Nanaimo news and mid Vancouver Island history, Ladysmith to Qualicum

A brief history of Nanaimo coal

Snuneymuxw people brought the coal at Nanaimo to the attention of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1849–1850, and mining at the harbour began in 1852. For the next century the town was organised around the pits: who owned them, who worked them, and who paid when they failed.

The full account follows the seams from the waterfront to the outlying mines and the towns that grew around them, and sets out the safety record that the 1887 explosion made impossible to ignore.

Nanaimo Chinatown

Chinese workers were part of the coal economy from the 1860s, and Nanaimo had three Chinatowns in turn as the community was moved off land the growing city wanted. The story covers where each stood, the laws that bore down on the community, and the 1960 fire that ended the last one.

Coast Salish nobility blankets

Woven blankets of mountain-goat wool and the hair of a now-vanished woolly dog marked status in Coast Salish society. The piece looks at how they were made, how they were given and witnessed, and how weavers brought the craft back.

The Nanaimo bar: where the dessert really comes from

The no-bake slice that carries the city's name has an origin argued over in cookbooks and kitchens. The account sorts what the printed record shows from what is local legend, and follows how the bar became a national favourite.

Logging expressions and stories

The camps of the island had a vocabulary of their own, from skid road and choker-setter to Chinook Jargon words such as skookum and saltchuck. The piece sets the words beside the working history behind them, from the last steam skidder to the pulp mills, and says which dictionary gives each term.

Earthquake map of Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island sits above the Cascadia subduction zone, and the magnitude 7.3 earthquake of 1946, the largest recorded onshore in Canada, brought down three of every four chimneys in Cumberland, Union Bay and Courtenay. The map explains the fault lines, the history and what the risk means for the east coast of the island.

It also points to the official sources for earthquake reports and preparedness, so that the map stays a guide rather than a forecast.

Whiskey Golf: the military test range off Nanoose Bay

Area Whiskey Golf is the stretch of the Strait of Georgia used by the Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges at Nanoose Bay, a Canadian facility for underwater testing that the United States Navy has long used as well. The guide covers what the range is for, how it is run, and what boaters need to know before crossing it.

Arbutus trees in Nanaimo

The arbutus is the only broad-leaved evergreen tree native to British Columbia, and the rocky bluffs around Nanaimo are part of its home ground. How to recognise it, where to see it, why it sheds its bark every summer, and what is behind the blackened leaves.

Nanaimo's watershed

Where the city's drinking water comes from, the two dams that hold it, and the private managed forest around the reservoirs, where logging carries on under provincial rules.

Linley Valley

A green pocket in the north of the city with lakes, rock and second-growth forest. The story follows the city's land purchases there in 2014 and 2018, and the road that brought a new neighbourhood in from Rutherford.

Colliery Dam Park

A park in the city's south end whose lakes date from the coal era, and the long public debate over what should happen to its dams. The story sets out the options that were argued over and who argued for them.

The foot-passenger ferry between Nanaimo and Vancouver

Getting between downtown Nanaimo and downtown Vancouver on foot has come and gone more than once. The story follows the services, the gaps between them, and what keeps the idea coming back.

Maffeo Sutton Park and the city's waterfront parks

The park beside the harbour has been redrawn on paper several times. The story follows the master plans and what was actually built, with side trips to Caledonia Park, the Rotary Bowl, Harewood Centennial Park and Cinnabar Valley.

Island wines, ciders and beers

A guide to the wineries, cideries and breweries of the mid island, arranged by area so that a day out can be planned around what is close together.

Casinos and gaming venues on Vancouver Island

A neutral reference to the island's land-based gaming venues: where they are, the rules that apply in British Columbia, and where to find help if gambling stops being fun. Adults only.