Photos of the Week - Recap!

Every week I provide a historical photograph to the North Island Eagle, one of our local newspapers.  I've been a bit negligent in uploading them here, so this column will be a collection of a number of these recent photographs!

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Princess Maquinna steamer docking in Quatsino, early 1900s

In the early 1900s numerous communities scattered around the North Island were connected by regular visits of the Canadian Pacific Railway's steamship fleet. These steamers embarked at local communities on a regular basis and provided a mode of transportation, a way to ship much-needed supplies, and were often the only source of outside news. Service on the ships was first class, with a formal dining room and staterooms for those who could afford them. Others rode on the deck for a cheaper fare. Steamship day was always an exciting time in a community. Local people would flock to the dock to see who had come in on the ship, to sell wares to the tourists, and to see what had arrived in the post. This photo, taken by Ben Leeson sometime between 1900 and 1910, shows the Princess Maquinna coming in to dock in Quatsino.___________________________

Englewood School - 1908

Commercial logging started in the Beaver Cove area, just South of Port McNeill in about 1908. In 1925 the Wood & English company opened a sawmill in the northern part of Beaver Cove. This location provided a sheltered bay, access to deep water, and a stream which provided a source of power for the mill. The Nimpkish logging railway was redirected to the new mill, and a town sprang up in this new location.The community was named Englewood, a play on the Wood & English mill. Englewood boasted a steamer port, post office, general store, community hall, bunkhouses, mill offices, married quarters, a small Japanese village, and a school. The Wood & English operated until 1941.

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Port Alice pulp mill during construction (1917?)

Taken by local resident Ben Leeson, this photograph of the Port Alice mill was likely taken around 1917, about a hundred years ago. The first World War created an increased demand for cellulose products, and at this time the rights to logging in Quatsino Sound were transferred to the Whalen Pulp and Paper Company, which ramped up production through new investments in the pulp mill.

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Ne-No-Le-O - Mama Yockland picking salmon berries

Taken in the early 1900s in the Quatsino Sound Area by Ben Leeson, this photograph is entitled "Ne-No-Le-O - Mama Yockland picking salmon berries." The original photograph would have been in black and white, but Leeson hand coloured photos for sale to tourists who came into Quatsino on steamships. This photo shows a woman known colloquially as "Mama Yockland," who has the distinctive head shape of the women of the Quatsino Nation, which practiced head-binding on young girls. She is collecting salmon berries in a traditional woven basket. Leeson captured many images of the people of Quatsino Sound going about their normal daily lives which now form a valuable historic record. Photo reference - City of Vancouver Archives A-15-54

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Sealing Schooner Diana in Quatsino Sound, 1893. BC Archives: F-05317

In the late 1800s there was a large Bering Sea sealing industry based out of Victoria. Ships were generally identified as having crew comprised of 'whites' (European ancestry), First Nations, Hawaiians, and Asian crew members. There is a record of some members of the Quatsino First Nation working on these vessels. In the late 1880s there were about 65 Canadian registered sealing ships in the Pacific. This particular vessel was built in 1889 and was originally named the Sea Lion. On this trip in 1883 the ship, now called the Diana, reported obtaining 2,394 pelts, most of which were caught off the Japanese coast.

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Robert Hunt

Robert Hunt was born in England in 1828. At 21 years of age he signed up as a labourer with the Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) and shortly thereafter arrived at the newly constructed Fort Rupert in today's Port Hardy in 1850. He moved on to work in the Nass Valley for a few years, and there met and married Mary Ebbetts (Ansnaq), from the Taantakwáan (Tongass) tribe of the Tlingit nation, of the Raven clan. In about 1882 the Hunts purchased Fort Rupert from the HBC. They had 10 children, and many of their descendants still live in the North Island to this day. One of their sons, George Hunt, became an expert on the language and customs of the Kwakwaka'wakw people.