CV Collective Fall
Starting in 1888, a vast labyrinth of extraction tunnels was carved beneath the village of Cumberland, the old Bevan and Puntledge townsites, Comox Lake, and many areas between. When visitors come to the Cumberland Museum and Archives, I tell them not to jump too hard on the road surface in the village, as No. 5 […]
Words by Dawn Copeman
CV Collective Spring
“Expect mountain bikes, hikers, runners, dogs, children, and elders on these trails.” —excerpt from the Interim Trail Management Strategy for the Cumberland Community Forest Park, May 2021 It’s nine o’clock and the Sunday Morning Philosopher’s Club (also now known as the Cumberland Forest Crones) is heading out from our usual rendezvous point; today, we’ve decided […]
Words by Dawn CopemanPhotos by Sara Kempner
CV Collective Summer
A few years ago, there was a local kerfuffle because a new sign on the Inland Island Highway proclaimed: “Welcome to Legendary Cumberland.” That’s the difference between old Cumberland and new Cumberland right there. Old Cumberland is coal mines and logging and labour history—new Cumberland is mountain biking and microbreweries and legends. There are legends here, no […]
Words by Dawn CopemanPhoto by Sara Kempner
CV Collective Fall
By all accounts, Johnny Bannerman is a very nice young man. He’s a member of the Cumberland Volunteer Fire Department, a devout churchgoer, and a Mason. Naturally athletic, like all the Bannermans, he plays lacrosse, basketball, and baseball—and runs fast enough to have the Alberni Volunteer Fire Department jokingly call him a “ringer.” In the […]
Words by Dawn CopemanPhoto courtesy of The Cumberland Firehall
CV Collective Winter
While looking at a 1931 photo of a crew of men seated on a logging raft, long-time Cumberland resident Karl Cameron reminisces about the stories his father, Pete (sixth from the right, standing, in the photo), told him about the old logging days in the Comox Valley. “My dad started working for Comox Logging [as […]
Words by Dawn CopemanPhoto provided by Cumberland Museum & Archives
CV Collective Spring
Near the end of July 1918, the blackberries were just starting to ripen, a welcome development for the hungry draft evaders who were hiding in the hills behind Comox Lake. The mission to capture them had intensified now that Albert “Ginger” Goodwin was among them. The men delivering supplies up the Cruickshank were being watched by Special […]
Words by Dawn Copeman
CV Collective Fall
When I was a little girl in the 1960s, we’d play hand games to amuse ourselves: cat’s cradle, shadow puppets, and a charming little finger riddle that had us chanting to each other “This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors and here’s all the people.” Fifty years later, the chant now […]
Words by Dawn CopemanPhotos by Ron Pogue
CV Collective Summer
It’s 5:30 a.m., April 15, 1942. The full dark of night is just lifting. Suitcases are packed and weighed and packed again. A last board is hammered into a window frame, securing the building against the ravages of weather and potential abandonment. Diesel engine noises disturb the sudden quiet, and the dream that this is […]
Words by Dawn CopemanPhoto by Jenn Dykstra
