Vanishing History, The Why, The Where and The Reasons
When Only The Past Can See The Present
This site is mainly about Powell River, British Columbia. Powell River has been around since the turn of the century, and began its days as a Lumber Town. The history behind Powell River is not long, nor glamorous but it has its interesting parts, having the first medical care card, first telephone in British Columbia, shortest river in the world at one time among other things. Most if this history has been recorded however it has been in the last decade that I have noticed the remaining visual and verbal history has slowly been lost. Logging has been Powell Rivers main industry since its begining and the surrounding area is largly second growth and some now going onto the third growth. The things being lost are irreplacable, and although it would be nice to save it all, its impossible due to many things, space, time, people and money.
In this Blog I hope others will help capture other pieces of the history surrounding Powell River by posting comments, or stories they know of people, places and things in the area.wilderness. I have been noticing many places have still visible railroad beds, old logging equipent, homesteads and other artifacts that a large majority of people cannot see. Their are clubs that venture into the wilderness, business and contractors and everyday normal people who take time to see the beauty of what Powell River has to offer.
It is surprising when one person tells me a story they heard about this item once seen at this location in abouts say 1950’s, and today it is still there, so if you know of stories, or know of lost artifacts, or interesting things you find, please take the time to help record the information as this site is not only decitated to the retrieval of this information, this information will also be passed along to the local Powell River Historic Museum, the Powell River Forestry Museum, and other places who would like the information.
If you post here, it would be helpful if you posted with the following information.
Area Name: ex. Nanton Lake, the GSP Co-ordinates or Map Co-ordinates: Latitude – Longitude, if you have them, Description of Pictures if you upload them of where they were taken, who took them and the year month day if possible.
Anything posted here is valuable information, and its always nice if items can be located, in the future these area’s will be logged and they will most certainly be destroyed and buried, so at some point in time, it may be smart to go retrieve them and bring them back to Powell River so all others can see them, but until then, others can visit them where they are located.
If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me at docoldfart@hotmail.com.
or if you wish to post pictures comments you must be registered
I wish to thank some people who have helped me with research, and to locate items here, Teedie and Debbie from the Powell River Historic Museum, Doug McGregor with his good memory and great story tellings of the history, Pat Haist who since arriving in Powell River has been a driving force for me to continue this venture, Andy McLoad who has joined in some adventures of relic finding and to my wife Denise who has ridden beside me on these trips, with our two dogs Pico and Abby.
Rob Tremblay