I’ve been wondering where the YOGI trail got its name, and stumbled across the answer on the on the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust site. The Cox Community Park History page says:
It was named the YOGI Trail because of its proximity to the landmark rock figure erected by the Youth Organization of Gabriola Island in [...]
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Most of Gabriola has been logged at least once. I understand the whole idea of cutting down trees and selling the wood for profit. What I don’t understand is why there are so many massive logs like this rotting away in the Gabriola woods.
This tree didn’t just fall over: it was cut down. And left [...]
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A Gabriolan.ca reader has asked for help in tracking down a 20-year-old Shaw cable show about Gabriola. It was made in March, 1990, and was about the hooking up the last pole to bring cable television to Gabriola.
Are you the sort of person who tapes and keeps television shows about Gabriola? And, if so, do [...]
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I’ve been reading bits about the history of Weldwood on Gabriola Island. According to a page at the Islands Institute library, Until 1994 Weldwood of Canada owned 2800 acres, approximately 1/4 of Gabriola Island. Weldwood seems to have been a forestry company. (It’s since been purchased by West Fraser.)
Apparently Weldwood wanted to develop some of [...]
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He’s moved to Gabriola to farm. He’s in his fifties, he’s got nine kids, and there’s no school, so he teaches his own children. He realizes that he ought to know more himself, so he works to upgrade his education. He sends away for books, and he studies. Finally he decides he’s ready to take [...]
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I’ve seen all sorts of things rusting away on Gabriola, but this is a first for me. What is it? My primary consultant on Things Mechanical says it’s a steam engine — perhaps a steam-powered tractor, or a steam-powered plough, or maybe just an engine that was hooked up to something and used in place. [...]
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The ever-fascinating Northwest Coast Archaeology blog has some Gabriola content today: Rock art on Gabriola in 1792. The blogger, qmackie, has found this image in the University of Washington’s digital collections.
Well, Gabriola, where could this be? The image label says near Descanso Bay. I’d say Malaspina Galleries, but I don’t think there is any [...]
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Here’s another one of Gabriola’s petroglyphs. What animal do you think it represents?
It looks like a cheery dog to me, and I know that the Snuneymuxw did keep dogs… so?
On the other hand, it’s not like I know much about Snuneymuxw rock art, so somebody else is bound to have a better answer.
Filed in First Nations, Gabriola Island, history 4 Comments so far
Recently I happened across a few posts about Gabriola on the Northwest Coast Archaeology blog. In this post about Gabriola petroglyphs the writer notes:
I must comment on the destructive practice of rubbing, not so much through cloth but the scraping of the lines to remove weathering patina and lichen in order to take clearer photographs. [...]
Filed in First Nations, Gabriola Island, history 5 Comments so far
Did you know that one of Vancouver’s famous buildings is called Gabriola? It’s on Davie Street near English Bay in the city’s West End. The City of Vancouver explains:
Gabriola, (at the northwest corner of Davie and Nicola), is the last of the community’s truly grand mansions. Built in 1900-1901 for industrialist Benjamin Tingley Rogers (founder [...]
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I’m reading Clam Gardens: Aboriginal Mariculture on Canada’s West Coast. It’s fascinating beyond belief. Here’s what the back-of-the-book blurb says:
Pre-contact West Coast aboriginal peoples are commonly categorized in anthropological literature as hunter-gatherers. Author, coastal traveller and historical researcher Judith Williams proposes that they cultivated butter clams in a walled sea gardens that may be unique [...]
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I’ve often wondered about the Gabriola brickyard. How, exactly, did they make bricks? And out of what? Here’s the answer, from an article by Jenni Gehlbach:
The first step in the process was to crush, grind and screen the shale to a fine powder in a dry pan crusher, rather like a huge rotary kitchen sieve. [...]
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You know that BC First Nations people used cedar for all sort of things: canoes, housing, masks, clothing, blankets, baskets, totem poles, and probably lots of other purposes as well. The Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo Coast Salish) on Gabriola were no exception. Sometimes they took an entire cedar tree, but other times they just took part of [...]
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Do you ever walk in the woods between North Road and Whalebone Beach? I’m thinking of the area in the tunnel where there’s a big stump and a turn-around space — from there down to the beach. It’s sometimes called The Kensington Lands. It’s federal government property now; I hear it’s being held in [...]
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This is from the Snuneymuxw exhibit at the Nanaimo Museum:
The Salish used the same technique to spin all fibres. While spinning the spindle whorl is pointed upwards and the fibres are drawn down onto it. As the spindle rotates, it creates tension and a twist in the fibres, producing yarn. When the spindle is full, [...]
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Concerned about Gabriola’s vanishing petroglyphs? You’re not the only one. Here’s an article from the Nanaimo Daily News: Sacred sites are defiled by misuse.
Nick Doe wants to record as much information as he can about the remaining petrogylphs on Gabriola Island.
"We’ve already lost some," said the amateur archeologist, the only person now actively researching the [...]
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The other day I went to the Snuneymuxw exhibit at the Nanaimo Museum. The part that interested me most was a little plaque that said:
The Snuneymuxw had a small breed of dog whose fur was spun and woven into fabric. Through trade, they also aquired wool from mountain goats and later, sheep. As with [...]
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Have you come across Gabriola’s peacocks? Morri Mostow explains what it’s like to live with them:
Five tame male peacocks of varying sizes and ages, all with magnificent plumage, roam and roost on our modest one-acre Gabriola Island property. They aren’t officially ours, of course. Based on local lore, we gather that they escaped from a [...]
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Now here’s something you might like to attend if you’re in Nanaimo tomorrow night:
Archaeological Society of British Columbia Nanaimo chapter presentation: 7 p.m. at Vancouver Island University, Building 356, Room 109. Nick Doe will make a presentation on the meaning of the petroglyphs on Gabriola Island.
That’s from this page of the Nanaimo Daily News. They [...]
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Recognize this building? It’s Holy Rosary Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. (And yes, those white dots are snow.)
Now, have you guessed what the Gabriola connection is? It’s the sandstone. Holy Rosary’s history page explains:
Holy Rosary Cathedral is built of sandstone from Gabriola Island on foundations of local granite.
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Here’s what I just stumbled upon at the Gabriola Museum website: The Steamer Esperanza.
Owned by Messrs. Forman & Campbell, the steamer Esperanza (Spanish for "Hope") made regular weekly trips to Gabriola and DeCourcey Islands. She is first mentioned in the Nanaimo Free Press in 1892, as making a double round trip to the Islands every [...]
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We used to have a cheese-making operation on Gabriola, so what happened to that? Tonight I stumbled upon the answer while reading about the guy who makes those yummy cheeses on Saltspring. From Gremolata.com’s page on David Wood’s Salt Spring Island Cheese Odyssey:
…Wood was delighted when he discovered an abandoned cheese making facility on nearby [...]
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From the Nanaimo News Bulletin: Exhibit honours Snuneymuxw.
The history of the Snuneymuxw First Nation will come alive this weekend during the newest exhibit opening at the Nanaimo District Museum.
The exhibit focuses on the traditional lifestyles of the Snuneymuxw people over the last 1,500 years.
“It’s an entirely new exhibit and it’s looking at the Snuneymuxw from [...]
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On Thursday the City of Nanaimo placed two signs on the waterfront, commemorating nine ships that have shaped Nanaimo’s past. One of the nine was a Gabriola ferry! From the Nanaimo News Bulletin: Ships’ place in city history honoured.
For Thomas Higgs and Bob Georgeson, the unveiling ceremony brought back memories of their youth aboard the [...]
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