Old Port Hardy in moving pictures

Straight from the archives - this amazing footage was taken in the 1920s, when the main community of Port Hardy was located on the south-east side of the bay.  At this time the newer community of Hardy Bay, located at the present townsite, was just starting to grow.

The short film provides a panorama of the community and the bay, as well as a brief glimpse at the clothing worn at the time as a couple of men walk by the camera as the panorama is being filmed!

Library and Archives Canada

Port Hardy in old photographs

Old Port Hardy was located on the East side of Hardy Bay.  Here is a photo of the Lyon's store in 1905.

• BC Archives A-05330

Lyon's store in 1905.  Photo shows Thomas P. Wicks on the wharf.    Photo by H. Helmsing.

City of Vancouver Archives - CVA 586-584

Old Port Hardy on the East side of Hardy Bay with the Lyon's store/hotel in 1907.

BC Archives A-05413

Port Hardy in 1911. Photo by H. Helmsing.

A bit more development in 1922.

BC Archives A-05347

In the mid 1920s the community moved to its current location on the West side of the Bay.  Originally the new community was called "Hardy Bay" to distinguish it from "Port Hardy."  Over time the community gradually moved to the Hardy Bay settlement.  No one ever officially changed the post office name when the post office moved from Port Hardy to Hardy Bay, and eventually Hardy Bay took on the name Port Hardy.

This photo of Hardy Bay is from the 1920s or early 1930s before the Cadwallader store was built.

• BC Archives D-02212 
 

Sketch of Port Hardy by Lindley Crease in 1937.  The building to the left of the wharf (the Hardy Bay Hotel) has a sign on it which says "Home Gas" and the Lyons store is up the street on the right side of the street with a "Store" sign on it.

BC Archives PDP07442

One of the smaller wharves in Hardy Bay in 1939.

BC Archives NA-11527

Log dump looking toward the area where Keltic Seafoods is today.  Photo from 1939 by the BC Forest Service.

BC Archives NA-11547

Hardy Bay view from the Steamship in 1941.

City of Vancouver Archives CVA 586-584

The Hardy Bay Hotel at the foot of the main wharf (eventually the Seagate).  Photo from the 1940s.

BC Archives E-05273

Looking down the wharf at the Hardy Bay Hotel.  Sign says 'licensed premises'.  Photo from 1939.

BC Archives NA-11562

View up the hill from the Government Wharf, including a General Store (left).  Date unidentified.  1939?

BC Archives NA-11527

The Port Hardy Hotel in the 1940s.

BC Archives E-05272

RCAF airmen posing with an old car, photos presumably taken during WWII, with the Port Hardy Hotel in the background of the first photo.

http://jakealoo.tumblr.com/post/54597228243/two-wwii-era-photographs-of-rcaf-airmen-in-port/embed

The Port Hardy main wharf (now the Seagate), in 1947.  Presumably the people on the wharf are waiting to get onto the steamship.

BC Archives I- 28374

Coming into the Port Hardy wharf 1947.  Cadwallader Store has been built along with a structure on the right side of the wharf.

BC Archives A-05330

The Port Hardy primary school in 1962.  This building was eventually moved to the intersection of Byng Road and Beaver Harbour Road and became the Old Schoolhouse Store.  Photo from 1952.

BC Archives I-31858

Port Hardy wharf 1963.

BC Archives I-28376

Old 8mm movies bring the historical North Island to life

A big shout out is due to Lindsey Pattinson, who has taken a number of his grandfather's old 8mm home movies and converted them to digital format.  They give a glimpse into what life was like on the old North Island.
Today on the blog we are featuring three of these movies:
https://vimeo.com/165743883
This video highlights logging in the Nimpkish area, from Woss to Beaver Cove, and includes footage of the historic rail line that transported people, equipment and logs all around the Nimpkish Valley from Rock Bay to Beaver Cove.
https://vimeo.com/164862542
The second video features fishing for salmon and herring on Canada's West Coast.  It features video of the fleet, the gear used, and the catches.
https://vimeo.com/164799300
Finally, a third video features footage of whaling off the West Coat of Vancouver Island and at the whaling station at Coal Harbour in Quatsino Sound.
I'm trying to figure out how to actually embed these videos, but for now you"ll have to click the links to access them.

The Adventurous Life of Lilian Bland

Published in the North Island Gazette May 11, 2016

There are so many surprising and interesting stories that intersect with the North Island. Recently a reader contacted me to suggest that I write a history article on Lilian Bland and her connection to Quatsino. Never having heard of Ms. Bland, I was intrigued.

________________________________

Lilian Emily Bland was born in Kent, England in 1878. Her mother died when she was young, and she was raised by her father. She was always a bit non-traditional and liked to push the boundaries of what was considered acceptable for women at the time.

Lilian became obsessed with airplanes after her father received a postcard commemorating the 1909 flight across the English Channel. She contacted the pilot to see if she could do a ride-along with him, and also had a boyfriend for a time who was a pilot, but she was not able to find anyone who would teach her to fly.



Determined to learn to fly, Lilian designed and built her own aircraft, called the "Mayfly." After a few close calls with a bull in a farmer's field she successfully flew her own powered airplane, the first woman to do so. She also looked into the commercial applications of air flight, but decided it was not as lucrative as the growing motorcar industry. Bland became the first female agent for the Ford Motor Co. in Ireland. She was also a reporter, writing for the London papers.

Lilian married her first cousin, Charles Loftus Bland. Charles, a younger son in a well-to-do family filled with successful army men, had trained for a career in the army but found it not to his liking. When he quit the Army his sister had him committed to an insane asylum for about seven months before he was released and went to work as a farm labourer picking potatoes in Ireland. By 1906 Charles's family had convinced him to move to California. Having an adventurer in the family, it seems, was preferable to having a potato picker.

By 1908 Charles was in Victoria, British Columbia, and hired himself out to work a trap line near Quatsino Sound. He met Alec Farmer, Joe Browning, and George Thorburn who were all taking up land at the Ingersoll River, and convinced his brother to lend him money to invest in an homestead nearby.

The Bland homestead at Johnson River (Kewquodie Creek)

After a brief trip home to Britain, Lilian and Charles were married in 1911 when she was 32 and he was 29. The couple kept their nuptials a secret, as they were worried their being first cousins would be looked down upon. Lilian set off to join Charles and to explore the wilds of Quatsino Sound in 1912. In 1913 the Blands had a daughter, whom they named Patricia.

Lilian took up photography during this period and took many wonderful photos of the homestead in Quatsino Sound on the Johnson River (now known as Kewquodie Creek). The farm was located on the south side of Quatsino Sound just west of Drake (previously known as Limestone) Island. Many of the photos which Lilian took in Quatsino have been published on a website dedicated to her life: http://www.lilianbland.ie/ .

Life on the homestead was hard, with rough physical labour required to remove the huge stumps and to plant gardens and build rough outbuildings. All wood had to be chopped by hand and hauled to the house. Trips away from the homestead in the small boat were at the mercy of the weather.

In 1917 Lilian's cousin Mary Madden, aged 15, joined the family in Quatsino to help out on the homestead.

The Blands were friends with the Varneys, also emigrants from Britain who had homesteaded in Varney Bay by the mouth of the Marble River.

During prohibition the Blands thought they would make some extra money by brewing loganberry wine and selling it to Ned Friggon's establishment, the Central Hotel on Limestone Island. Unfortunately Charles was caught by the Port Alice police and fined $300, in lieu of the 30 day jail term.

In 1929 the Bland's daughter Patricia died of tetanus at the age of 16 years. This was a tremendous loss and heartbreak for Lilian. Lilian and Charles' marriage was also a rocky one, and in 1930 Lilian returned to the United Kingdom, where she resumed her avant garde lifestyle, wearing trousers and gambling. She took up painting and landscape gardening and became well known for her garden in Cornwall. She died May 11, 1971 at the age of 91.

Once Lilian was gone, Mary returned to the homestead and lived there with Charles. They had four children, and their descendants still reside on the North Island.

References:

http://www.lilianbland.ie
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/journalist-photographer-crackshot-and-the-first-woman-to-fly-an-aeroplane-the-amazing-lilian-bland-28552187.html

British Navy destroys Kwakiutl Village in 1865

Published in the North Island Gazette March 23, 2016.
During the initial colonization period on the Pacific Coast in the 1800s, the British Navy was known for its harsh actions. Today academics refer to this as the era of "gunboat diplomacy."

From 1848 - 1866 the Colony of Vancouver Island was the recognized governing body on Northern Vancouver Island.  There was a disjoint, however, in that the Colony had little resources to defend itself, and relied heavily on the presence of the British Navy, which at any time might have numerous war ships in the area.

HMS Clio

One of these vessels was the HMS Clio, a steam-powered Pearl class corvette with 22 8 inch cannons and one pivot-mounted 10 inch cannon mounted on her bow, 1472 tons, and 400 hp.  The Clio was based at the Pacific Station in Esquimalt, and would run regular patrols up and down the coast.

On December 22, 1865 the ship had run to Metlakatla and was returning South when it stopped to check in at the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Rupert.  Staff at the Fort lived in very close proximity to the First Nation village of Tsakis, which was home to about 1500 people. At times the relationship was rocky, with both sides engaging in vigorous trade, but suffering regular skirmishes prompted by the illegal whisky trade, cultural differences, and frustration with the encroachment of Europeans into First Nations' traditional territories and the utilization of the resources within these areas.

Beaver Harbour, the location of Fort Rupert, had been used by the local First Nations people for thousands of years, as evidenced by several large shell middens in the area, but it had not been a large permanent year-round village site at the time of the establishment of Fort Rupert. The availability of trade goods and preferred status trading with the Hudson's Bay Company prompted the Kwakiutl to establish a large permanent settlement on both sides of Fort Rupert after its construction. In 1851 Governor Douglas signed Treaties (two of the 'Douglas Treaties') with the bands that lived adjacent to the Fort, the Queackar and the Quakeolth. 

When the Clio entered Beaver Harbour in December 1865 a number of members of the Nahwitti First Nation awaited her arrival.  They alleged that Kwakiutl men had murdered one of their clan.  They had come seeking retribution, but Mr. Compton of the Hudson's Bay Company had convinced them to await the arrival of the Clio, and they had been assured that the men accused of the murder would be taken down to Victoria for a trial.

When the Clio arrived Captain Turnour attempted to take the Kwakiutl suspects into custody, but the community refused to hand them over.

Turnour threatened to open cannon fire on the village, but the community still refused to hand over the men and attempted to scare the Navy away by brandishing large knives.  The Clio let off a volley of shots into the village. The First Nations took down their flags and raised a white flag and the assault was halted.

That evening the First Nations started to move their belongings into the woods behind their village.   They also called on the Fort and told the HBC employees that they would surrender the wanted men, but the Fort employees refused to open the gates of the Fort, wary of being taken hostage in the dispute.

Painting "The Clio at Fort Rupert" by artist Mike Sedgemore  provided by Hutch Hunt Sr.

In the morning the Navy once again sent launches to Tsakis demanding that the community hand over the suspects.  They handed over one of the three suspects, but refused to bring forth the other two men.

At this point the Clio's First Lieutenant started lighting First Nation's big houses on fire, and entered the remaining houses, seizing and destroying a quantity of rum. When this did not elicit the desired response the Navy officers returned to the Clio and the ship let fly a full barrage of cannon-fire on the village.   Navy destroyed the community's houses as well as all of the canoes on the beach.  It is estimated that somewhere in the neighbourhood of 80 canoes may have been destroyed.  Canoes were essential to life on the coast at this time including basic food gathering. This action was devastating for the Kwakiutl.

When officers once again returned to the village, the community still refused to hand over the requested men, and instead the Clio took six or seven men into custody by force (one European man travelling on the Clio described it as the Navy 'taking hostages'), and delivered them to Fort Victoria.  All the men were later released, but their situation prompted a debate in the legislature about whether they should be financially compensated for their loss, and whether the the Navy acted appropriately.

The Kwakiutl repaired and rebuilt their houses, again in close proximity to the Fort.   On a number of occasions cannons were fired upon the Kwakiutl, and one original cannon and a number of cannon balls from the period of the Fort are still in the possession of the community. Local stories are told of First Nations returning the cannon balls to the Fort being paid for their return.  The Fort was sold in the late 1870s to former HBC employee Robert Hunt.

____________________________________________

Thanks to Hutch Hunt Sr. for suggesting the attack of the Clio on Fort Rupert as an idea for further exploration.  He was told this story by his father Johnathan Hunt, who heard the story from his father.

http://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/getDoc.xml?id=V66035.scx

http://archive.org/stream/dailycolonist18660106uvic/18660106#page/n2/mode/1up/search/fort+rupert+clio
https://archive.org/stream/dailycolonist18651229uvic/18651229#page/n1/mode/2up/search/Clio+Fort+Rupert

Adventures in memory through the old North Island

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Judy MacCallum did the North Island a great service by writing a history column in the North Island Gazette that included interviews from many early pioneers in the area.
The columns are a gift to those interested in doing further research or just interested in the unique characters who helped to make the North Island what it is today.
The columns are available through the Google News newspaper search function.  Dates of the columns and links are provided below.
I have not been able to contact Ms. MacCallum myself, but I would love to be able to thank her for this wonderful collection.

Adventures in Memory through the old North Island

Chapter 1: December 12, 1979
"The day the cougar chased the dog through the house"
Chris Sondrup's memories of life at Cape Scott.

Chapter 2: January 16, 1980
"How one founding family spent the early days here"
The history of the Hole family from Coal Harbour. as told by Ken Hole. In 1912 Albert Hole took up a homestead at Nahwitti, and the family later moved to Coal Harbour. Part I.

Chapter 3: January 30, 1980
"There were always people you could go to for help"
The history of the Hole family - Part II.

Chapter 4: February 13, 1980
"$5,000 in silver stuffed behind a chair and forgotten"
Tex Lyon's reminisces, part I.

Chapter 5: February 20, 1980
"I don't want to get that civilized: it's still possible to live off of the land"
Tex Lyon's reminisces, part II.

Chapter 6: April 2, 1980
"Setting up housekeeping in a tent in the days before company houses"
Stories of early settlers to Port Alice.

Chapter 7: April 16, 1980
"A mere 68 years later the great Hardy Bay land fraud becomes a con come true"
An overview of the Hardy Bay Land Co. and the land sales fraud which lured many unsuspecting families to the North Island.

Chapter 8: April 30, 1980
"Mother-in-law float house: when we moved we just towed her along"
The storey of the Halliday family.

Chapter 9: May 14, 1980
"You went to meet every boat - it didn't matter if it was 2 o'clock in the morning"
Memories from Jessie Roland, daughter of pioneer Nils Gunderson.

Chapter 10: May 28, 1980
"The pilot was digging clams, but the tide came in and the plane floated down the inlet"
Stories from Don Thompson, president and co-founder of Alert Bay air services.

Chapter 11: June 11, 1980
"There's many a wonderful thing we haven't found yet"
The story of pioneer Jim Cordy, one of the last residents who homesteaded along the Holberg - Cape Scott trail.

Chapter 12:June 25, 1980
"When dad ran out he rowed to Port Hardy for more tobacco"
Stories about the founding of Fort Rupert and recollections of Vivian Hunt.

Chapter 13: July 16, 1980
"Nearly 70 years ago Claus Botel fled German inflation"
The story of Claus and Martha Botel as told by their daughter Anna Botel Hole.  The Botels first homesteaded on the West Coast at Topknot Point, and later moved to Quatsino Sound.

Chapter 14: August 13, 1980
"He would have turned right around and gone back"
Carl Johnson talks about his memories of growing up in San Josef and Quatsino.

Chapter 15: August 27, 1980
"Sitting Bull's bullet ridden cabin led Chris Nordstrom to Chicago and then Quatsino"
The story of how a group of Danish settlers founded the utopian colony of Quatsino.

Chapter 16: September 10, 1980
"It was mostly the men who liked living here then"
Ida Pugh talks about the early pioneer days in Port Hardy.

Chapter 17: September 24, 1980
"The house sank when the winds broke up the float"
Pioneer Timber and the early history of Port McNeill.

Chapter 18: October 16, 1980
"Dreams of a socialist utopia on a rainforest island"
The history of Sointula.

Chapter 19: October 29, 1980
"Wire was strung on trees right to Telegraph Cove"
Fred Wastell talks about his memories in the early days of Alert Bay and Telegraph Cove.

Chapter 20: November 30, 1980
"Dong Chong delivered groceries by wheelbarrow"
The story of pioneer grocer in Alert Bay.

Chapter 21:December 10, 1980
"English funnies and shuffleboard when Norah arrived"
Phil Watson talks about life in early Port Alice.

Chapter 22: January 7, 1981
"There used to be 10,000 salmon a day from the Keogh"
The story of the Anderson family of Sointula.

Jokerville

Published in the North Island Gazette January 13, 2016.

When World War II came to Northern Vancouver Island, it meant big changes for the area, including the construction of a military base and the influx of a large number of air force personnel.

An historic air photo of the Port Hardy airport, with Thomas Point on the bottom left. 

An area just south of Port Hardy was selected for one of four air bases constructed on Vancouver Island at this time (1941). Originally known as a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) station (bomber reconnaissance) and Home War Operational Station it was later designated a Staging Unit (no 21).

As with other bases, the wives and girlfriends of enlisted men and officers were generally not provided housing on the base.

In areas close to towns, the servicemen's girlfriends and wives could relocate close to the base, but in remote locations like Port Hardy small makeshift communities sprang up for those who wanted to set up house.

During base construction lumber was easy to come by.  Men took remnant lumber and built shacks, which generally didn't have running water, and consisted only of a front room, a bedroom, and an outhouse.

By 1945 a motley collection of these buildings had sprung up just off the air force base lands by the RCAF dock/ barge ramp, just to the north of Thomas Point.  

Called 'Jokerville,'  the shacks were built both by enlisted men and American employees of PanAmerican Airways, which used Port Hardy as a refueling stop on flights to Alaska.  

The Americans reportedly rigged up a generator and plumbing to supply electricity and gravity-fed water from a nearby spring to the cabins, but when the introduction of larger airplanes cancelled the necessity of a PanAm stopover in Port Hardy the Americans took their generator away. 

Cabins changed hands when personnel were transferred.  At the time one of  these squatters cabins could be purchased for about $300, and that included any furnishings the previous owner had acquired.

The RCAF stored their coal (used to power the base's generators) on a barge attached to a dock right at the end of the Jokerville Road, which was convenient for those trying to heat their poorly insulated shacks.  A couple of kind words to the watchman would get you a bucket of coal for free.

Shopping was done at the Cadwallader store at the site of the old Fort Rupert, which was only a short walk away, and received orders by steamship every ten days.

Air photo showing the RCAF base at Port Hardy.

Visitors usually arrived by ship in Port Hardy, then traveled by military vehicle over a bumpy road with a number of narrow bridges that some people called the "Burma Road," which led to the base and to Jokerville. Some referred to the collection of tar-paper shacks as a 'squatters town.'

There were parties and gambling in the community, but many of the servicemen were just happy to have a place to stay with their wives.  Sometimes groups of boys from the base would come to Jokerville looking for a party, were the rules of the military were relaxed.  

Many of the wives found the accommodations cozy, and there was an active social life as many inhabitants got together every day, usually at the house with heated water. 

Wild animals were frequent visitors to the village, with more than one story being told of a prized fish, recently caught, being stolen off a front porch by a hungry bear or cougar. This was often a surprise to the 'city boys' in the Air Force, many of whom were not accustomed to living in the wilderness.

At the end of the war most of the original Jokerville residents walked away from their shacks in a return to civilian life, but in the 1960s the area was populated again, this time by hippies.  Today the area is a part of Kwakiutl Indian Reserve - Thomas Point 5, although many local people still refer to the area as Jokerville.

In 1944 a Toronto Grade 11 student, presumably after a trip to the area, captured these thoughts about Jokerville as a writing assignment published in their high school year book: 

"From early morning, to late evening the hoarse croaking of crows is heard mingling

 in an unearthy din of barking dogs, squalling cats, and huge 

American bombers which fly overhead every day—all day. 

This is Jokerville, 

the “metropolis” of North Vancouver Island."

References
Emmott, NM. Jokerville in Raincoast Chronicles Eleven Up (Howard White, Editor). Issue 13. Harbour Publishing. 1994. p. 186-191.
http://www.mocavo.ca/Vox-Fluminis-Riverbend-School-for-Girls-1944/849974/35
http://www.101nisquadron.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/RCAF-Port-Hardy-30-X-30-plaque-v6a.pdf
Thanks to George Kearey for his memories of walking through Jokerville in the 60s/70s.