Chinese Canadian businessmen were pioneers on the North Island

This article was published in the North Island Gazette February 27, 2014.

The North Island’s history contains a number of stories of First Nations and pioneers who lived very interesting lives.

In the 1800s a number of First Nations people from the North Island, perhaps most notably the Quatsino, established a connection with Asian countries like China and Japan through their involvement in the sealing and whaling industries.  Prized for their skills, ships would come to the North Island to recruit First Nations sailors, who might be away for more than a year at a time. 

A number of Chinese Canadians left their legacy closer to home, here on the North Island.

Jim King emigrated as a young boy from China to Vancouver in 1882.  After working at low paying, unskilled jobs for a number of years he decided to set off up the coast to try his luck in the logging industry.  King worked as a boom man, camp cook, and a sawmill labourer before ending up in Alert Bay in 1910.

The local Indian Agent, William Halliday, befriended King and helped him to start a small store in Alert Bay.  King originally sold tobacco and then branched out into a dry goods store.

Dong Chong left Hong Kong in 1922 aboard the “Empress of Asia” and landed in Vancouver at the age of 16.  Chong started off selling fresh vegetables at a grocery stand, and then expanded these sales into a successful wholesale business based in Vancouver’s bustling Chinatown.

In 1928 Chong got married, sold his business, and travelled up the coast in search of a job.  Unfortunately he found that many businesses on the coast would not hire Chinese.  At this time the Head Tax had been implemented, and many Caucasian British Columbians were vocal in their discrimination against Asians, who had come in large numbers to the province to work on the Canadian National Railway and in many of the area’s coal mines.  Stopping in at Alert Bay, Chong met King, and decided to buy his store.

UBC Collections - Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection - CC_PH_00315

Chong would deliver goods to his customers by row boat and wheelbarrow.  When the Canadian government outlawed the potlatch Chong would always be one of the first to know if there was an illegal potlatch going on because the hosts would order huge quantities of goods from his store.  He never reported these goings-on to the police, and noted that in Alert Bay everyone got along at that time: white, Asian, and First Nations.

Chong was known to help out locals by extending credit to those could not pay their bill.  Some First Nations fishermen also used his store as a bank, asking Chong to hold onto their money at the end of the season so that they wouldn't spend it all at once.
At one point Chong ended up taking over part ownership of a logging company from a customer who couldn’t repay the loan.  Ironically, it was illegal for Chong’s logging company to employ Chinese workers.

In the 1960s Chong purchased land in Port Hardy, and built a number of successful commercial units.  His business eventually included grocery stores and commercial holdings all over British Columbia. 

A video with photos from this area is available here.
In more recent history, Dick Wong was well known for his café in Echo Bay, and later his restaurant, the Pagoda Gardens, which was established in 1961 in Port Hardy.  The building on Granville Street was a landmark in the community until it was destroyed in a fire in 1991 (by the site of the town clock). The curator at the local museum published a multi-installment biography on Wong in 1998 in the Gazette.

Articles
"Don Chong delivered groceries by wheelbarrow" in the North Island Gazette November 13, 1980.

North Island connection to the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893

This article was originally published in the North Island Gazette on January 30, 2014.
Many people from Northern Vancouver Island have likely heard of the World’s Fair, or perhaps attended Expo ’86 in Vancouver.

The North Island and many of its community members have an interesting link to one specific historical World’s Fair, of which many people may not be aware.  This connection happened during Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and resulted in the attraction of many of the first non-First Nations settlers to this area. 

In the mid 1800s the Hudson’s Bay Company built Fort Rupert at Beaver Harbour on the North Island.   Due to the isolation and late settlement of the northwest coast, the First Nations of the area were considered to be relatively ‘untouched’ by European culture.

In order to show off this unique and interesting culture to the rest of the world, an entire Kwakiutl village site was re-constructed in Chicago for the World’s Fair.  Big houses were relocated to Chicago from Northern Vancouver Island, along with a large number of totem poles, local ceremonial items, and artifacts.  Seventeen Kwakuitl band members (fifteen adults and two children) wearing traditional cedar robes, and other historic paraphernalia, were also a part of the display. 

Kwakiutl village display in Chicago 

The Kwakiutl display attracted a lot of interest and attention.  The souvenir book said that the Indians in their reconstructed village would : " live under normal conditions in their natural habitations during the six months of the Exposition."

The First Nations put on displays of singing and dancing for visitors, some of which were recorded.  When the Fair ended the First Nations returned home, but many of the artifacts which had been shipped to Chicago were sold to a local museum.

The Chicago World's Fair was a huge success, with over 27 million visits recorded, at a time when the entire population of the USA was only about 65 million people.  On one day over 750,000 people attended.

Many of the North Island’s first white settlers were lured to the area after hearing the stunning reports of its beauty and richness at the World’s Fair.

Stereoscope postcard of the Kwakiutl village at the fair.

Alexander Lyon was intrigued by the Kwakiutl exhibit, and moved to Fort Rupert.  He married Sarah Hunt, one of Robert Hunt’s daughters (Hunt worked for the HBC and bought out the fort when the HBC decided to close it).  They started a trading post in Hardy Bay.

Harry Cadwallader was a guard at the fair, and also was interested enough by what he saw there to travel back to the North Island.  He met and married Jane Charity Hunt, another of Robert’s daughters. 

A number of Quatsino settlers were also lured by the Chicago display.  Christain Nordstrom, Edyius Evansen, Halver Bergh, Ole Skarberb (Sherberg) and about five others decided to relocate to the area.

  

Pioneers settle at Storey’s Beach

This article originally appeared in the North Island Gazette December 23, 2013.

In previous columns I have written about the history of early Fort Rupert, the Port Hardy Air Force base, and the Kwakiutl First Nation. Today I thought I would pass on a bit of information about Storey’s Beach's first residents, George and Frances Storey. The information for this article is taken from the North Island Gazette and the book “A Dream Come True: Port Hardy 1904 – 2004,” published by the Port Hardy Museum.

George (Paddy) Storey was a logger who had worked around the Coast, and while a patient in the Vancouver General Hospital had met his future wife Frances (Sannie) Lyon. Paddy loved the Beaver Harbour area, and was excited when his application to log in the area was approved in 1941.

At the time there were no roads into the area, and so the Storey's logging camp was pulled up onto the North end of the beach, close to the creek outlet. If you take a walk down to the beach today, the area of the camp was the location around Chatham Ave. The Storey’s float home was pulled up on skids and is still there today, a simple white and brown house right on the beach.

The Storey's original house on Storey's Beach. 

The Storey’s children were initially home-schooled. Sannie would walk the beach or row to visit with her nearest neighbours at Fort Rupert. When the children started attending school they had to walk the beach from the logging camp to the current boat launch area by the pavilion to catch the bus. Not a difficult feat in the summer but much more challenging in the dark or the snow!

Water would be collected from Storey’s Creek, which ran behind the camp.

One popular story about Sannie was that she once tried to shoot a cougar she discovered in her chicken coop. She apparently shot a branch off of a nearby fruit tree, and blasted a hole in a dinghy, but didn't kill the cougar!

It wasn’t until 1957 that the Storey’s first neighbours moved onto the beach, Ned and Pru France. A rough trail was cleared along the beach around this time which was navigable by jeep, but had to continually be cleared of debris after big storms.

Paddy died in 1968 of lingering illness related to a car accident some 20 years earlier.

Sannie started Port Hardy’s first trailer park when, during a housing shortage, she allowed people to put trailers on her property.

Sannie died in 2006 in the Port Hardy Hospital at the age of 97, only having been out of her home for 10 days.

You may notice that there are different spellings of Storey’s Beach. Initially the town’s maps erroneously spelled the street fronting the beach “Stories Beach Road.” In 2000 the town corrected it’s spelling of the street to “Storey’s Beach,” however provincial maps and google maps still show the spelling as “Stories Beach.” Descendants of the Storey family still live on the beach.

Yreka mine yields riches at Comstock Mountain on Quatsino Sound

This article originally appeared in the North Island Gazette November 28, 2013.

Yreka is located on Quatsino Sound, across Neurotsis Inlet from Port Alice. It is in the traditional territory of the Quatsino First Nation, and in the 1800s was home to the Koskimo tribe.

In the late 1800s, local prospectors combed the area around Quatsino Sound looking for precious metals. During this era it was not uncommon for a group of men to venture out and forge through the bush for days, collecting ore samples. At the time the BC Government would provide free assay services (analysis) and tell the prospectors what their samples contained.

Local prospectors first discovered copper and gold in the area in 1898. 

The Yreka Copper Company was established in 1902, and registered 16 mining claims. It is not clear why the company chose the name Yreka, but perhaps it was to capitalize on some of the good luck associated with the gold rush in Yreka, California, where miners had struck it rich in 1851.



The initial Yreka mine on the North Island saw a camp built at 1050 ft. elevation. Approximately $300,000 was initially invested in the operation. In addition to bunkhouses and a cookhouse/dining hall, the company built a store, blacksmith shop, sawmill, post office, and mining office for the 60 or so men who worked at the mine. The mining operation included ore bunkers and a wharf. The mine itself had both a surface quarry and three shafts, the deepest of which approached 800 ft. Arial trams ran up and down the steep mountainside from the mine to the beach. A winding road with numerous switchbacks also allowed vehicles to access the site.

Electricity for the drills was generated by a water wheel, and operations would shut down when the creek went dry in the summer.

The initial mine operated until 1904, and then closed.



In 1916/17, following a rise in copper prices, entrepreneurs Clark and Silverman optioned the claim, and a new tram system was installed. From 1902 to 1917 the mine produced 3,752 tons of ore, containing 59 oz of gold, 4245 oz of silver, and 174,642 pounds of copper. During the war, the ore was not considered to be of high value, and the company defaulted. It tried to resume activities in 1919, however the option was surrendered in 1929.

In 1951 a new owner, the Noranda Mining Co. began construction of a new mine site. They completed over 30,000 ft of drilling, but in 1956 a landslide destroyed much of their work and efforts ceased temporarily.

Comstock Mountain was only officially given its name in 1959, although the mountain had been known by this name to locals for many years, as this was the name of one of the Yreka Copper Company’s mining claims.

Mining briefly resumed from 1964 to 1967 by a partnership of Noranda and the Mitsubishi Co. Production during this period was 156,586 tons, which included 1,545 oz gold, 141,629 oz silver, and 8,502,517 pounds of copper.

In the 1970s a string of successive owners continued to map, drill, and survey the claim.

In 1980 there were rumours in the North Island Gazette that the mining would reopen on the mountain, and an adjacent claim was listed for sale recently on BC mining websites. Despite (or perhaps due to) extensive analysis of the area, some geologists believe the claims explored to date are only offshoots of a more valuable seam in the area which has not yet been discovered.

North Island Coal Mining at Suquash

This article originally appeared in the North Island Gazette February 8, 2006.
How to best exploit the coal deposits at Suquash have been a burning question on the North Island for over 175 years.
Suquash is located midway between Port Hardy and Port McNeill, on the banks of Queen Charlotte Strait.  It takes its name from the Kwakwala language, meaning "the place where seal meat is cut into strips."  It is believed, therefore, that this area was once used as a harvesting station for seals by local First Nations.
In 1835 the Husdon's Bay Company became aware of coal deposits on Northern Vancouver Island when First Nations visiting Fort McLaughlin at Bella Bella saw the white people burning coal. Coal was referred to in Chinook as "khale-stone," meaning black stone. They told the Hudson's Bay Company employees that they knew of a place where they could find more black stone, at a place known to them as Suquash.
With the advent of the steamship the HBC required additional coal for their fleet of trading vessels.  For a period of time coal was brought from England as ballast in ships, but it soon became obvious with the advent of additional trading in the Pacific and the start of the California gold rush that stocks of coal would be in high demand on the Pacific Coast.
In the 1840s the HBC began to explore local coal reserves, and the first mine developed on Vancouver Island was at Suquash, starting as early as 1846. In its first days surface coal was collected by First Nations and brought out to HBC ships by the canoe-full.
By 1849 the HBC's Fort Rupert had been constructed in what is today known as Beaver Harbour.  In 1850, 32 miners, mostly experienced Scottish miners, were brought in from the coal fields in England and Scotland.
Coal was visible on the surface at Suquash, and the HBC thought that an underground mine would yield large deposits.  Unfortunately when the miners began to sink shafts they  found coal which was of poor quality, mixed heavily with sandstone and shale.
The HBC also had difficulty with their miners.  Frustrated with serving as indentured labour for a number of years, and without the promise of earning the expected commissions based on the output of their coal production, many HBC labourers deserted to pursue their fortunes in the California gold rush.  Some felt that the company did not provide adequate protection against the hostile First Nations people.  The British and Scottish miners were also not used to surface mining, which they found beneath their station as experienced colliers.

Suquash in the 1920s.

Between 1849 and 1850 approximately 11,000 tonnes of coal were extracted from the Suquash coal field. When a better quality deposit was found at Nanaimo in the 1850s, the HBC abandoned its coal mining efforts at Suquash and moved its equipment and miners further South.
From 1908 to 1914, and then again from 1920 to 1922, another venture, Pacific Coast Coal Mines Ltd., commercially mined coal at Suquash. The total production during these years was 23,600 tonnes.
Tunnels were drilled under the ocean, and community sprang up, including bunkhouses for miners and a beautiful mine manager's house with a two story river rock fireplace.  By 1932 the mine was abandoned, and the remaining equipment was auctioned off.  The remaining shafts were filled with water, a common practice in coal mining, to prevent the explosion of gasses which naturally accumulate underground.
Suquash Collieries Ltd. dewatered some of the shafts and workings at the site in 1952.  They opted not to proceed with production.
In 1974 BC Hydro continued exploratory drilling in the area, however they determined that it would not be economical to proceed with an underground mine.
Recent re-analysis indicates that the site does not hold promise as a potential coal mine, due to the dirty nature of the coal and the thinness of the seams.  However, coal bed methane reserves at the site have been examined by some energy companies, and could once again generate interest in industrial development at this historic site, now in the form of fracking for methane gas.

Minister served the spiritual needs of the North Island

The article originally appeared in the North Island Gazette October 18, 2006.
More than one hundred years ago one man brought vision, compassion, and healing to the BC coast.
John Antle was born in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, in 1865.  His family were fishermen and sealers, and John spent his early years on and about the coastal waters.
When Antle was 17 he left home and taught school was studying to become a clergyman.  He studied at Queen's Theological College and in 1892 Antle was ordained into the priesthood with the Church of England.  He served the Church of England for five years in Newfoundland before travelling to Washington State.
While in Washington Antle petitioned the church to look at establishing a mission that would help the lumbermen of the Puget Sound area, but his request was denied.
Antle moved to Vancouver in 1899 and became the first rector of the Fairview Parish.  He oversaw the construction of Trinity Church.

Rev. John Antle

While Antle was in Vancouver he sponsored a boy's club, and they built a 14 foot sailboat in his back yard called the Laverock.  In 1891 the steamship Cassiar arrived in Vancouver with the bodies of four men aboard who had died in industrial accidents, without access to adequate medical treatment.  Antle's passion for assisting the people of the rural areas of the coast was rekindled.  He applied for and received a $100 grant from the church to look at the issue.
With a few supplies, Antle and his nine year old son set out in the Laverock to explore the coast.   They travelled to Alert Bay, stopping at various homesteads and settlements along the coast.  Antle compiled a summary of the needs of coastal communities, homesteaders, and transient workers.
When he returned, Antle managed to convince the Church of England to invest in a vessel that could be used to provide medical and spiritual assistance to the people of the coast, and the Columbia Coast Missionary Society was born.  The vessel Columbia was commissioned in 1905, and the 'Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada' donated $2000 toward the completion of a 65 ft vessel.  The Columbia provided emergency room services, medical consultation, served as a dispensary, and included a chapel and a library.

The Columbia

Shortly after the Columbia assumed its duties, the society was able to show the depth of need on the BC Coast for basic medical services.  The mission was moved to establish a hospital at Rock Bay (just North of Ripple Rock) in 1906.
A second hospital was added on Texada Island, at the site of a large copper mine.  In 1909 Antle was a key figure in the establishment of another hospital, St. George's Hospital in Alert Bay.
Antle was trained as an anesthetist, and added this to his duties of ship's captain, writer, chaplain, boat cook, and founder/administrator of the Society.
The mission played an important role in the lives of early pioneers on the North Island.  Both directly, and through the ongoing activities of the mission, Antle saved many lives and nourished the souls of many people who were living a difficult existence.
The mission went on to build the Columbia II in 1910 and eventually added another vessel to its fleet, the Rendezvous.
The Columbia III plied the waters of coastal BC for the society from 1955 until 1968, when float planes started to replace boats as the most efficient way of responding to medical emergencies.
Antle retired in 1936, and at that time the assets of the mission included: three hospitals, five churches, two native missions, and two ships.  Antle was persuaded to return briefly to service during WWII, serving in a parish on Mayne Island.
In 1948 Antle, who had always retained his passion for sailing, left Vancouver on his sailboat Reverie for a trip to the West Indies.  Unfortunately bad weather and health problems caused him to give up his trip in San Francisco.   Antle died December 3, 1949.  His funeral service was held on-board the Columbia, and he was buried at sea at Manson's Deep, just off of Bowen Island.

North Island coho runs were decimated by DDT experiment

This article appears in the October 31, 2013 issue of the North Island Gazette.

We don’t have to look very far into our history to see some surprising examples of a different idea about what constituted ‘acceptable environmental impacts.’

In 1955 North Island foresters realized they had a problem.  The valuable stands of timber in the area from the Nimpkish River north were seeing a significant infestation of the black-headed budworm.  Worried about the possible impact on timber supplies, the province decided to experiment with a new treatment that was first used to kill parasites during World War II to prevent the spread of malaria and typhus. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, known more commonly as DDT, is colourless, tasteless, and almost odourless. 

Avenger planes at Port Hardy ready to undertake DDT application

UBC Collections - MacMillan Bloedel Fonds - RBSC-ARC-1343-BC-1930-266-5-6

The government knew that the DDT application could have significant effects on the local fish and wildlife, and involved the Department of Fisheries and the Game Commission in the experiment.  Flight patterns were designed to avoid rivers.

DDT being applied to forested areas by aircraft

The treatment on North Island forests involved mixing one pound of DDT with a wood penetrating emulsifier, added to a gallon of diesel oil.  One gallon was then applied per acre by low-flying aircraft, with a total of 155,000 acres being sprayed in effected areas between June 10 and 20, 1957.

Barrels of DDT being prepared for aerial application at the Port Hardy Airport
RBSC-ARC-1343-BC-1930-266-5-6

The spraying annihilated almost all insects within the treatment area.  Even stream-dwelling insects were almost totally eliminated, as recorded at number of stations sampled prior to, immediately after, and four months following the application.

The impacts on salmon were also catastrophic.  It was hoped that the timing of the application would minimize impacts on local salmon runs, but there were many tens of thousands of juvenile coho salmon and trout within local watersheds at the time.  

UBC Collections - MacMillan Bloedel Fonds -ARC-1343-BC-1930-266-7-9-0

Thousands of chum fry died as a result of the DDT application in the estuary of the Nimpkish River.  In the Keogh, Waukwass, Klaskish, and Benson Rivers, coho salmon mortality approached 100%.  Steelhead trout may also have suffered significant losses.  There were also lesser impacts on other North Island streams and rivers.  Many fish that did not die suffered from blindness, with a cloudy covering obscuring the lens of their eyes following exposure.

The Lower Nimpkish River

Researchers concluded that the decimated runs would take many years to rebuild.  There were suggestions that juvenile fish from other areas could be flown in to Port Hardy to restock local creeks.  Some reports of the day noted that it was good the area was isolated, because it would mean light angling pressure in the affected creeks.

Rachel Carson used the North Island DDT application as an example of the the harmful environmental impacts of synthetic pesticide application in her famous book Silent Spring (1962).

Some local people from Quatsino Sound have reported that the Marble River watershed had a rain event shortly after the DDT application, and that there were piles of dead sea creatures which washed up on the shores of Quatsino Sound in the following days.