The Fallen
Every once in a while, Iain Lawrence’s blog comes to life again. I always notice; Iain’s writing is worth noticing. Tonight you should go look at his most recent blog post, The Fallen.
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Archive for the 'history' Category
George Taylor’s tombstone
We visited the Nanaimo Cemetery a while back, and came across George Taylor’s grave. Does his name ring a bell? George was a Gabriola pioneer, and Taylor Bay is may have been named for him. Here’s a photo of his tombstone:
Filed in Gabriola Island,Gabriola people,history 2 Comments so far
Culturally modified trees
Did you know that there’s an official manual published by the BC government, explaining how to identify and describe culturally modified trees? (If you’re not sure what those are, see Gabriolan’s past post on the subject, Gabriola’s culturally modified trees.) You can download the guide (as a honking big pdf of more than 38 megs, [...]
Filed in First Nations,Gabriola Island,history 3 Comments so far
From Gabriola’s ice-age past
Here’s news for anybody interested in Gabriola’s history. Nick Doe writes: I’ve been researching Gabriola’s ice-age history this last summer and have come up with a few surprises, but none greater than this. As yet it is not clear whether this leg bone is from a mastodon or woolly mammoth; and we don’t know yet [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,history 9 Comments so far
Dog hair used in Coast Salish weaving
The University of York has published an article about the dog hair the Coast Salish used in weaving: Researchers from the University of York have produced the first clear evidence that textiles made by the indigenous population of the Pacific coast of North America contained dog hair. In recent years, scientists have hotly debated whether [...]
Filed in First Nations,history 7 Comments so far
The tall stumps
This old stump stands out back of our house. I photographed it late this summer, when the surrounding greenery was in full intensity; it’s duller now, although there are still tasty evergreen huckleberries on the bush at the right. This tree was felled a long time ago, when fallers worked two men to a tree [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,history 11 Comments so far
Tiny house in huge log
You’ve seen some of the huge trees in the Elder Cedar (S’ul-hween X’pey) Nature Reserve, and perhaps elsewhere on the island, too. Maybe you’ve crowded inside one of Gabriola’s hollow old trees or stumps with your friends while someone snapped a photo. Did it ever occur to you that the base of some old-growth trees [...]
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The history of sleep
What do you do when the power goes out (as ours did yesterday — yours too?), and you’re left with no electricity for the evening? We’ve got a propane stove, so cooking dinner is easy enough. We eat by candlelight, enjoy the fire for a while… and then go to bed, way earlier than we [...]
Filed in history One Response so far
Chinook Jargon
If we’d lived on Gabriola 100+ years ago, I bet we would have learned a few words of Chinook Jargon. The Yinka Déné Language Institute explains what Chinook Jargon is: Chinook Jargon is a trade language that was used extensively in the nineteenth century and first part of the twentieth century for communication between Europeans [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,history 10 Comments so far
Intertidal archaeology
You’re free on Tuesday night? If you’re interested in local archaeology, you might want to drive down to Victoria for Intertidal Archaeology in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. QMackie has details. He writes: Next up for the local (Victoria) branch of the Archaeological Society of B.C. is a Tuesday, October 18th talk by Daryl [...]
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The Atrevida, after Gabriola
You’ve read other blog posts about the Atrevida, Gabriola’s first ferry. Here’s an account of the Atrevida’s more recent adventures. Sheila Gibbs wrote to say:
Filed in ferries,Gabriola Island,history One Response so far
Weldwood on Gabriola
Were you on Gabriola in 1992, when there was much concern about the Weldwood property and what should become of it? I wasn’t, so all I have to go on is the accounts of others. Here’s what Paul Grignon has on his website: Not What We Thought It Was? – Weldwood, 13 Years After. As [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,history 2 Comments so far
Lines of work in BC, 1860 and beyond
What would your occupation have been if you’d lived on Gabriola — or in Nanaimo — 100 years ago? For help imagining occupations of the past, see Lines of work in BC, 1860 and beyond at The Hook blog.
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My Big Fat Diet
A while ago I came across the term diseases of civilization: those diseases that were not present in aboriginal populations before the arrival of European settlers and the introduction of European foods like flour and sugar. That got me thinking about the traditional diet of BC’s coastal First Nations — a diet that included fish [...]
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Evening at Brickyard Beach
Gabriola’s brickyard was quite the industry in its day. Here’s a fragment of what’s left: a piece of Gabriola brick, soon to be swamped by the rising tide.
Filed in environment,Gabriola Island,history Comments Off
Himalayan blackberries
The Himilayan Blackberry features huge, vigorous vines (and yummy berries). It grows in profusion on many parts of Gabriola and throughout southwestern BC. It’s not a native plant, so how’d it get here? An article by Arthur Lee Jacobson explains:
Filed in Gabriola Island,history,invasive plants One Response so far
New memorial for Nanaimo miners
By way of follow-up to my article regarding the 1887 Nanaimo mine explosion: The Nanaimo Daily News today reports that the memorial at the foot of Milton Street has been refurbished. I visited it only last Thursday, and saw no sign of recent work on it compared to earlier photographs, so am intrigued to see [...]
Filed in events,history,Nanaimo 5 Comments so far
Nanaimo disaster, Gabriola tragedy
Most days, the world of the northern English mining village where my father was raised seems ungraspably distant from Gabriola Island. I sit at my desk, looking out at the cedars towering over the first flowers of late-arriving Spring, and struggle to imagine the hard rows of company houses on the numbered streets of Horden [...]
Filed in Gabriola Island,Gabriola people,history,Nanaimo 6 Comments so far
