hired my great-great grandfather as a foreman. Some were made in long rectangular forms and then sliced using wires. Others were shaped in moulds, dried and fired in a kiln 400,000 at a time for a period of 10-11 days using fir cordwood for fuel. Bazan Bay bricks were shipped 300,000 at a time to Victoria and Vancouver by scow. Among the buildings made from bricks from the Readings plant are the old Hotel Vancouver, (which once stood near Georgia and Granville streets), the Empress Hotel in Victoria and the Wilkinson Road Jail near Victoria. The Company changed hands at least a couple of times, but finally closed down in 1959. (Source: The Sidney Museum)

From Julie Bartlett, North Vancouver: My own family has a fairly long history in British Columbia. In particular I have had a lot of fun tracing the travels of my great grandfather, an Anglican minister who was posted in many tiny rural parishes around BC. I once visited the museum in Ashcroft with my father. It was my great grandfather's last parish and he is buried in the cemetery there. The man who volunteered at the museum was showing my dad a book about the history of the Nicola Valley. There was a large photo of a young woman in the book, whom they called the "mystery lady" because they didn't know who she was. My dad said, oh, that's my mother's sister, Aunt Laura! I wish I had asked my grandparents to write down their memories. So much of our family history was lost with their passing. Recently, my sister and her husband purchased a small farm in Keremeos. It's part of a larger historic farm that has been subdivided into smaller parcels. Almost all of the original buildings are still in tack. On my sister's parcel of land is an unusual turn-of-the-century water tower, built in the style of a castle keep. Her home was originally the residence of the farm foreman. They are hoping to restore the buildings. Photos can be viewed at her web site (see farm history) at: www.oldtowerfarm.com

From Rosemarie Parent of the Arrow Lakes Historical Society: We live in Nakusp and have several buildings that you might be interested in and the scenery is wonderful with mountains and hot springs etc. The Leland Hotel was built in 1892 and is still standing, with many small renovations from the different owners but not enough to take away its character. Also the Court House built in 1910 and school house in 1912. If you come to the Archives - we are open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10-3 and Milton might have some more ideas for you. In New Denver they have restored the old Bank of Montreal which is the museum and taken two of the internment houses that the Japanese used during the war into the Nikkei Centre. Also the Lardeau area offers a few buildings and abandoned sites - especially interesting of course is the Windsor Hotel which Alice Jowett owned and operated. Also the old Marlow house is still standing in bad shape. The old cemetery etc is worth looking at.

From Fred Braches in Whonnock: We have a small postoffice here in Whonnock and an old storebuilding next to it. The buildings are doing fine because of the personality of Sue, the postmaster (the only one in the Lower Mainland by the way). On the hill just behind it are two well-kept little houses. Brian Byrnes came here in 1919 as a boy and lives there since the 1920s. A visit to his house is a treat. There are flowers everywhere around the buildings. Brian is getting on. I do hope he goes on to live 100 years, but I don't know if he will want to be that old, unless he can stay where he lives now. It will not be the same in downtown Whonnock after he leaves us, that is sure.

Thanks to Jonathan Yardley for Salt Spring Island information.

From Helen Inglis near Vernon: No doubt you will get flooded with nominations from all corners of the province; I would like to point out that the area encompassed by the Okanagan Historical Society likely has a few hundred endangered samples; Spallumcheen Municipality has the biggest collection of turn of the last century barns still standing in B.C. - which there some very unusual ones from their structural point of view; In addition,in the Okanagan there are several examples of Robert Hobson's favorite - Queen Anne farm houses.

From Mark Forsythe, CBC Almanac, Vancouver: For your files...a couple of places flashed into my mind after talking to you. About six miles west of Grand Forks there's a bend in the road where the valley begins to open up. Down below on the right, a couple of brick homes Doukhobors settled in still stand. Just. You can almost imagine laundry blowing on the line. I think the area's called Sleepy Hollow - there are lots of examples of original Doukhobor architecture at G.F.and nearby Castlegar. If you make it to the North Coast there's the Kwinitsa Railway Station Museum in Prince Rupert. It sits all alone on the waterfront there - used to be 50 miles upriver on the Skeena River. The museum is housed in one of three original Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Stations that still remain in British Columbia. It was barged down to Rupert...has nice lines. DonÕt know if it qualifies if it's still being used. There's also a cannery or two you might consider right in town. They probably won't be around much longer. Some of the homes at the nearby historic site North Pacific Cannery in Port Edward are worth a look too. On stilts etc. And a few clicks north of Cache Creek there's the Bonaparte Reserve graveyard. A faded wooden arch with chipped gold paint is simple but striking. Everybody drives by it on Highway 97 heading to Cariboo. Won't last mugh longer either.

From Troy Hunter near Cranbrook: I don't think anybody is thinking about the old DIA houses on the Indian Reservations. If you come back to Cranbrook, I would be glad to show you some old houses on St. Mary's Indian Reserve built anywhere from 1900 to 1960.

From Neil Roughley on the matter of the old Great Northern Railway roadbed east of Princeton: I recently cycled this route, and even more of it on a previous trip. Very little of the railway remains as you know. The red railway bridge just outside of Keremeos is about all that exists today, except in Princeton where the old GN station is now a Subway restaurant. My mind's eye sees the red bridge, built in 1907, as a wonderful subject for a painting. The Similkameen station, south of Keremeos, was sitting in a farmer's field for many years, moved there from its original location. It may still be there, but I just found out this information so didn't look for it while cycling through.

From Bud James: If you are going anywhere near Alert Bay on your North Island trip paint the old hospital as they just built a new one in Dec. 2001 and it may not survive.

From photographer Grace Darney: How about going to Zeballos? There's an old hotel there, and what is now a newer hotel but that was once the hospital. My brother was born in that hospital, on a night when the town was going up in flames (July 1940). I visited the village three years ago and found it a peaceful spot. The road only came through in the last few decades. When my parents went there, they travelled on the Maquinna. My dad put in the electricity lines to the mine. And how about St. Bartholemew's Hospital in Lytton? It will be replaced by a new building and likely torn down as it's now encircled by an improved highway. There are some nice houses in town as well. And, beyond New Denver there's Sandon. Oh please go there -- it's an amazing spot, with buildings being renovated, making the whole village a museum. You'll like the rubber boots filled with flowers on the steps of the museum.

When I write my own family history, it will include Zeballos. Not only was my brother born in Zeballos, but my parents were married there, at midnight, by a travelling preacher. Mom arrived on the Maquinna, 4 months pregnant, to join Dad. They'd acquired a marriage license in Vancouver 3 months earlier. Anyway, the preacher hadn't expected to perform a marriage, and Mom would not live in Dad's small shack unmarried (pregnancy notwithstanding). A man was sent on horseback to another town (Port Hardy?) for the official forms etc. He arrived back in Zeballos just before midnight. A strange start to a troubled marriage. Each August, Zeballos holds a reunion for former residents. My cousin and I travelled there and ate the pancake breakfast, talked with oldies, wandered around the village and stood at the dock, thinking of the visits of the Maquinna. It was quite pleasant and I'd like to return there, perhaps buy a cabin someday.

I stayed at the Totem Hotel in Lytton myself last year while visiting my aunt and uncle who are residents in the hospital's extended care. When they were moved into the hospital it was the first time in 25 years that they'd had a roof over their heads that didn't leak, regular meals, running water etc. You can see their abandoned shack along the Trans Canada about 15 or 20 minutes out of Boston Bar, on the right. There are a dozen or more willows, and what were once motel cabins, but they had no money to keep things up, no money to dig a well, and so let the place decay (they hauled water from a neighbour). Bill picked up scrap metal along the highway for a living, but over the years a vast amount of it stayed around the property. His tulips still come up between the pieces of metal. Last year I took a few nostalgic photos of the main cabin that they lived in for many years, with the willows drooping over it and yellow tulips in the foreground. What it needs now is ten trucks to remove the scrap, the buildings pushed down, and to be sold (see the bottom of the Siska Lodge page--MK)

From Steve B. Noakes President, GeoQwest Excursions Ltd.: I came across your website while looking for some historical information on parts of BC. I've been scrolling through your Vanishing British Columbia pages and have enjoyed seeing so many sites I recognize. Not being an artist to any extent, I rely on a camera to take poorly exposed, badly framed pictures. But that's only when I make a conscious effort to realize that what I'm looking at is worthy of a photo and not just taken for granted as I pass by. I have an off pavement touring company, the first of it's kind in BC. No, this is not a sales pitch but just a quick note to thank you for capturing many of the sites that I pass on our routes but have not had the where-with-all to appreciate their artistic merit. From the little house at the side of the connector just outside of Merritt to the Yahk Police Station, I wish I had your eye for remembering to at least photograph these little gems rather than taking for granted that they will be there next time. Often they aren't.
We specialize in mining heritage sites. As your title states, this is a sector of BC history that is fading faster than most as the well intentioned but often misguided efforts of government and associations obliterate evidence of what was once the cornerstone of the province. Only now that mining as an industry is on it's final breaths are people realizing that what's left out there may have some sort of significance and may be worth keeping.
One structure that I have always appreciated but fear will likely be burned to the ground by hoodlums on a drunking spree as it is so close to a major highway is the old KVR locomotive watering tower at Brookmere. You may have already captured it in a painting but if not you might want to take the 10 minute detour south off the Coquihalla at the Coldwater interchange (the bridge at the bottom of the valley at the only crossing of the Coldwater River) I've always breathed a little easier when I round the corner to see it still standing.