The Stump Ranchers
These days there are not many local news outlets that publish local history. Heck, there are not many local news outlets, period.
So, I am grateful to The Discourse Community Publishing and editor Shalu Mehta for asking me to share stories about the past. The Discourse is also doing vital in-depth reporting on Vancouver Island.
As I mentioned in last week’s dispatch, my latest for The Discourse introduces readers to the soldier settlement at Merville, in the Comox Valley. You can now read that story by clicking here.
In the story you will see a great photograph of the Prince of Wales touring land clearing efforts at Merville in 1919. News cameras followed the Prince on his tour and there is apparently also film of this visit to the burning slash piles, but it is no longer available online. However, on the same trip, the Prince stopped on a bridge at the Tsolum River to view the spawning salmon. The future king’s actions were recorded in local histories and, thanks to the magic of digitization and the internet, we can now watch that brief and remembered event on our screens:
While the soldiers at Merville built a new community, it was one built on the territory of First Nations people. This week, archaeologists and cultural monitors at a Courtenay construction site uncovered several objects that speak to their presence for thousands of years — long before a guy from England threw rocks at salmon. You can read about these important finds by clicking here.