Dawn Copeman

Words

I am a writer, photographer, historian and artist interested in all things Cumberland. Wandering the local forest trails daily I gather wild edibles to photograph and paint. Recently downsized from working in the Broadcast Industry, my day job involves volunteering as a researcher and conducting tours of Cumberland Chinatown, No.1 Japanese town and the old mine sites for the Cumberland Museum and Archives.

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CONTRIBUTIONS BY Dawn

Telling the stories of Cumberland

2024 Comox Valley Collective Winter

Cumberland Museum & Archives Executive Director Rosslyn (Rozz) Shipp and longtime museum sponsor Raymond Heung were discussing ongoing projects in October 2022 when the idea of creating a new book […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Illustration by Jennifer Eaton

THE COAL BENEATH OUR FEET

2022 Comox Valley 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman

FELLOWSHIP OF THE FOREST

2022 Comox Valley 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Photos by Sara Kempner

WELCOME TO HISTORIC CUMBERLAND

Comox Valley Collective 2021 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Photo by Sara Kempner

INFLUENZA’S DEADLY TRAIL

Comox Valley Collective 2020 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Photo courtesy of The Cumberland Firehall

WAIT ’TIL THE SUN SHINES, NELLIE

Comox Valley Collective 2019 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Photo provided by Cumberland Museum & Archives

DEATH OF A WORKER’S FRIEND

Comox Valley Collective 2018 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman

OUR CHURCH BUILDINGS

Comox Valley Collective 2017 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Photos by Ron Pogue

AT JOURNEY’S END

Comox Valley Collective 2017 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 […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Photo by Jenn Dykstra

MEMORIES OF CHINATOWN

Comox Valley Collective 2015 Fall Where

Walking along the old Wellington Railway trail where alder, hard hack and osier dogwood create a bower of beautiful for wildlife, I smell the coal dust still blowing from the […]

Words by Dawn Copeman
Featured photos by Ed Brooks