FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS
A curtain flutters through broken glass as fiery flakes litter the snow-covered ground. Despite the cold, ...
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ALL History
CAMP ROAD SPECIAL
It was late summer when my husband and I first rolled into Cumberland in our old Ford pickup. The year was 1996 ...
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UNCOVERING THE MYSTERIES OF TWIN ISLANDS
Twin Islands, tucked against Cortes Island’s southeast shore, has been a haven for a fascinating cast of ...
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FOSSIL FASCINATION
It is a universal truth, I think, that the further you move through adulthood, the more you’re aware that life is ...
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ECHOES IN CHINATOWN
At Cumberland Chinatown’s peak in the years just after the end of World War I, around 1500 residents bustled down ...
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REMARKABLY UNSINKABLE
It was April 1912 when Hilda Mary Slayter packed her travel trunk with an elegant trousseau in preparation for her ...
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THE TAIL OF THE KITE
“Deputy Minister Department of Mines offers services of H. M. Laing of Comox [to] accompany Expedition … to act as ...
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ALL HAIL THE MAY QUEEN
The merry month of May is highly anticipated in the Village of Cumberland. Since 1888, Villagers have gathered on ...
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THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
The legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship doomed to never enter port, has been told and retold since the ...
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WILD SPACES BELONG TO EVERYONE
Some of my dearest early memories involve water. My dad would tie a rope on my sister’s and my life jackets as we ...
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CHANGING TIDES
One of the most iconic locations in the Comox Valley is Goose Spit, a long finger of land that shields Comox ...
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A LIFE LIVED WITH VOLUME
Everyone remembers the first time they met Thomas Dunn. He was a rare individual who made an impression—mostly ...
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FROM SECRET KNOWLEDGE TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
If you take a moment to reflect upon the immense amount of organization, dedication, and perseverance required to ...
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WELCOME TO HISTORIC CUMBERLAND
A few years ago, there was a local kerfuffle because a new sign on the Inland Island Highway proclaimed: “Welcome ...
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LEAVING OLD ENMITIES BEHIND
I enjoy the practice of traditional karate for many reasons, including what it teaches me about Japanese and ...
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SUPERSONIC MEMORIES
Editor’s note: Rick Zyvitski, now retired, used to fly fighter jets out of Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Comox. We ...
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Don’t Look, SEE
Most Campbell Riverites know the iconic blue cottage, nestled by the beach in Willow Point. For Sybil and Walter ...
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Strathcona Park Lodge and Outdoor Education Centre
When you drive west along the winding road that skirts Lower and Upper Campbell Lakes, as it hugs the rock face of ...
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INFLUENZA’S DEADLY TRAIL
By all accounts, Johnny Bannerman is a very nice young man. He’s a member of the Cumberland Volunteer Fire ...
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COURTENAY AFTER COVID
The third in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from now. ...
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FED UP NO MORE
We got together in the living rooms of cabins, converted barns, half-finished homemade houses. We ate date ...
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TURNING DOWN THE TEMPERATURE
The second in our series imagining how the Comox Valley’s communities could look 20 years from ...
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IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL LAND
When my kids were younger, I logged long hours at the Rotary Skypark, going half-dizzy as they performed endless ...
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YOU’LL BE GLAD TO HEAR: UNION BAY 2040
This year, we’ll be exploring possible futures for the communities of the Comox Valley based on current community ...
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WAIT ’TIL THE SUN SHINES, NELLIE
While looking at a 1931 photo of a crew of men seated on a logging raft, long-time Cumberland resident Karl ...
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THE FOREST AS OUR WITNESS
The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is ancient. Cultures the world over document the presence of ...
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GENERATION GAP
In 1927, it was a day like any other for Peter Bardesonno as he clocked in alongside his father Jossepi for ...
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IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, thriving mining, logging, and fishing industries in the Comox Valley led to ...
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CRUMBLING CANNERIES
It was the 1880s and “The Great Salmon Industry” was in its golden years on the British Columbia coast. Entire ...
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HOME BASE
Under the steady gaze of the Comox Glacier, looking east to the Strait of Georgia, the airfield at Canadian Forces ...
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WHAT TIME LEAVES BEHIND
Have you ever wondered about parked cars at the side of Highway 19, near the bridge about three kilometres south ...
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LONG MAY YOU RUN
Jane Wilde and Monika Terfloth are waiting for me at a patio on 5th Street. Not far from here, Terfloth once ...
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A SELFLESS PROTECTOR OF ALL THINGS WILD
If you could divide people into two categories, there would be those who spend their lives taking from the planet, ...
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DEATH OF A WORKER’S FRIEND
Near the end of July 1918, the blackberries were just starting to ripen, a welcome development for the hungry ...
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THE CONSTANT GARDENERS
I grew up in a cheaply thrown together subdivision in Fort McMurray, erected during Alberta’s oil boom. Surrounded ...
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COMOX MARINA
The Purple Martins swirl and swoop in the air above my head, their bright chirping punctuating the sound of the ...
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AT JOURNEY’S END
It's 5:30 a.m., April 15, 1942. The full dark of night is just lifting. Suitcases are packed and weighed and ...
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LOSS OF THE COMMONS
You know the expression, "Never trust a man with a moustache?" Well the same goes for a wealthy man in a top hat. ...
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THESE LEGENDARY WALLS. THESE STORIED WATERS.
When I was a Merville-raised teenager turning 19, my father wanted to take me for a beer on my birthday. Becoming ...
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HIDDEN TREASURES
As a tour guide for the Cumberland Museum, I am drawn to stories of people within our local history—I read family ...
THE MAN, THE LEGEND
If you’ve been in the valley for a while, you’ve most likely heard of Bronco Moncrief. He grew up in the Village ...
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FLOATING BELOW
Floating lazily in the glassy, calm waters of Shearwater Passage, our boat tied off to the mooring buoy, we get ...
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FINDING FORBIDDEN
There may be no finer view in the Comox Valley than the one from the top of Mount Becher in mid-winter. On a ...
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BRIDGING HISTORY
Roaming north along Royston’s Union Colliery Line, the air is damp and heavy with the scent of smoke wafting from ...
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WHERE THE TRAIL BEGINS
Trail building in Cumberland dates back to the 1980s, when a freewheeling group of tree planters and mountain ...
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MEMORIES OF CHINATOWN
Walking along the old Wellington Railway trail where alder, hard hack and osier dogwood create a bower of ...
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DRAC’S CASTLE
If you’re rattling down the back roads of Merville on your way to Mount Washington or searching the Tsolum River ...
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