Sointula - utopian Finnish "place of harmony"

This article was published in the North Island Gazette March 5, 2015.

Malcolm Island has been utilized as a seasonal harvesting location by the Kwakwaka'wakw for thousands of years, but in more recent history it was settled by non-indigenous colonists in the late 1800s. 

In 1895 the Christian Temperance Society, under the leadership of Joseph Spencer, made an attempt to settle at Rough Bay, however within a year they had given up and the Island reverted to a timber lease for forestry.

Around the same time a group of Finnish miners at Nanaimo were growing frustrated with their working conditions, and formed a temperance society which was a socio-political group that allowed them the freedom to discuss their frustrations and aspirations in Canada.

The miners decided that they aspired to a better life, with more freedom and equality, and toward that end they wrote to Matti Kurikka, a political philosopher, playwright, writer, and organizer, asking him to come to Vancouver Island.  Kurikka had been in Australia trying to establish a utopian community, but agreed to come.

Kurikka arrived and the Finns established the Kalevan Kansan Colonization Company. Kaleva is a reference to the Finnish mythological hero which plays a significant role in the early Finnish literature epic the "Kalevala."

The Company started a newspaper highlighting their efforts to start a communal colony founded on the virtues of respect and equality.  They sold shares, while recruiting other Finns from all over the world to join their movement, and negotiating with the government for a land grant.

Matti Kurikka

On November 1, 1901 the Company signed an agreement. They would be granted the rights to Malcolm Island in seven years if they could settle 350 people, make improvements including developing farms, roads, and wharves, and educate their children in English.

The word was sent out to prospective colonists and the first advance group left to begin the task of constructing a settlement.  From the beginning the effort seemed cursed.  A gun accidentally discharged in the boat while the group was transiting Seymour Narrows, striking a man in the arm.

By December 1901 the group had arrived at Rough Bay, and by March 1902 there were fourteen settlers.  

In June the steamer Capilano brought in a load of settlers and materials. The group voted to name their village Sointula, or "place of harmony."

Although the colonists built a number of communal dwellings, they were not able to construct adequate housing for all of the new arrivals, and many had to stay in tents as the winter storms set in.  

Some colonists arrived with farm implements and cattle, which they had to sell when they realized that there would be no pasture or crops for some time.

On January 23, 1903 at 8:00pm, as many women and children were sleeping in one of the wooden buildings, and a meeting was taking place on the third floor, a fire broke out when one of the flues overheated.  Eleven people perished in the fire, eight children and two adults. Some people, devastated and heartbroken, blamed the Company and Kurikka. 

By the spring of 1903 the population of the colony was 238.

A performance of the community band. Photo from the Sointula Museum.

The men of the colony tried their hand at logging and fishing, but they had a difficult time bringing in money sufficient to pay back their loans.  After a series of bad business decisions, including a low bid by the colony to build a bridge over the Capilano River in Vancouver, the banks seized some of the colony's assets. The company, now bankrupt, was dissolved.  In May 1905 the colony was forced to give up their land grant to pay their debts.

Many of the original settlers decided to stay and retained their values of communal work.  Sointula fishermen were instrumental in forming many of the powerful fishing unions on the coast, and many business initiatives on the island have been operated as cooperatives. 

Benson Lake's historic Old Sport Mine

This article appeared in the North Island Gazette January 29, 2015.

When many of the first non-First Nations people came to the North Island in the late 1800s, they were attracted by the offer of preemptions of land. If a man or a family (rarely a woman) would come and clear the land, build a house and live on it, they would get title to the property. This was the government’s way of encouraging people loyal to the British Empire to populate the hinterland of coastal BC.

Homesteaders found that it was difficult to make a living farming in the North Island’s coastal rainforest, and in order to make money many people turned to prospecting.

In the late 1800s, the government would test mineral samples (assays) for free, and so boat-loads of local men would venture off into the great unknown for days or weeks at a time, looking for evidence of precious metals.

Residents of Quatsino seemed to be particularly adept at finding these deposits. One of these successes was the discovery of copper in an area by Elk Lake (now known as Benson Lake) in about 1897 by George Nordstrom. A claim was laid called the “Old Sport Mine” in an area about 500m south of the river on the lake.

In the early 1900s some surface work was likely done on the claim. The mine used diamond drills to a depth of about 400 feet. They ran a water-driven generator plant, and had a camp for about 30 employees.

Coast Copper Mine - Photo by Ben Leeson 191-
Vancouver Public Library

Coast Copper Mine - Photo by Ben Leeson 1915
Vancouver Public Library

In 1916 mining giant Cominco purchased Old Sport and a number of other claims in the area. They started the work of constructing underground shafts to mine below the surface. They changed the name of the original Old Sport Claim to Coast Copper.




To get supplies to the mine materials would be offloaded from the Coastal Steamships in Port Alice at Jeune Landing, driven to Alice Lake, boated across the lake, taken by pack horse to Kathleen Lake, boated across the lake, and then again taken by pack horse to Elk (Benson) Lake.

Many local men worked at the mine up until the 1930s, when the Great Depression halted production.





In the 1960s mining in the area was reactivated. The main minerals produced were magnetite, chalcopyrite and local bornite. The mine produced iron, copper, gold and silver. During a ten year production run more than 2.5 million tonnes were mined from the site. Many of the tailings were dumped into Benson Lake.

About every ten years a new company expresses interest in the site. In the late 1960s it was Quatsino Copper Gold, in the 1970s Alice Lake Minerals, in the 1980s Taywin Resources, in the 1990s Noranda Inc. The claim has been for sale again in recent years as a part of the Merry Widow Group.


**


Article in the North Island Gazette:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1185&dat=19720706&id=INBaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=w4ADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6960,1671799&hl=en
Photos show one of the old mine shafts from the Coast Copper claim in the area by Chris Halliday www.250explorer.com .

Pioneers persevered at Strandby

Originally published in the North Island Gazette March 22, 2006.

With the construction of the North Coast Trail many people have been introduced to the beautiful rugged wilderness of the North end of Vancouver Island.

Most will not realize that in the early part of the twentieth century, almost every cove along this part of the coast was inhabited by rugged individuals who lived in near total isolation under trying conditions.

The North Coast of the Island was at one time home to the Nahwetti First Nation, and is today claimed as the traditional territory of both the Quatsino and the Tlatlasikwala First Nations.

A surveyor's report from November 1892 identifies 'Cache Creek' as the watershed to the East of the Cape Scott area.  Apparently fishermen would cache belongings in this cove while they made their way offshore to their fishing grounds. Gold and fool's gold were both found on the banks of an adjacent "Irony Creek," and on the beach.

Soren Christainsen was the first to homestead at the mouth of Cache Creek in the 1890s.  His sister Marie arrived in 1903 and helped him to take care of his home.  Soren Hill is named for this early settler.

In 1905 Harry Shuttleworth homesteaded to the west of Cache Creek.  He married Christiansen's sister in 1908.  The Shuttleworths farmed and raised 30 head of cattle which were pastured under the large old growth trees of the rainforest.

The year 1911 was a busy one in Cache Creek.  James Sim pre-empted a quarter section, and he and his wife Jesse and their twin babies walked all of their belongings along a trail to their homestead.  Harry Shuttleworth's brother Robert, his wife Sarah, and their five children also arrived.  A friend of the Shuttleworths, Tom Lockwood, also arrived with his family.

In December of that year the Sim's home burned down and the family lost everything.  Locals helped them to build another house, but the possessions which the family had brought with them from Scotland were all lost.

In March 1911 a post office was established with Harry Shuttleworth as postmaster, but the community was not allowed to use the name Cache Creek, because there was already a Cache Creek in BC.  Marie (Christiansen) Shuttleworth suggested that the community be named after Strandby, the town of her childhood on the North East shore of Denmark.

In 1912 another three families arrived in the area, and the following year a school opened in the Sim's residence.

A small store also operated in the community.  Strandby had approximately 14 families as permanent residents at the is time, and a trail was constructed from Strandby to Nahwitti.  With no steamer service and no road to connect it to other communities on the North Island, life in Strandby was difficult.  Settlers were stuck in the wilderness for months at a time, and had to rely on their ingenuity to survive.

With the outbreak of the Great War many people left their homesteads to enlist or to join the war effort.  

Strandby existed until 1921, but the population steadily dwindled.  Soren Christiansen died in 1915 and was buried on the hill overlooking the bay.

James Sim lived on "The Stump Ranch" until 1938, and afterward continued to visit the area.

Marie and Henry Shuttleworth lived in Strandby until their deaths in 1938 and 1941. They are buried in the Anglican cemetery in Alert Bay.

In 1947 the Hydrographic Service recommended identifying the location of the now abandoned town site as Stranby, for the old townsite and post office.

The name stuck until local historian Ruth Botel noted the discrepancy in spelling, and in 2005 the name was officially changed back to Strandby.

Allison Harbour

This article originally appeared in the North Island Gazette December 23, 2014.

Allison Harbour lies across Queen Charlotte Straight, near the entrance to Nakwakto Rapids, at the entrance to Seymour Inlet.  It is within the traditional territories of the ’Nakwaxda’xw Nation.

In the early 1900s Seymour Inlet was a busy place for hand-loggers, with small camps dotting the inlet.  Steamships and barges preferred not to negotiate the tidal rapids, one of the highest flows of tidal exchange in the world, and protected Allison Harbour became an important transportation hub.

Originally called False Bay, or False Schooner Passage, Allison Harbour was officially named after a coastal logging entrepreneur, A.P. Allison in 1950.   It had been known by that name since the 1920s.

In 1924 a detailed marine survey was done of Allison Harbour and an official chart released.  This was important due to the reefs which posed a hazard to ships entering the cove.

A post office was established in the Harbour in 1927, and the float community also became a steamship stop, serviced by the Union Steamship Company vessel Chelosin (colloquially known as the “Charlie Olsen”). In the late 1920s Mr. and Mrs. Bellam operated a bunkhouse in Allison Harbour.  A small café also operated in the area. In 1937 Percy Sutherland was appointed the local commissioner for the provincial election.

Vic and Melva Eckstein moved to Allison Harbour in 1947 to take over the post office, store and a marine service station.  They later added a sawmill to the operations.  All of the buildings were on floats.  They, and an old trapper, were the sole occupants of the harbour for many years.  They were always optimistic that a boom was coming for the area, however in 1954 when float plane service made the Allison Harbour steamship stop obsolete, the Ecksteins moved to Gibsons, and the little community of Allison Harbour began its decent into obscurity.

 

EJ Hughes painting, "The Store at Allison Harbour" 1955.

Well known Canadian painter E.J. Hughes (1913 – 2007) painted “The Store at Allison Harbour” in 1955.  In 2007 the painting sold for $245,700.  It is currently owned by collector Jacques Barbeau, and is on display at Micheal Audain’s museum in Whistler.

In 1965 transport companies started delivering freight directly to logging camps in Seymour Inlet, and the last remaining vestiges of the settlement were soon abandoned.

More recently, the provincial government and The Land Conservancy jointly purchased a tract of privately owned land in Allison Harbour, and in 2008 BC approved the ‘Class A’ Allison Harbour Marine Park, which includes 89 hectares of land and 43 hectares of foreshore.  It is a part of the larger Ug^w iwa’/Cape Caution Conservancy.  The management plan states that there are remnants of an old cannery building in Allison Harbour, although I have not been able to find any references stating a cannery was in operation in this location.

Last year the University of British Columbia Collections used Allison Harbour as an example of a place in BC for which is it very hard to find any historic information.  There is an "Allison Harbour Room" in the Barber Building at UBC (room 263).  If your family has any photos or information on Allison Harbour please contact me.

"Old Ned" of Quatsino Sound and the Limestone (Drake) Island Hotel and Saloon

Published in the North Island Gazette November 27, 2014.

Drake Island is situated near the geographic centre of Quatsino Sound. The area, once the home of the Hoyalas and Koprino First Nations, now forms a part of the traditional territory of the Quatsino First Nation.

Drake Island was named after Justice Montague William Tyrwhitt-Drake, who was the mayor of Victoria in 1876-77. The name was not adopted until 1926, and early settlers knew the island as Limestone Island. Pamphlet Cove on its North shore was originally named Quiet Cove.

Edward (Ned) Frigon was born in Maurice or St. Prosper, Quebec, somewhere between 1829 and 1834. As a young man Frigon left a young family to seek riches in the California gold rush. He took a boat to Panama, walked across the isthmus, and then took another boat to San Francisco, where he stayed for three years before travelling on to Fort Victoria.

Frigon appears to have travelled to Germansen Creek in the Quesnel area from 1868-70 with members of his extended family.

At Fort Victoria he amassed enough money to buy a basic stock of trading provisions. He then set up a trading post in Bull Harbour, eventually moving to Koprino Harbour in 1889.

In 1895 Frigon moved his trading post to Quiet Cove on Limestone Island. It was conveniently located between Quatsino, Coal Harbour, and the developing mill at Port Alice. He also provided the local post office services.

In 1902 Frigon was identified as holding a mining claim known as Eureka on the Ingersol River.

Central Hotel on the move - VPL archives 14132A

In the 1905 elector’s list he was identified as a saloon-keeper. In 1909 Frigon opened the Central Hotel, which included a popular drinking establishment.

Central Hotel - Limestone Island, Quiet Cove
VPL Accession Number: 14132

Frigon’s wharf at Quiet Cove became a steamer stop, where the early Quatsino settlers would pick up mail and deliveries. The steamers Tees and Queen City would call at the floating wharf until about 1914, when a wharf was constructed at Quatsino. The hotel was open until 1917, when Frigon retired to Port Alice, perhaps in anticipation of the coming prohibition on alcohol sales.

Thanks to Tim Woodland who found this great correspondence from the Central Hotel to one if its suppliers.

A history column in the North Island Gazette in 1974 noted that Frigon a number of wives, one of whom threatened him at knifepoint. His last wife was Lucy Moon, who gained notoriety as "the last of the longheads”, a reference to a local practice of binding the heads of girl babies which at one time was common among the Quatsino First Nation.

Frigon was known as a character in Quatsino Sound who everyone knew as Old Ned. He died near Port Alice in about 1917. Frigon’s estate was probated in Cumberland in 1922, and despite his many entrepreneurial business ventures his net worth was valued at $600, including $100 cash and 34 acres which were bequeathed to his wife.
The Frigon Islands near Port Alice are named after Edward Frigon.

*Photos included were taken by Ben Leeson and were graciously provided by Gwen Hansen from the Quatsino Museum.

Ba'as - A village at Blunden Harbour

Published in the North Island Gazette October 23, 2014
Part of the Kwakwaka’wakw language group, the ‘Nakwaxda’xw traditional territory is located between Cape Caution and Blunden Harbour on the mainland, including Seymour Inlet. The ‘Nakwaxda’xw called themselves “the assembled people” or “ the people from all around.”

The ‘Nakwaxda’xw moved about around their territory seasonally: fishing, hunting, and gathering various materials, but between 1884 and 1964 one of their main villages was at Ba’as (also written as Paas or Pahas), at Blunden Harbour. 

The name Blunden Harbour was bestowed by Captain Pender of the Beaver in 1863, after Edward Raynor Blunden, who was an assistant on the Hecate (1861) and the Beaver (1863) which surveyed the area. Long before the area was surveyed it was home to the ‘Nakwaxda’xw.

Ba’as was an old village site, although during the historical period prior to 1883 the main winter village had been at Kequesta (inside Seymour Inlet near Nakwakto Rapids).  By 1884 a number of families had moved and there were 12 houses at Ba’as.

Due to its isolation, the Nakwaxda’xw at were one of the last First Nations on the coast to retain a traditional way of living, and as a result were of great interest to ethnographers, photographers, and film-makers in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In 1901 the village was visited by an anthropologist from the Royal BC Museum, Dr. Charles Frederick Newcombe.  He took a number of photos of the village, one of which was loaned to Emily Carr, and became the inspiration for her famous painting “Blunden Harbour,” painted about 1930.

1901 photo by Newcombe

In 1914 Ba’as was one of the locations where the short pseudo-documentary “Land of the War Canoes” was filmed.

In 1914 the McKenna McBride Commission heard testimony from First Nations relating to the allocation of reserve lands.  From the ‘Nakwaxda’xw, Chief Pokleetami told the Commission (through interpreter William Brotchie): “… I will now speak of my land which was always owned by my forefathers and now I come into possession of them myself - This is what I want to say - that the Reserves which are measured out for us - I think they are too small - there is hardly room to turn around in them where we get our livelihood.”  One of the requests made was that Seymour Narrows be closed off to any white men.  The Commissioners refused this request.

Painting "Blunden Harbour" by Emily Carr.

When asked about what income was available to them (in 1914), the people of Ba’as reported working for the canneries and noted that two men fishing one boat would earn $100 in five weeks ($50 each) and a woman working in the cannery would earn about $25 for the same period.

The Commissioners also asked if any of the village children had received schooling.  The response was that two local children had gone to the residential school at Alert Bay for a month, but they didn’t learn anything, so they had taken them back home.

In 1964 the ‘Nakwaxda’xw remaining at Ba’as were pressured into accepting a government relocation to Port Hardy, and much of the remaining village was burned.

This short film (22 min) about Blunden Harbour by Robert Gardner (1951) has some great archival film images of the residents of Ba'as collecting and processing traditional foods. 
https://vimeo.com/92786598

Esperanza - A Place of Hope

Published in the North Island Gazette September 25, 2014.

The community of Esperanza is located on the north side of Hecate Channel, just north of Nootka Island.

Historically the site of a Nuu-chah-nulth village, the traditional name for the site was tlawe muxtsoo, orkle-muq-suu which reportedly was a reference to the liver, or purification of the body.

In the 1920s Dr. Herman McLean completed a medical degree and worked for a time in Bella Coola before searching for a new location where he could minister and provide medical services.  In the 1930s he met Percy Wills, and the two toured around Vancouver Island in the Messenger II, a vessel owned by the Shantymen Christian Association.  

By 1937 the two missionaries met Mr. Peters from Ehattesaht, and decided that the location on the north side of Hecate Channel was the right spot for a mission and hospital.  There was a lot of local industry which put working men at high risk for work-related injuries, families who lived there were isolated, the area had a good source of clean water, and it was in a bay protected from the prevailing winds.

Nootka Mission Hospital - 1939

The settlement, which opened its first buildings in 1937, was originally known as McLean’s Landing, but was soon renamed Esperanza (or Little Esperanza), after nearby Esperanza Inlet. Esperanza means hope in Spanish.

While the Shantymen supported the initiative, they did not want to take on the ownership or liability for the hospital, and so the Nootka Mission Association was formed, and faced the daunting task of raising the funds to support the mission.  Many of the materials used to build the initial settlement were donated by local sawmills and businesses.

Dr. McLean not only worked at the hospital, he also visited local communities in his boat Dieu Donna (later renamed Donna Dene).  

In 1938 a hotel was built adjacent to the mission, and unfortunately became a bit of a focal point for drunkenness and debauchery, much to the chagrin of the mission staff.  A number of prayer meetings were held for those participating in the events taking place at the hotel.  On more than one occasion people died after falling off the dock or getting into boating accidents while intoxicated.  The hotel burned down in 1960.

The Esperanza Hotel - 1946
BC Archives i-27517

In its prime the community had a library, school, and community lounge.  For a number of years the hospital relied on the hotel’s generator for its power.

In 1948, while on a medical and mission trip with his son, Dr. McLean’s boat hit bad weather on the way back from Kyuquot and capsized.  McLean survived the wreck but his son was never found.

After WWII ended, the mission purchased the former military radar station at nearby Ferrier Point.  The location was turned into a summer camp.

In 1955 the local post office was relocated from CeePeeCee to Esperanza, and when the cannery closed the mission purchased all of its residences and bunkhouses for $1000, and transported them to Esperenza.

The hospital started offering a variety of health and addiction services in the 1970s, and today Esperanza still exists as a spiritual retreat and offers a variety of services for youth and community members.