Showing 20 results

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1966-08-27 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Arthur Salsbury relates the financing and early history of the CPR. Recalls journey of the first train to arrive at Port Moody. Prominent founders of the CPR. History of early Vancouver. Great Northern Railway and Seattle International Railway. TRACK 2: Recalls trip to Hong Kong on the "Empress of India", 1896.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Boyd Campbell Affleck came to the Kootenay/Arrow Lakes region in 1907 from Ontario. He took up a surveying job near Nakusp. He discusses settlers and speculators. He describes Fruitva;le in 1907; the development; the early settlers. Then he discusses irrigation and then more on Fruitvale; the impact of WWI on the region; fruit grown; a picnic in the 1930s; settlers; clearing land; and the Fruitvale town site. Mr. Affleck settled near Fruitvale in 1918; lost his hand and was forced back into survey work. He surveyed the town of Salmo. He offers an anecdote about the red light ladies of Erie and then offers more about Fruitvale; the impact of the Trail smelter; and recalls the forest fire of 1939. TRACK 2: Mr. Affleck continues with more on the forest fire. Then he dis;cusses the Trail smelter; effects on fruit farms; Columbia Gardens and survey work at Nelson. He offers more on Fruitvale and Nelson in 1907; transportation; the rivalry between the CPR and GN boats.; He tells a story of how Kaslo tried to steal the Nelson Board of Trade in the 1890s. He discusses the Fruitvale power system in the 1920s; Nelson City Light. He describes the rivalry between West Kootenay Power and Light, and Nelson City Light.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Carl Thomet was born in Midway in 1905, and lived his whole life there. The interview begins with a description of the railway built in 1900. The first passenger railway service was called the Columbia and Western, and was not extended to Penticton until 1915. The train was the main supply route for Camp McKinney. There is a discussion about the railways battling for business. The Great Northern was called the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway and in 1905 the CPR tried to hold back the Great Northern. The Vernon-Midway Railway came in 1905 and C.W. took it over. Thomet describes Midway at the turn of the century including the landscape, several characters, some stories of violence and the hotels. The track ends with talk about the loggers and river boats on the Kettle River.

TRACK 2: Mr. Thomet tells stories about several people who worked along the river and how loggers used the river to transport lumber. A person named Steeves is mentioned.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-13 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Christine Sutcliffe discusses her background and her early life and the Douglas family. She describes the Great Canadian Northern Railroad. Mr. Sutcliffe discusses his background, and Indians in Creston area around 1909. He also discusses logging, the Burns Meat Company and the Douglas family. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T0749:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-19 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Dan Cummings talks about his father [Rod Cummings] coming west from P.E.I. in 1879 to Vancouver; his father and uncle homesteading in Langley in 1888; logging bees; clearing land; burning out trees; statute labour; logging; Royal City Mills; logging mills and camps; Hamry's bus line; roads; New Westminster market; farming in the area; local incidents; more information about the New Westminster market. TRACK 2: Mr. Cummings continues with recollections about the New Westminster market; the land boom; river transportation; peddlers; Prefontaine; Langley Prairie, Innis' Corner; early ;crops; anecdotes about pioneer life; food; winter weather; sleigh bells; mosquitoes; peddlers; recollections about the development of Langley Prairie.; CALL NUMBER: T0749:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-19 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Cummings talks about the new Trans-Canada Highway; Murrayville; early stores in Langley; the Hughie Davidson and John Riddle store; the customs officer at Shortridge's Corner; Coulter an;d Berry store; growth of Murrayville; milk production; recreation and dances; teachers; schools; Otter School; Lochiel School; childhood memories and chores; churches and church life; Milner; the Hudson's Bay Company farm land; subdivision and land boom; Fruitvale; land development. TRACK 2: Mr. Cummings discusses the railway routes; the Great Northern Railway; BC Electric; construction of the railways; politics; road names; naming of Murrayville; the high school.

CALL NUMBER: T0307:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-04-04 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Fred Sinclair describes his work on the Great Northern in Seattle; railways around Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley. He talks about the V.V.E.; the Great Northern Railway; surveying and construction of BC Electric in 1907, Vancouver to Chilliwack. TRACK 2: Mr. Sinclair continues with his discussion about the survey and construction of the BC Electric line from Vancouver to Chilliwack. He speaks about the problems that occurred during construction; his work as divisional engineer; labourers; operation of the line; the official opening of the line and the last spike by Premier McBride.

CALL NUMBER: T0307:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-04-04 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Sinclair discusses construction of the section of the line from Langley Prairie to Matsqui Prairie. He was involved in developing various schemes for the dyking of Sumas after his employment at BC Electric; in 1919 he completed a detailed survey of the proposed project. TRACK 2: Mr. Sinclair continues his discussion of the Sumas dyking project; government approval; the Marshborne Construction Company; building the Vedder Canal; Sumas River Dam; completion of the project; political opposition.

CALL NUMBER: T1657:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-05-02 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Weaver recounts his parents' arrival in Vancouver from Cheshire; England in 1887; his grandfather [Woodward] was already living in BC; his family later moved to Delta in 1894. He discuss;es early life on the family farm; schooling; game; draining and preparation of the land; mud shoes for the horses; ploughing; soil conditions; drinking water; crops; Brackman and Ker; transportation; ;roads; schooling; other settlers; the McKee family; farm produce; West Delta settlement; flooding and dyking. TRACK 2 Mr. Weaver continues his discussion about the dredging operation; the Oliver Slough; the Great Northern Railway; Old Man Morgan; recollections of John Oliver; fish trapping; picnics at Blackie's Spit; Frank Burns; early settlers; Old Man Morgan; John Woodward; logging in the area.

CALL NUMBER: T1657:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-05-02 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Weaver talks about the roads in the area; weather conditions; mosquitoes; Butler's Corner; Tom Ladner's property; threshing work; [pause]; local incidents. [TRACK 2: blank.]

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-09 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Jack Mulholland remembers coming west to the Kootenays in the late nineteenth century. He describes the CPR/Great Northern competition; the Silver King Mine at Nelson; the driving team; the smelter; more about coming west; rawhiding; a description of ore; the first ore from Sandon; forming the Prospectors Protective Association in Nelson; forming the Chamber of Mines; conflict; a prospector's life; bears and the Slocan-Lardeau ore belt. TRACK 2: He continues with more stories about prospecting and people in the area.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-22 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Boston recounts her parents arrival in Milner; they later homesteaded in Aldergrove in 1887; early settlers; pioneer life; the farm; mail service; mills; the Home Improvement Company; churches; Reverend Dunn; the first school; Aldergrove; logging; the Great Northern Railway; the BC Electric Railway; dairy farming; schooling; family life; bus service to New Westminster; Goodman Hamray; peddlers; Richmond A. Payne. [TRACK 2: blank.]

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Rossland : 1898-1906 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1973-11-21 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: John Turnbull discusses his life in Rossland. Copper and gold mining. Companies involved, including the CPR, Great Northern, and the British America Corporation. August Hinsing (sp?) was a mining operator and smelter-man in the area, until selling to the CPR in 1898. Trail: the beginning of Cominco; the whys; the people involved. Population, type of life, and sorts of businesses operating in Rossland. [TRACK 2: blank.]

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Interview with Mr. Minakawa about early years in Canada PERIOD COVERED: 1913-1940 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1974 SUMMARY: Mr. Minakawa talks about his background in Japan. His job with the Great Northern Railroad. Oikawa (Lion's Island). His logging experiences during the war. A job as a barber.;

CALL NUMBER: T0303:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-11-18 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Miss Leah Shaw describes her father, William Hugh Shaw, as a contractor for the railway with McKenzie and Mann when they built the first 100 miles from Gladstone to Dauphin [Manitoba] in 1896; eventually settled in Spences Bridge; kids went to school in Kamloops; how Shaw Springs was named, she describes how her father got involved in the railway business; his life; how her grandfather, Hunter Shaw, came to Canada from Scotland, how the Great Northern Pacific Railway was started by two Shaw brothers in Winnipeg; General Stuart; Shaw Springs; gold mining, how Spences Bridge was covered; by a landslide; Thompson River wagon tracks; Clapperton Trail. TRACK 2: Shaw continues by describing horse brigades; Lytton slide; road building; Spences Bridge known as Cook's Ferry, a murder by two Indians of a miner; the highway construction in 1921; Death Canyon and several whirlpools there, which killed many people; the Thompson River; local old timers, Johnny Moberly and Ned Stout; Chines;e in the area; jade; Spence's Bridge.

CALL NUMBER: T0303:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-11-18 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Miss Shaw continues by describing the Leboudais family who documented historical incidents; anecdotes about incidents in the area; stage coach stories; cleaning camps on Saturday mornings. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T0779:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-03-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Mary Teskey recounts her family's history; her grandfather; her father's early life and work in Yale as a brick maker for the CPR in 1879; her mother's trip to BC with the family in 188;1; family life in Yale; the town of Yale; their trip and settlement in Clover Valley, as Cloverdale was known; Surrey; other settlers in the area. TRACK 2: Mrs. Teskey talks about establishing the first school in Cloverdale; her father's appointment as Reeve; the family move to Hazelmere; the family farm; school; Indian graves; Joe Semiahmoo; schools in the area; her father's work for the Yorkshire Guarantee Company in England as a settlement agent; sawmills; the Great Northern Railway; mail; stage coach routes; Halls Prairie.;

CALL NUMBER: T0779:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-03-12 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Teskey continues with stories about other settlers in Surrey; anecdotes; the naming of Hazelmere and Glenwood; childhood recollections; her work at age eleven in New Westminster and Gastown; English Bay in 1893; the family's hop farm; strawberries. [TRACK 2: blank.]

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-09-13 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Arrowsmith, born in Green River; Utah, describes some of the old timers from when he moved to Creston fifty years prior. He describes experiences prospecting in the Three Sisters Mountains, which he began in 1912. He discusses Mormons in the area. Mr. Arrowsmith offers early childhood memories of the Creston area. His father ran the first dike in the area. He mentions several characters and offers anecdotes about local Indians including their history in the Creston area. He describes the Great Northern Railroad and anecdotes about Rocky Mountain Jack. TRACK 2: Mr. Arrowsmith continues his stories about Rocky Mountain Jack; Jim Crawford; Pete the Packer; the Dewdney Trail; Joe Wilson, who was a police officer; and Creston in the 1930s.

This series consists of incoming and outgoing general correspondence files, 1912-1953, concerning railways operating in British Columbia. Includes extensive correspondence files on the Westminster Bridge (the Fraser River railway bridge at New Westminster); the British Columbia Electric Railway; correspondence relating to common carriers and industrial railroads; legislation affecting the Railway Department, etc. Box 14, Files 1 to 28 are Minister of Railways: general [correspondence] and Box 14, Files 29 to 38 are miscellany.

CALL NUMBER: T0890:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-12-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1 & 2: Mr. Robert Alstead describes twenty years in the mines at Coal Creek; he outlines the history of the mine and how the coal fields opened up Crowsnest Pass in 1898; Coal Creek mines were very gaseous; one east is the most gaseous mines in the world; a huge fan operated all the time to keep air conditioned; small earthquakes underground are referred to as 'bumps'; Coal Creek is the most; dangerous mine in Canada; Fernie was more prosperous in the early days; there were large blowouts in 1902 and 1917; Fernie mines were first run by the CPR then taken over by James J. Hill's Great Nor;thern; the output is commercial steam coal, lignite. Because of gasoline and oil, coal must be regarded as a raw product; its derivatives are more important now; improvements in mining equipment and methods; as many as one hundred and seventy five horses were used in the mine in the early days.; CALL NUMBER: T0890:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1962-12-14 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Alstead continues by describing how he came from England in 1903; the boat lost a propeller and drifted for three weeks; his father thought they were drowned and so he sold their house an;d furniture; father was crippled in the mine and Robert started in the mine when he was ten; his father signed a paper saying he was fourteen; youngest miner in Canada; he worked in the mines for twenty-seven years; he got fired for trying to organize the KKK in 1929; he went to Merritt then to Princeton; describes his first day at the mines; his many different jobs at the mine; he educated himself to get mine manager's certificate; a description of Fernie fire of 1908. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T0777:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Gillis talks about his parents, John Murdoch Gillis and Sammie Ann Gillis, who came from P.E.I. in 1888; they homesteaded in Tynehead. He talks about the family farm; family members; William and Donald Gillis; early life in the area; settlers in the area; travel on the Fraser River; roads in the area; Hjorth Road; his father's work as a logger; his mother's work on the farm; the New; Westminster Market; winter incidents and anecdotes. TRACK 2: Mr. Gillis talks about his father's work on the Great Northern Railway; Liverpool Station; Bonnacord Station; Port Kells; Johnny Wise's ;hotel; Brownsville; bridges over the Fraser; Great Northern Railway; incidents; school; derailment of a circus train; childhood; school activities; Annadale School; childhood; recreation; church.;

CALL NUMBER: T0777:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Gillis talks about fishing and hunting; chores and work for children; Barnston Island settlers and description; Port Kells; Port Mann; land boom; Surrey; incidents during road work; caterpillar plague in 1909; mosquitoes; D.M. Robertson. TRACK 2: Mr. Gillis continues with reminiscences about the Tynehead Church; D.M. Robertson; William Bothwell; lost in the woods in 1902; Green Timbers area; incidents involving the local policeman; Alec Mathieson.

CALL NUMBER: T0765:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1963-03?] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Johnson recalls arriving in New Westminster in 1879; living in Yale; an incident involving a steamboat trip on the Fraser; traveling to the family homestead in Halls Prairie in 1882; the; White Rock area circa 1882; picnics on the beach; the logging operations of Murran and Elwood; anecdote about beavers; roads in Surrey; the Semiahmoo Trail; customs at Elgin. TRACK 2: Mr. Johnson continues with discussion about the customs office at Elgin; his father's farm at Halls Prairie; life on the farm; early residents in the area; Hazelmere; the Thrift family; anecdotes about Judge Begbie; stage transportation; schooling; customs regulations; the murder of Murran; his work in the mills and later in the customs for the Great Northern Railroad; his customs work at the Cloverdale depot ;and later for government customs.;

CALL NUMBER: T0765:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], [1963-03?] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Johnson talks about his Canadian customs work; the Great Northern Railroad; living in White Rock in 1909; shopping in Blaine; the railway customs house at White Rock; the customs house at; the Pacific Highway; customs incidents; the White Rock Water Works Company; early White Rock; subdivision. [TRACK 2: blank.]

RECORDED: Abbotsford (B.C.), 1981-08 SUMMARY: Mr. Ross tells stories of early life in the Fraser Valley. Mr. Ross was born in 1896 in a home on Ross Road, which had been named after his father. In 1907, the Great Northern Railway came through the Fraser Valley; he was twelve years old before he saw New Westminster, only 30 miles from his home. When electricity came to the Fraser Valley in 1910, people had to install their own power poles if they lived too far from the main line.