Duncan Sightseeing

Cowichan Historical Society puts $50,000 prize money to good use - Cowichan Valley Citizen Countless local, and global votes led to CHS winning Next Great Save competition in February

Cowichan Valley Museum exhibit celebrates North Cowichan 150 through June : My Cowichan Valley Now The Cowichan Valley Museum is hosting a monthlong exhibit commemorating North Cowichan’s 150th anniversary of incorporation. Cowichan Historical Society’s Carolyn Prellwitz says they’ve been working […]

Next week on The Chronicles...
Nathan Dougan, the Storyteller

This week, I introduced you to N.P. Nathan Dougan, Cobble Hill and area’s foremost historian, and his son, Bob, who carried the torch until his death in the 1990’s.

Both Dougans contributed greatly to the saving of Cowichan Valley history and, for a latecomer such as myself, it’s always a joy to acknowledge their contributions.

So, next week, a sample of Nathan’s writings from one of his many columns that appeared in the Cowichan Leader in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

PHOTO : Nathan Dougan, looking distinguished in Sunday suit and tie. —Family photo

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BRUCE McKELVIE

Growing up as I did on a diet of American culture—American comic books, American magazines, American movies—because there didn’t seem to be anything comparable that was Canadian, it was with great joy that I ‘discovered’ B.A. McKelvie.

Long before Pierre Berton popularized Canadian history, Bruce Alistair ‘Pinkie’ McKelvie was on the job. A professional journalist who loved history, he wrote numerous newspaper and magazine articles, then several books. Not all of these are politically correct in this age of political correctness and Truth and Conciliation, but his writings were everything that I, a young teen, could ask for.

What a momentous discovery it was for me, that Canada, in particular my own province of British Columbia, had also had a wild west!

To hell with the southwestern American states with their tales of gunfighters and dance hall girls, stagecoach robberies and lost treasures, rootin’ tootin’ cowboys and grey-bearded prospectors.

We had them all, and sometimes more, right here in B.C.!

As one who has since made a lifetime career of researching, writing and publishing western Canadian, in particular B.C., history, I owe a great debt to Bruce McKelvie for introducing me to the likes of the fabled Lost Creek Mine, for teaching me that I lived within driving distance of the Graveyard of the Pacific, some stretches of which were known for “a shipwreck for every mile”.

Now that’s history that appeals to me and I’ve been writing about it
ever since.

There were a few other historians besides McKelvie but he was the first to turn me on to a subject that has become a lifetime passion that I’ve been blessed to share with many others.

More stories can be found at the Cowichan Chronicles website.
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