Swanson Bay, the town that vanished

While reviewing a project I came across the story of Swanson bay, a ghost town on the west coast of British Columbia. In 1901 the BC government passed an Act that allowed companies a interest in the land if the set up a mill. The Canadian Pacific Sulphite Pulp Co. Ltd. took up the challenge in 1906 and 1909 began to produce lumber. The town was serviced by the CPR and Union Steamship vessels. By 1919 the town had a population of 500 people producing 100,000 board feet a day , sulphite pulp and shingles.

In 1923 an earthquake hit Japan, their biggest customer (history repeats itself!) Sometime after 1925 the mill was closed and the town began to lose it's population. Soon the only persons there was a watchman. At some point around the 40's the town was completely abandoned. this is not an uncommon story on the coast, many towns were completely dependent on one company and mill/mine, when it would shut down the town would die. the mortal remain of the town exists but shrouded in the dense bush. If you have taken a cruise ship up the inside passage than you have passed the bones of this ghost town.

I have gleamed this information and pictures from 2 websites, please visits them, for more of the story and some excellent pictures.
  

Remembrance

Many of us have our own reasons to remember Nov 11th. Most Canadians have a parent, Uncle or other relative that died in WWI, II and Korea. Now a new generation knows all to well what the term "sacrifice" really means and have to remember the recent loss of a son, daughter, father, uncle or other in Afghanistan. A thank you to the survivors of those who fell in our recent conflicts and to those that may reluctantly join their ranks.

Now a memorial thought to 2 different soldiers, from two different generation, linked by a common thread. Both survived, one just and the other almost unscathed.

Smokey Smith

   

Ernest Alvia 'Smokey' Smith, was born in New Westminster, B.C. in 1914 and educated in elementary and technical schools there. He left his work with a contracting firm to enlist in the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada in March 1940, joining the regiment overseas a few months later. He was a private when he won the Victoria Cross at the Savio River in Italy on Oct. 21-22, 1944.

The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada were the spearhead of the attack across the river, which torrential rain had caused to rise six feet in five hours, making it impossible to get tanks and anti-tank guns across to support the rifle companies.

The right forward company was suddenly counter-attacked by three Panzer tanks, supported by self-propelled guns and some 30 infantry. Private Smith led his PIAT(projector, infantry, anti-tank) group of two men across an open field and left one man on the weapon. Crossing the road, Private Smith obtained another PIAT. An enemy tank attacked and wounded the man on the first PIAT. Smith fired his own and put the tank out of action. German infantry jumped from the tank and attacked him but Smith drove them back with his tommy gun. Obtaining more tommy magazines which had been abandoned in a ditch, Private Smith steadfastly held his position, and later gave aid to his wounded comrade.


"No further immediate attack developed and as a result, the battalion was able to consolidate the bridgehead position so vital to the success of the whole operation, which led to the eventual capture of San Giorgio Di Cesena and a further advance to the Ronco River," reads the citation in part.


'Smokey' Smith left the army for a short time after the war, but rejoined and served until August 1964, when he was released with the rank of sergeant. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/feature/smokysmith

I was fortunate enough to meet Smokey a couple of times while visiting the Seaforth mess, He was a soldiers soldier. He certainly was not perfect, apparently he had to be "arrested" and escorted to London by two Military Policemen to ensure he showed up sober in front of the Queen! He was remembered as a bit gruff, but kind to the common soldier. He certainly was not the "perfect hero" but he was heroic when it counted and for that he will be honoured for many generations to come.

Captain Charles Trevor Greene

Greene deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 as a Civilian-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) officer, volunteering from his home unit of the Seaforth Highlanders.

On March 6, 2006, his platoon, composed of members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, 1st Battalion, Alpha Company, visited the village of Shinkay in the Shinkay District, to talk with the village elders about access to clean water and other basic needs under Canada's area of responsibility. After the soldiers removed their helmets, a common practice and show of respect, Abdul Kareem (or Abdullah Karim), a sixteen-year old boy, almost split Greene's brain in half by hitting him with an axe. Kareem tried to hit again but was instantly shot and killed by other members of the platoon. The platoon then came under heavy fire while waiting for a US Army medical evacuation helicopter.Greene received care on the helicopter, and medic Gary Adams was able to unblock his airway. Greene was transported to the then Canadian-led hospital at Kandahar Air Field where he was stabilized.

He was later evacuated to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany from which he was transferred to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the largest US Army medical facility outside the continental United States.There, he underwent further surgery to allow his brain to swell without causing further damages. 

Shortly after being stabilized, Trevor Greene was transferred from Landstuhl to the Vancouver General Hospital, where doctors initially thought he would never come out of his coma.Greene underwent two bilateral cranioplasties, with the second one successfully repairing his skull. He was also subject to physiotherapy sessions, which were lacking results at first. Greene was then released from the hospital and was transferred to a private-care rehabilitation center in Langley, BC. On April 30, Trevor Greene started speech therapy sessions.^[16]

In July 2007, Greene was admitted to the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka, Alberta, for long-term care and rehabilitation. At that stage, he had made slow but significant progress, and was able to open and close his hands, among other things.

In December 2007, Canadian Forces engineers installed a lift at Lepore's residence in Alberta, which allowed Trevor to come home for Christmas and on week-ends.Around the same time, they also received a wheelchair accessible van from the then-new Military Casualty Support Foundation.

In September 2008, Greene moved to Nanaimo, BC, with his wife and daughter, after spending 14 months at the Alberta facility. As of 2010, Trevor Greene is now able to stand, but still cannot walk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Greene

I never had the pleasure of meeting Capt Greene, he is a different kind of hero than Smokey, Greene like the other Canadians that volunteered to go to Afghanistan had a pretty good idea of the risks they would be taking, but they went anyways. I can't speak for his time there before he was hit by an axe, but his heroism started then, the slow painful climb back to self sufficiency requires a different kind of courage, His struggle reminds us of all those who did not come back whole and must suffer the disability and the accompanying demon war leaves on the soul.

These are just two examples of what we will be remembering tomorrow, go, mourn, remember and then celebrate those who will not return, those that have returned, those that still suffer and finally those that still face the risks in a combat zone far away.  

Silent walls

The city of Farah in Western Afghanistan has seen it's fair share of invaders and cultures, in the centre of the city resides a massive citadel. some believe it was made by Alexander the Great, other think it's newer than that. Likely both are right, I suspect a proper dig will find build upon build as it was common for a new culture/invader/ruler to build on the fortifications of the previous occupant and often terrain dictates the logical defense positions. Regardless of who built it, it's truly impressive. The picture used here is from Robert Lankenau photo album and is worth a visit.

Another astounding view can be seen at Micheal Yons Gigapan account, well worth the visit. gigapan

Here is the citadel on Google maps

View Larger Map

Canadian history online

Just tried this, the interface is a little bare, and advanced search options don't exist. But is in beta form and great things have to start somewhere. Found lots of good pictures of the building of Prince Rupert and images of WWII propaganda posters. Give it a try.

There is a link on the bottom for more information on the project, you would think they would have a feedback button so people can comment on their beta version.


Call it the Google of Canadian history.

An ambitious new search engine has been launched by an alliance of digital heritage advocates designed to allow one-stop searching for centuries of Canadian history.

The Canadiana Discovery Portal combs through more than 60 million pages of information from 30 different library, museum and archive collections across the country. The rest of the story

The site

BC Politics always bizarre

Never a dull day here. Our Premier Gordon Campbell staggering under a 9% approval rating, tried to sell himself on TV and giving a 15% tax break, shortly afterwards the knives were out and so was he.
Good news for the Loyal Opposition? Not so much really, the Premier who just left was their only hope of getting in with their own lackluster leader Carole James. In fact there was a symbiotic relationship between the two. Gordon’s only hope was that the voters would hold their noses and vote for him, knowing she would be a disaster. Carole’s only hope was that the voters might think she could not be possibly worse than Gordon. Once Gordon left, she was on borrowed time and it just ran out with her own caucus in revolt.

I don’t follow local politics closely enough to tell you who will be successful in replacing both of them, but I can tell you this. Politics has never been dull here.

1871 First general election in province of British Columbia for Legislative Assembly.
1874 Chinese and native Indians disenfranchised
1878 School teachers prohibited from voting or campaigning
1895 Japanese disenfranchised
1899 Provincial civil servants disenfranchised
1907 Hindus disenfranchised
1917 Franchise extended to women
1924 Both Premier (John Oliver) and Leader of the Opposition (William John Bowser) defeated in general election.
1931 Doukhobors disenfranchised
1945 Members of prohibited groups, if otherwise qualified, allowed to vote if they served in either World War (SBC 1945 c.26).
1949 Indians and Japanese prohibition removed
1977 Liquor sales allowed on election day
http://www.elections.bc.ca/index.php/resource-centre/electoral-history-of-bc/

Colourful Premiers we had aplenty


De Cosmos, Amor 1872-74
De Cosmos' attempt to alter the terms of union in order to obtain monetary guarantees from the federal government to complete a dry dock at Esquimalt that eventually led to accusations of impropriety, and ended his provincial political career. He speculated heavily in land and in Texada Island Iron mines, which brought further criticism, as he was a public official. Thus he ended his tenure as Premier on February 11, 1874.

W.A.C. (Wacky) Bennett 1952-1972
He was a capitalist that nationalized the Provincial electric utilities and railway, some of the smartest moves made by a politician in this Province.
· Quotes "Just say that I smiled and I smiled and I smiled!" -- signature riposte when asked to respond to criticism from opposition party or media
· "The finest sound in the land is the ringing of cash registers."
· "The Socialist Hordes are at the gates of British Columbia!"
· "I couldn't give it away, so we decided to build it and run it." - On the British Columbia Railway.
· "We are a young country; we must build on the solid rock of sound economic policies and balanced budgets. But, we must be prepared, as a nation, to step from the solid rock onto new ground. The path of ease, the path of tradition alone, is not the path of a greater Canada." - Addressing the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 1962.
· "I'm plugged into God" - On the reason for his political successes
· "It's the smell of money." - To residents complaining of the smell of a local pulp mill
· "They couldn't run a peanut stand." - On the New Democratic Party
· "You may not be my friend, but I'll be your friend, even if I'm the last friend you ever have." - On his frequent application of "my friend" to everyone, including political opponents.
· "The answer is 'No'." - How Wacky Bennett would emphasize his stubborn opposition
The above borrowed from Wiki

The voters here can also be quite vengeful, they wiped out the Social Credit party and mopped the floor with the NDP. They might decide to punish the current Liberals for the HST that they imposed on us, after promising not to. Which lead to a successful referendum run by another colourful ex-premier called Bill Vanderzalm.

Oh did I mention we had our own navy made up of 2 submarines?

Klondike shipwreck brought to life with 3D scans

A Gold Rush-era shipwreck at the bottom of a Yukon lake is coming to life with the help of cutting-edge digital 3D scan images.

The images were produced in June by researchers working on the wreck of the A.J. Goddard, a 19th-century sternwheeler that vanished in Lake Laberge in 1901.

Researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology captured images of the sternwheeler with underwater sonar scanners supplied by the U.S. firms BlueView Technologies and Oceangate.

Millions of captured images were then assembled into a 3D model, similar to a recent map of the wreck of the Titanic off the east coast of Newfoundland.

Last year, an archeological team that included the Texas-based institute and the Yukon Transportation Museum announced that it had discovered the shipwreck, mostly intact, at the bottom of Lake Laberge.

Read more at CBC North

Some good images of the gold rush, a number of sailboats on Lake Labarge at 5:10

Analytical Engine

Ever show a kid a vacuum tube? The concept of not having computers and TV is quite foreign to most North American and European kids. Even adults forget that the modern computer was realized just a generation and half ago. The funny thing about history is so few people realize they are making it and living it everyday.

Campaign launched to build Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine
A steam-powered computer designed by the 19th century mathematician Charles Babbage could finally be built after a campaign was launched to bring his dream to life.
The Analytical Engine – conceived in 1837 – remains one of the greatest inventions that never was as Babbage died before he could see out its construction.
However, John Graham-Cumming, a programmer and science blogger, now hopes to realise Babbage’s vision by raising £400,000 to build the giant brass and iron contraption.
He plans to use Babbage’s original blueprints for the device, which are contained in a collection of the inventor’s notebooks held at the Science Museum in London.
The campaign has already attracted 1,600 supporters who have pledged funds to kick-start the project.
Elements of the engine have been built over the last 173 years, but this would be the first complete working model of the machine.
"It's an inspirational piece of equipment," said Mr Graham-Cumming, author of the Geek Atlas.
"A hundred years ago, before computers were available, Babbage had envisaged this machine. "What you realise when you read Babbage's papers is that this was the first real computer.

From The Telegraph

More on the Analytical Engine

A debate on who invented the computer

More food for thought

Early computer commerical for Remington-Rand

History of the M.E. in 2 minutes

Do you find the history of the Middle East confusing? Don’t feel bad, most people who try can not follow it and the majority ignore it, something that becomes painful oblivious when they talk about it! History is everything in this land and colours the actions that happen in the present. I have found this map useful to glimpse th complexity of that history. More maps at: http://www.mapsofwar.com/