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The item consists of an audio recording of an interview with Einar Gunderson.
T2639:0001 track 1: Einar Gunderson discusses his background, education and training; his work as a chartered accountant in Edmonton; his experience working for the Alberta government as head of the income tax department in the 1930s. Gunderson came to British Columbia in 1945 and became established with one of the largest chartered accountancy firms in the province. Gunderson discusses his relationship with W.A.C. Bennett and the background to his involvement in British Columbia politics which led to his appointment as Minister of Finance in 1952.
Track 2: Gunderson discusses the 1952 by-election in Similkameen after which he took his seat in the Legislature. Ideas regarding fiscal and economic policy which were adopted by the Social Credit government. Comments about the 1953 provincial election in which Gunderson was defeated and the subsequent by-election in Victoria which he also lost. Gunderson discusses his on-going relationship with Premier W.A.C. Bennett as financial and economic advisor; his role as vice-president of the P.G.E. and Director of B.C. Hydro. Gunderson also comments on his general influence on government policies, especially debt-reduction.

T2639:0002 track 1: Einar Gunderson discusses his family background, attitude toward the Social Credit government in Alberta in the 1930s, relationship between Socreds in B.C. and Alberta, the Kelowna "bond-fire", financial policies of W.A.C. Bennett, debt reduction, the issue of contingent liabilities, budget-making, economic development under Social Credit, the Toll Bridges and Highway Authority, B.C. Ferries, homeowners grant, parity bonds.
Track 2: Reaction to the issue of parity bonds, the B.C. Free Enterprise Educational Fund, election fund raising, free enterprise vs. public ownership, the role of government in the economy, socialism, inter-relationships in the Socred cabinet, the Sommers Affair, W.A.C. Bennett and loyalty, personal relationship with W.A.C. Bennett, comments on Bennett's character and personality, travelling with W.A.C. Bennett, federal-provincial relations, equalization payments.

T2639:0003 track 1: Einar Gunderson discusses the differences between equalization payments and W.A.C. Bennett's proposed negative income tax; relations with different federal administrations; federal-provincial conferences; the Briggs affair; the Wenner-Gren plan for the development of the interior of B.C.; Axel Wenner-Gren; the genesis of the two-river policy; the takeover of the B.C. Electric Co., the Stonehill affair, the genesis of the Bank of British Columbia.
Track 2: Continuation of discussion of the proposal for a Bank of British Columbia, concluding remarks on Bennett and 20 years of power.

The item is an audio recording of an interview with Ray Williston.
T1375:0015 track 1: Williston's assessment of the Columbia River Treaty. Gordon Shrum and Hugh Keenleyside as co-chairmen of B.C. Hydro. Discussion of Gordon Shrum and his role in B.C. power development. Decision to lower the height of Bennett Dam.
Track 2: Flooding the reservoir behind Bennett Dam. Clearing problems and environmental criticisms. Williston and son take canoe trip down the Parsnip and Peace Rivers prior to flooding. More on the clearing of the reservoir. Williston took strong personal interest in the flooding problems.

T1375:0016 track 1: Clearing activities in reservoirs planned by B.C. Forest Service. Williston Lake named after R.G. Williston. Opening of Peace River Power Project. Stories about the construction of Bennett Dam. Planned development of hydro power and industry in northern B.C. Proposed hydro power and flood control developments on the Fraser River: Moran Dam, McGregor River diversion, opposition by fishing lobby.
Track 2: Conflicts between log drives and fisheries interests. More on flood control on the Fraser River. Hydro power schemes for the Liard and Homathko Rivers. Planned economic development in; northern B.C. The role of planning in the Social Credit government. Attempts to divert economic activity in the Yukon and NWT through B.C. W.A.C. Bennett's proposal to annex northern territory.

T1375:0017 track 1: Northern development in B.C. and W.A.C. Bennett's proposal to annex the Yukon Territory to the Province of B.C. Development of the PGE Railway. Bennett's interest in the PGE. Creation of a separate Water Resources department in 1962. Internal Organization of the Department of Lands, Forests and Water Resources. Discussion about C.D. Orchard, Deputy Minister of Forests.
Track 2: Senior personnel in B.C. Forest Service: C.D. Orchard, Gerry McKee, Lorne Swannell, Norm McRae, John Stokes, F.S. McKinnon, Peter Hemphill, Ian Cameron, Ted Young, Bill Young and Walter Hughes. Anomalies in the granting of Tree Farm Licences. TFLs granted after 1958.

T1375:0018 track 1: Merger of MacMillan Bloedel and Power River Co. Personalities in the forest industry: John Liersch, J.V. Clyne, Foley Family, Relations between Williston and senior management in the large forest companies. Responsibilities entailed in a TFL. Differences between industrial foresters and government foresters. MacMillan Bloedel leaders in forestry practice. Importance of fire protection during the 1950s and 1960s.
Track 2: More on fire protection. Water bombers. Development of self-dumping log barges. Expansion of the forest industry in the Interior: discussion of wasteful practices, possibility of establishing pulp mills, the role of Canadian Forest Products, the idea of a pulp-harvesting area.

T1375:0019 track 1: Details about the granting of pulp harvesting agreements: Prince George - Prince George Pulp and Paper; Kamloops - Crown Zellerbach. Details about the first pulp mills in the Interior, especially Prince George Pulp and Paper Co.
Track 2: More details about Interior pulp mills: the relationship between sawmills and pulp mills, "third band" wood. Interior manufacturers become small wood processing experts. Establishment of the pulp mill in Kamloops. Establishment of the Skookumchuk pulp mill: Japanese investment and business practice, the economics of pulp milling in the East Kootenays.

T1375:0020 track 1: "Close utilization" slower to be accepted on the coast. Private versus public forest management. Problems of financing the B.C. Forest Service. Williston's ideas on company towns. Public access to logging roads. Track 2: Williston's ideas on multiple use. Multiple versus single purpose resource use. Opposition to some of the ideas of the Sierra Club. Williston's role in the establishment of ecological reserves. Slash burning and clear-cutting as forest management techniques. Formation of the Department of Recreation and Conservation, 1957. Formation of the Environment and Land Use Committee, 1969.

The fonds consists of records from A.B. Sanderson Company, Ltd., primarily regarding project proposals, construction calculations and plans for engineering projects. The fonds includes: correspondence, calculations, plans and drawings regarding engineering contracts; reference material for engineers; newspaper clippings and promotional material on the company; and personal records of Adrian Barclay Sanderson. The company’s focus was on bridges, and the records represent work on major projects such as the MacDonald-Cartier Bridge, the Agassiz-Rosedale Bridge, and a number of Pacific Great Eastern Railway bridges.

In addition to bridges, the A.B. Sanderson Company was involved in a number of significant projects including the Mount Kobau observatory. Additional projects include the Esquimalt Sports Centre and the Mt. Tolmie Reservoir, as well as a number of schools, sports arenas, water treatment facilities, and industrial buildings on Vancouver Island and British Columbia. The records include inspection reports for the Canadian National Railway tunnels that connected the CNR lines to the Second Narrows rail bridge.

A. B. Sanderson was named as technical advisor to the Royal Commission inquiry into the Second Narrows Bridge collapse, and the records in this fonds related to the Second Narrows Bridge are primarily newspaper clippings and reports.

Financial records for the company were not in the custody of Ker, Priestman and Associates at the time of transfer and do not make up part of this fonds.

Oversize plans relating to specific jobs can often be found in containers 880055-0522 – 880055-0529, usually identified by the corresponding file or job code. An index to job numbers can be found in container 880059-1582.

The item is an audio recording of an interview with John Henry Cates.
T0593:0001: Description of early life in Vancouver. Early period in municipal politics in North Vancouver, B.C. Getting involved in provincial politics during the Coalition period. Election as an MLA in 1945. Work as an MLA for North Vancouver. Demands of constituents for improvements in riding. Social life in government. Description of Herbert Anscomb and Boss Johnson. Reasons for not running in 1952 election. Role of Minister of Labour. Relations with unions. Discussion of British Columbia Hospital Insurance Service.

T0593:0002: Description of W.A.C. Bennett. Discussion of the expansion of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway. Kitimat development and the building of the Hope Princeton Highway.

This series contains official correspondence, reports, briefs to cabinet, articles and messages, etc. accumulated during W.A.C. Bennett's tenure as premier. It includes files on Dominion-provincial relations, civil defence, centennial celebrations, railways and major business corporations. Also includes copies of congratulatory letters sent to senior citizens by Bennett's successor, Premier David Barrett. Photographs transferred to Visual Records Division; maps, plans, and printed material transferred to Library and Maps Section.

GR-1414 consists of a large number of records created and accumulated during the tenure of Premier William Andrew Cecil (W.A.C.) Bennett [1952-1972]. The records originally comprised the Central Registry of the Premier's Office. Included are letters from private individuals and business corporations, inter-departmental memoranda, copies of the premier's articles and messages, briefs to cabinet and other reports submitted for the premier's consideration. This unit also includes documents pertaining to Dominion-Provincial relations, as well as correspondence from federal politicians and foreign diplomats.

The records, which comprise this unit, were transferred to the Provincial Archives from the Premier's Office in November 1982. Ten years earlier-following the defeat of Mr. Bennett's Social Credit government-the records had been consigned to a vault in the basement of the Parliament Buildings. Sometime later they were placed in cardboard boxes and removed to a builders' shed in the Parliament Buildings precinct. There they remained, apparently untended, until 1982 when they came to the attention of the Archives.

When the records were transferred to the Archives a number of file folders were found to be empty. In most cases, the empty folders concerned cabinet ministers and the work of various government departments. Similarly, contemporary file lists [see Box 131, File 11] indicate that a number of folders were missing from the original series of files. No files marked "Anonymous," for example, were among the boxes received by the Archives, despite the fact that files containing anonymous letters inward were maintained over the years by the Premier's Office. Nor were any "Confidential" files included with the transfer, although they were part of the Premier's filing system. These files may have been removed when W.A.C. Bennett left office in 1972, or they may have been removed sometime after 1976 when W.R. Bennett became premier. [In her interview (taped in 1978) Mrs. Mylrea noted that Premier Bennett asked her to "go through" the correspondence files on 31 August 1972, the day after his party's electoral defeat. Mrs. Mylrea spent the next two weeks reviewing "every piece of paper in those files." "I did not find one thing that nobody else could have looked at" she related, "there was nothing that anybody need be afraid that anybody could see, opposition or otherwise." Nevertheless, some of the files were removed and were taken by Mr. Bennett to his Kelowna home. [SMID 3236:1-2, pp.16-17]

Researchers should also note the absence of W.A.C. Bennett's constituency files in this collection. According to the premier's secretary, records dealing with the South Okanagan riding were maintained separately in the premier's Kelowna office. After his death in February, 1979, the Bennett family donated the records to the Simon Fraser University archives. [SMID 3236:1-1, p.17]

Despite the absence of certain files, GR-1414 is a remarkably rich collection of executive records. The evolution of the Social Credit Party can be detected in many of the memos and reports in the collection; public attitudes towards government policies can be seen in much of the correspondence inward, while the province's economic growth can be discerned in files devoted to industrial development or to particular companies. Federal-provincial relations are also well documented, as are the activities of local chambers of commerce and sundry community groups throughout the province. Indeed, as a source of documentation for British Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s, GR-1414 is unrivalled.

Series consists of 16 files of black and white prints created in the process of arranging and describing this series. Files are arranged according to subject, annotations, and size. Many files consist of photographs of railway bridges under construction, with annotation on the verso describing the image, location, and date. File list is as follows:
Marine Drive Bridge 1922 : 11 b&w prints
Capilano Bridge 1920 : 6 b&w prints
New Westminster Bridge 1920-1924 : 13 b&w prints
Pacific Great Eastern Railway mile 345 : 11 b&w prints
Dolly Varden Mines railway : 8 b&w prints
Whistler to Squamish section of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway : 6 b&w prints
Lillooet-Seaton Lake Pacific Great Eastern Railway : 4 b&w prints
Quesnel, Williams Lake, Lac la Hache Pacific Great Eastern Railway : 6 b&w prints
Miami Logging Corporation Alouette River crossing : 5 b&w prints
Various unattributed and log railway bridge : 5 b&w prints
Patullo Bridge construction 1936-1937: 20 b&w prints
No. 5 and 6 heating units Anderson Lake : 2 b&w prints
Capilano Bridge Pacific Great Eastern Railway 1918 : 7 b&w prints
New Westminster Bridge : 2 b&w prints
Miami Logging company overhead crossing : 1 b&w print
New Westminster Bridge : 1 b&w print

This series contains official reports and correspondence accumulated during the administrations of Premiers Tolmie, Pattullo, Hart, and Johnson. It includes Departmental, General, and Federal files, plus separate series of documents on Pacific Great Eastern Railway (1917-1945). It also includes applications for employment, petitions, press releases, speeches, and vouchers.

The records which comprise this unit were stored for many years in a maintenance shop adjacent to the Parliament Buildings. Storage conditions were less than ideal and in 1982 arrangements were made with the Premier's Office' to transfer the records to the Provincial Archives. It was a signal event, for the records provide documentation on virtually all facets of provincial life over a thirty-five year period. Additionally, the documents which make up GR-1222 provide a valuable record of the administrations of Premiers Tolmie (1928-1933), Pattullo (1933-1941), Hart (1941-1947) and Johnson (1947-1952). The records fall into three main categories or sub-series:

A. Departmental files
B. Federal files
C. General files
D. Railway files

Records of Britannia Mining and Smelting Company and related companies, including annual reports, correspondence, accounting records, exploration reports, engineering plans, leases, contracts and agreements. The related companies include: Britannia Copper Syndicate, Britannia Smelting Company, Chelan Copper Mining Company, El Potosi Mining Company, Howe Sound Company, Howe Sound Exploration Company, Howe Sound Power Company Also included are records of Barbara Theatres and Britannia Beach Community Club.

SUMMARY: MP Bert Herridge discusses the business of the House, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, and other subjects.;

This series consists of records of the Railway Department, 1904-1952. Records include agreements regarding running rights over Fraser River bridge at New Westminster; certificate regarding the amalgamation of the Howe Sound and Northern Railway and the Pacific Great Eastern Railway; contract for PGER locomotives; and leases for land and equipment.

The fonds consists of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway roster from 1907 to 1975, train orders, correspondence, registers, photographs, sales records, employee examinations, and reports concerning construction equipment and operation of the railway. Fonds includes maps and plans of PGE railway works, bridges, and buildings. Fonds includes records of the Howe Sound Pemberton Valley and Northern Railway and the Howe Sound and Northern Railway. Fonds also includes copies of official timetables #1 to #18 (1913-1918) Squamish division, supplement to timetable #19 (1919) Squamish division, #20 (1919) Squamish and Lillooet subdivisions, 21 (1920) Squamish and Lillooet subdivisions, #23 (1923) Squamish, Lillooet, and Prince George subdivisions and invoices, 1972, from the catering department of Woodward Stores, Vancouver, for grocery items supplied to the British Columbia Railway Company for the Premier's private railway car "Caribou" (formerly "Northern Summit"). A technical drawing showing a profile of the PGE from Squamish Dock to Fort George from 1920 was added to the fonds in 2021.

The series consists of correspondence, 1913-1916, that was originally a part of the Provincial Secretary's Central Registry. The records include grant applications from charitable organizations (e.g. Salvation Army Rescue and Maternity Home, Vancouver); petitions from various citizens groups and trades organizations (e.g. re: Pacific Great Eastern railway, prohibition, and Weekly Half Holiday Act); plus files on diverse topics such as the Belgian Relief Fund (which was administered by the Provincial Secretary), the Progress Club of Vancouver, the provincial coat-of-arms, prohibition, half-day closing, the Provincial Archives and W.W. Walkem's "Stories of Early British Columbia".

The item is an audio recording of an interview with Ed Wilcox. Wilcox, the head of locomotive service for the BC Railway, describes his experiences driving steam and diesel locomotives for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway and the BCR.

The item is an audio recording of an interview with Ben Valde, the retired head of engineering for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway and BC Railway, discusses his civil engineering training; his early experiences on the CNR (Prince George to Prince Rupert); and the development of engineering on the PGE.

The item is an audio recording of an interview with Eric Stathers. He discusses his experiences working for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway as foreman of the car maintenance shops, including: Squamish in the 1920s; the development of the shops over the years; design and construction of special rolling stock; and service on wrecking crews.

The fonds comprises 27 film or videotape titles produced by or for BC Rail Ltd. and its predecessors, the British Columbia Railway Company and the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE). The larger part of the material is 16 mm film, including original footage, printing elements, sound tracks and workprints and/or release prints for 19 productions. There are also 10 video titles, some of which duplicate the films. Other than two films made for the PGE in 1945-47 and 1964, most of the productons date from 1974-1987 and document the activities of BC Rail and the British Columbia Railway.. There are a number of training films produced for internal use, as well as films meant to promote the company. Many of the films were produced in the 1970s by Art Grinke, who was BC Rail's Supervisor of Audio-Visual Instruction.

This series contains records relating to map production, map distribution, personnel and staff salaries. It includes miscellaneous memoranda on resources along the route of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (1936-1942) and a memorandum by F.C. Green on the Post-War Rehabilitation Council, 1943. This unit also includes three notebooks of G.G. Aitken, Chief Geographer, on map production, survey instructions, accounts, and acreages of streams and rivers in British Columbia.

Personal papers; subject files consisting of newspaper clippings, notes of interviews, drafts of articles, correspondence, and photographs relating to LeBourdais' interest in the history of the Cariboo district. Louis LeBourdais was born in Clinton in 1888 and died in Quesnel in 1947. He was the son of Adalbert LeBourdais, telegrapher and postmaster at Clinton and Eleanore LeBourdais. Louis LeBourdais also became a telegraph operator. He worked in Kootenay and Okanagan districts for the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Dominion Government Telegraph Service, before settling in Quesnel, apparently in the early years of World War I, as telegrapher for the Dominion Government Telegraph Service. In 1937 he became an insurance agent for the Confederation Life Association. He was elected to the provincial Legislature in 1937 as the liberal member for Cariboo district, and was re-elected in 1941 and 1945. LeBourdais was keenly interested in the history of the Cariboo district and the Central Interior in general. He wrote and sold articles on the past history of the region and on current economic trends to a number of magazines and newspapers, and was a correspondent for the Vancouver Daily Province. His topics included gold mining and the "back to the land" movement. The records were accumulated primarily in connection with LeBourdais' historical interests. Records include: papers and newspaper clippings of general interest, and subject files arranged alphabetically. The subject files consist of newspaper clippings, handwritten and typewritten drafts of articles, notes of interviews, correspondence and photographs. The bulk of the records date from the 1930s and are concerned with old timers, mining, particularly the resurgence of gold quartz mining, and the "back to the land" movement. Some subject files contain photographs. Printed material transferred to the North West Library Collection is identified in the finding aid. Approximately 450 black and white photographs, 75 black and white negatives, and nine glass negatives of various subjects, and approximately two hundred lantern slides of the Cariboo-Barkerville area were transferred to Visual Records accession, 198501-11. Mining maps of the Central Interior of British Columbia have been transferred to map registration numbers: 12916-12928. A list of maps is available at the end of the attached finding aid. Related records in MS-0361.

The series consists of five reels of amateur film created by the Billwiller family. Includes scenes of Britannia Beach townsite and the surrounding area, as well as a trip on the PGE Railway, building a road to Britannia Beach, May Day celebrations at Britannia (including crowning of the "Copper Queen"), Cub Scout gatherings, sports day events, and family scenes (Christmas, babies, children, friends and neighbours, fishing trips, etc.).

The series includes correspondence and reports concerning the construction, equipment and operations of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway from 1911-1929. It also includes papers about water licenses on the main line, and maps and plans. Many sections of the files are missing thus the series is incomplete and not fully representative of the railway for the period spanned by the papers. A technical drawing of the line of the PGE from Squamish Dock to Fort George drawn in 1920 was added to the series in 2021.

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.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-10-25 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Thomas Cole Hurley remembers early days in the Lillooet district. Mr. Hurley recalls how his father, Daniel Edward Hurley, arrived from Nova Scotia around 1883; his uncle Thomas Jameson Cole; more about his father; Bridge River mines and its amalgamation into Bralorne in later years; working at the mine in 1912; his father's Victoria Hotel built in 1900; the town of Lillooet in the 1890s; the Chinese miners; more about Lillooet; the Depression; more on Lillooet in the 1890s, the industry, the town; anecdotes about Halley's Comet; Old Bill; and a New Years Eve prank.

TRACK 2: Mr. Hurley tells two stories about law and order; Lillooet's Chinese section; more anecdotes; Frank Gott; Lytton in the 1890s; the stopping houses; the stages between Lillooet and Lytton; arrival of the PGE Railway from Squamish; hunting; minerals; travel by road; steamers and river traffic in the early years; and the opening of the Golden Cache Mine.

CALL NUMBER: T2611:0001 PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1973 RECORDED: Lillooet (B.C.), 1976-06-17 SUMMARY: Stan Malm, PGE locomotive foreman (1923-1973), Lillooet, BC, and Leo Cahill, PGE locomotive engineer (1920-1961) describe their experiences working for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway.;

CALL NUMBER: T2611:0002 - 0003 PERIOD COVERED: 1920-1973 RECORDED: Lillooet (B.C.), 1977 SUMMARY: Stan Malm, PGE locomotive foreman (1923-1973), Lillooet, BC, and Leo Cahill, PGE locomotive engineer (1920-1961) describe their experiences working for the Pacific Great Eastern Railway.;

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1986 SUMMARY: Marv Gammon: As Marv says, "Everyone started in Lillooet at one time or another." He started there in 1963. As of 1986, he was a trainman on the Fort Nelson run, based in Fort St. John.;

RECORDED: Lillooet (B.C.), 1986 SUMMARY: Arnold Malm: A third generation PGE-er, Arnold took control of his first engine in 1959 at the age of 19. When he retired, in 1986, he was road foreman of engines, based in Lillooet.;

Promotional film. The route of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway from its southern terminus at Squamish to the Central Interior, and aspects of the area served by the railway. Includes footage of a voyage from Vancouver to Squamish on Union Steamship's "Lady Alexandra", with a stop at Bowen Island; sports and recreation at Alta Lake; cattle drive; wheat fields; placer mining; logging; PGE crews at work.

Includes footage of: Anderson Lake, Barkerville, Bowen Island, Bridge River, Clinton, D'Arcy, Lillooet, Quesnel, Seton Lake, Squamish, Wells, Williams Lake, Alta Lake, Birkenhead River, Lac La Hache, Rainbow, Vancouver, Cariboo Region, Cheakamus River

Promotional film. A review of industrial development and economic growth in the province under the Social Credit government of W.A.C. Bennett, 1952-72, and an outline of the measures planned in its 1972 budget. A shortened version of the original release.