Salt Spring Island Archives
| Accession Number | |||
| Date | 1998 | ||
| Media | digital recording | Audio | mp3 √ |
| duration | 63 min. |
372_Mike-Terry_Dorris-Herd_Ruth-Sandwell_Tumbo-Island_1998.mp3
otter.ai
17.02.2024
no
Outline
Speaker 1 0:00
Today is February 3 1998. Today I'm talking to Mike Terry and his grandmother Doris heard of her home in North Delta, British Columbia. I'm going to be talking to Mike and Doris about the family's connection with tumble Island, British Columbia earlier in the century. My name is Sandra
Speaker 1 0:29
Okay, no, all of these things would be would be very nice to get coffee certainly could give you back the the originals. Okay, what I wanted to begin by asking you should include doors. My mother in law's name is Doris. What I'd like to know is how your family first got involved in tumble Island, as far as as far as the stories you've heard.
Unknown Speaker 1:01
Well, my father
Speaker 1 1:03
in law bought tumble Island and what was his name? Arthur. Arthur heard Yeah. Do you know when?
Unknown Speaker 1:18
It's okay. Around 1925.
Speaker 1 1:24
Okay, so he bought tumble Island. Why?
Unknown Speaker 1:29
To establish a farm?
Speaker 1 1:32
So did he had he been in the fire business before that?
Unknown Speaker 1:36
I don't think so. I don't know. I don't think so.
Speaker 1 1:40
He he lived did he live in? Where did he live at the time he lived
Speaker 2 1:43
to Vancouver. He never lived on the island. My husband lived on the island and ran for a farm that his father did not visit.
Speaker 1 1:53
So do you know how he came to hear us of Tembo Island? No,
Speaker 2 1:57
I have no idea. Strange. He was a soldier there. He was a game Commissioner. For Yeah. So maybe he heard it through them? I don't know. And I don't know the year that he was going Commissioner. Okay. So he was
Speaker 1 2:16
living in Vancouver working as a as a game Commissioner. And then his son is your husband? Yes. Went out to to run the farm. Yes. And that was before you knew him. That's right. Okay, that 1925
Unknown Speaker 2:32
sort of just placed out there with me. He told me he was going to other he didn't have much choice today.
Speaker 2 2:37
Well, his father saw that if he was on the island for about 10 years, they would have made a fortune. And so my, my husband went as a young man, how old would you be?
Unknown Speaker 2:49
Okay.
Speaker 1 2:55
11 and this is about 92. Excuse, but 2023 or
Unknown Speaker 2:58
something like that? Yes, he went there.
Speaker 1 3:00
What did he been doing before that, you know, before he was Was he working in my
Speaker 2 3:05
husband? Oh, he was. He was a plumber and a sheetmetal worker and he had built houses with his father. And he had a trap line through the Gulf Islands
Unknown Speaker 3:18
or we did a really unboiled started nine years. That's an old Indian fellow Native Indian. Was that Billy Beckman
Unknown Speaker 3:34
is traveling here some
Speaker 1 3:37
of you. Do you have any idea of how he came to be? How to have a trap line in the Gulf Islands as opposed to you know, up north?
Speaker 2 3:47
Well, he was a billy Backman was a friend of my father in law's. And he was a trapper. And so my husband went with him as a young boy to learn the business. And so they trapped during the winter through the Gulf Islands, and your dad knows where he's traveling was.
Unknown Speaker 4:08
And they, they just had a rowboat, and he drove to all the different islands and just checked it in and walk the islands and check all the traps a lot of them were on the beach for mink and stuff like that. And raccoon otter.
Speaker 1 4:30
So how long was your dad's? Did he just do that as a young boy, or did he work? So your husband worked with her offline as he worked
Unknown Speaker 4:39
for a couple of winters I think.
Unknown Speaker 4:47
But he certainly that the fellow that was teaching him was really back when it was teaching them when they went into Hudson's Bay Company or whatever whoever they sold to that he would give them even though he was training him and everything he gave him a exactly half of their tests he
Speaker 2 5:01
did very well though there isn't much as Berkshires catch
Unknown Speaker 5:13
catch 1920 1920 1920
Speaker 1 5:16
See I don't care those are those make Do you know what
Unknown Speaker 5:23
the muskrat moments I don't think
Unknown Speaker 5:27
those directly to smother Yeah, they will be like weasels probably some Fox and stuff to just whatever they could
Unknown Speaker 5:52
do you know what do you know where the trap lines went on the golf?
Unknown Speaker 5:58
Yeah, because he's got he's had written it down for some time.
Unknown Speaker 6:02
That would be I'd be interested in knowing.
Unknown Speaker 6:06
Grandpa said when he lived there there was only six families and all the golf that he knew there's only six families today and the Gulf Islands when he was air trapping.
Speaker 1 6:18
So he must have been traveling and some of the islands that didn't have steamer service. There were a lot more people in iKON. hender in Maine, but some of them like Primo and tumble and some of the other end even Samuel had very experienced. He talked
Unknown Speaker 6:32
about pre evil and Samuel
Speaker 2 6:36
mill at one time. I'm not sure. That's interesting, too. Well, they own cabbage. I know they own Catholic
Speaker 1 6:43
at the same time that they own Tembo. Yes. Okay, we'll get we'll get back to cabbage, because my Carmen was telling me some stuff about cabbage as well. Okay, so then your father, sorry, your husband? Your grandmother. Actually, maybe what I'll do right now is just do a little family tree so that I don't so that I can you want to
Unknown Speaker 7:06
know what was your like, your coffee one.
Speaker 1 7:12
Okay, so Doris Hurd, married that occurred in 1935. And Jack curd was the son
Unknown Speaker 7:25
Arthur John Arthur Jones. John.
Unknown Speaker 7:30
John Arthur. Okay, then what is is your father's name? Okay, and he married your my daughter. Okay. And her name is Dimon.
Unknown Speaker 7:47
Okay. Okay, good.
Speaker 1 7:52
So it was John Arthur, who was the game commissioner and his son, Jack went live on Tumblr in 1825. Okay. So he must have known quite a bit about about furs and animals and things like that, but in the he had been hunting them rather than than raising them. Yeah. Ah, yes.
Unknown Speaker 8:12
Your husband? Yes. Okay.
Speaker 1 8:16
Do you know, indoors I know that you just may not know in any of these details, but I'll ask anyway. Who did he bind a tumble island from? Do you have any idea?
Speaker 1 8:32
I don't remember the name. It's okay. That is one of the things there'll be a record about soil so that's okay. Do you and we don't know why he chose tumble island except perhaps he'd heard about it from being the best being a game commissioner and it was a pre sale
Speaker 2 8:51
I suppose because it was more or less isolated. Suitable far, far far because the the animals were running free on the island. Some of the top while some of them were
Speaker 1 9:07
so what what at what did they what animals did they keep their
Speaker 2 9:13
mink they had muskrat. Muskrat, they had what he called upon, not upon
Unknown Speaker 9:23
the pitcher nerve and building the date. That is still there. And that they'll
Unknown Speaker 9:28
hold on a second.
Unknown Speaker 9:31
I brought
Speaker 1 9:39
okay, there's some of the things on here from from being with Mike. Okay, this right here, Isaac TonTons house. This is the old house where Mike Herman now lives. The log cabin. Yeah, I believe that it was built in 17. So in 1874 that I believe it's
Unknown Speaker 9:59
on grandpa Bill Since
Unknown Speaker 10:01
1874, he
Unknown Speaker 10:03
told Mike that he was probably living in the house that was
Speaker 1 10:07
a house on this site in 1874. So he could have made that house could have burned down or it could have you know, there are about five houses on the site right.
Unknown Speaker 10:18
Before that look back a long way it does.
Speaker 1 10:21
Isaac tatton first took up land there and built and built a house this map here is from is from 1888 and there was a house there then in that spot but that doesn't mean it's the same house
Unknown Speaker 10:35
though it's the same one I'm pretty sure even just looking at it you'll see it's the construction of it the construction is the one that he built okay.
Unknown Speaker 10:45
You believe that he so that was your grandfather that built it
Unknown Speaker 10:53
yes sir husband
Unknown Speaker 10:56
so that would have meant it was built in the 20s and but it's in that same site
Unknown Speaker 11:04
so he built the daikon stuff here that would make this big pond to raise mascara. Oh really? The same things they were raising in Maastricht for their for
Speaker 1 11:18
so he built he built this wall Do you know anything about about the materials that are used for that?
Unknown Speaker 11:23
There will be all off the island loves off the beach.
Unknown Speaker 11:28
He used the horse team to
Speaker 2 11:34
this would be what tape stress he made for that barrier. I imagined it was all in there.
Speaker 1 11:43
So here's a picture of the waterfront here with the logs there quite a few stones in there now that big stones cut stones. So I don't know if it could have been Yeah. Now on this I don't actually think I see it on here. There's another house right about here. Here's the shore here's the pier that's there actually, I guess appears there. And then right here there's a house that has burned down. Do you know anything about I don't
Unknown Speaker 12:15
know. I mean there's it's that there that looks like it's already decrepit at that point. I don't know where that is. I mean, that
Speaker 1 12:23
looks like the place so because it's right it's close to the water. All that is remaining is a stone foundation and a stone fireplace the fireplace is still completely there. Yeah, that does look like
Unknown Speaker 12:37
we're we're check paid you know I'm just trying to find that one of them.
Speaker 1 12:52
Okay, so we don't know anything about that house. Do you? Do you think that Isaac Titans house that same location was weird?
Unknown Speaker 13:00
Japanese house?
Speaker 1 13:01
Oh, yeah. You know where this one is? This is great. This house I heard. This is from Mike. And this is just all rumors and things. He thinks that that is the house that was raised here. There was a house that was built out on this point. That was quite large. She said and you can see it's actually really large and he said it was a bunkhouse to for where the Japanese miners lived. While they were mining. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 13:27
I don't know. Do you know the dates when they mined it? From
Speaker 1 13:29
1886 to two, I don't know when the might the boiler blew off at a certain point, I think in the 1890s so it wasn't
Unknown Speaker 13:43
when my husband was on the shaft was still there
Speaker 1 13:46
the mind and did it did he use it as a well?
Unknown Speaker 13:51
No, they had trouble getting water which is
Unknown Speaker 13:55
how what what did they well
Speaker 2 13:57
they had diviners come and they and they drilled shaft down but they had trouble with the saltwater seeping in the area.
Speaker 1 14:10
Getting back to this area in here, you know how there this is that that marshy area so Mike told me that this was all fenced this area there's old fence in there so you think that do you think that could have been from when he was raising muskrat?
Unknown Speaker 14:27
I'm sure yeah, there was
Unknown Speaker 14:28
fence everywhere in that island because there was feeding stations all over and that's how they trap them is the the Fox would always come back the same feeding station. They were open all the time. So they'd feed them at the same place so the foxes would come into the pens to feed and that way if they wanted to anyone they sold breeding pairs of Blue Fox. They weren't. They weren't raising them for their pelts they were they sold the breeding pairs
Unknown Speaker 14:54
sold them all over the world.
Unknown Speaker 14:59
They there's I mean, some fairly big build insurances of feed sheds and stuff, right?
Unknown Speaker 15:03
Yeah, that's near near his house.
Unknown Speaker 15:09
Maybe one of
Unknown Speaker 15:11
the front of the cabinet maybe
Unknown Speaker 15:14
was cut out? I don't know.
Unknown Speaker 15:19
That's the Japanese house again, that one.
Speaker 1 15:25
Did you hear at all about that the central area here being used as a market garden? Did you ever hear you
Unknown Speaker 15:36
know, back here behind this house, there's what looks like a baseball backstop? It is.
Unknown Speaker 15:43
Oh, yeah. What was that? That
Unknown Speaker 15:45
was just in the villa district baseball game just for fun. I don't know that. Tell me about that. Well,
Speaker 1 15:53
that's interesting, because you wonder who would be playing baseball with just?
Speaker 2 15:59
Well, he had a crew of about how many have a loaded man around? I don't know. It started out small, of course. But he had quite a large number of employees. And they were living on tumbo as well. Yes, sure. They all lived there.
Speaker 1 16:17
Okay, that's interesting. So that was must have been quite a big operation. I
Unknown Speaker 16:21
guess it was eventually. Yes. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 16:25
There he's talking about Jack and Jim can they building the causeway called the causeway and had a flood gate in it to like just something that was just whatever, a board or something that plugged it up but it was a great flow. And there's a feed on some of the pens and stuff
Unknown Speaker 16:50
Well, yeah, you can see it was a really big operation and these
Unknown Speaker 16:53
were free shipping
Speaker 1 16:59
so they had a variety of things that they would that they would raise on the island and the foxes they would raise for these breeding pairs. Do you know where they were they sold themselves all over the world.
Speaker 2 17:09
I know that picture there. I remember him saying they were to be shipped to Sweden. So I don't know where else I don't remember. So
Unknown Speaker 17:18
it was blue foxes mainly over there. The Silver Fox. Mink and
Unknown Speaker 17:25
the masks Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 17:29
I don't know what else.
Unknown Speaker 17:31
Oh, isn't that terrible your memory though.
Unknown Speaker 17:33
This is the this stack is for the coal mine. you light a fire in there. And as the fire burns up, it draws air into the mind. So we're over the mind. I'm not sure I think it's over this way somewhere in here somewhere in
Speaker 1 17:56
this area here so I wonder if there's anything left to start getting you know, things gets overgrown? I think we
Unknown Speaker 18:03
looked at look at Mike there was like an old did you look an old bit of an old iron railing around it and stuff. So good bit of a stone wall around the entrance to shaft and an iron railing. I think it was right there
Speaker 1 18:23
so he moved to the island and he lived on your husband's any for about eight or nine years
Unknown Speaker 18:30
for nine years.
Speaker 1 18:32
And did it What did he say about it? Doris did he like it? Did he speak well,
Speaker 2 18:40
he has some good memories of it. Yes. And some sad ones towards the end the eventually like the beginning of depression, the bottom dropped out of the fair market. And then they had distemper my father in law had bought brought some foxes in from
Unknown Speaker 19:07
somewhere sending a big shipment to Britain. They had a quota of so many. And they were short. So he brought in some extras from somewhere else somewhere else that were diseased and
Speaker 2 19:18
they brought them in at midnight and my husband said he didn't want them there but they brought them they had distemper and went through the whole place they lost everything
Unknown Speaker 19:30
shut them all
Speaker 2 19:33
and then they were just about broke. So they they started to log and ship large loads of logs to make a little money, but they eventually lost it
Speaker 1 19:55
Do you know what they did with those logs Dorsett don't it? Do I just asked this because Mike's that that some of them they were they were he showed me the pile of lumber there and so this was first first for the steamship spirit with burn logs of wood.
Speaker 2 20:11
I don't think they sold steamships they must have sold them to a male and dad knew what
Unknown Speaker 20:17
they did because they were like, through like probably six or no four six foot sections that are split down the middle. Yeah. And dad, I mean I was talking to Dad about after I'd been there about what mics out there for steamers and dad said no, they were for I don't know, we can find out from him. They were for grandpa had told them what they were they had
Unknown Speaker 20:42
a lot of these okay
Unknown Speaker 20:55
so what happens then
Unknown Speaker 20:58
they had to lose the island came away broke.
Speaker 1 21:02
Did they? Did they sell it? Or did they, you know, a lot of places just
Unknown Speaker 21:06
lost it to Texas
Speaker 1 21:14
Okay, so it seems then that on the I'm just trying to get a picture of some of what was going on in the island. So basically, there'd be your husband would be living there and this Isaac tab. I call Isaac Patton's house that that he probably built and he was he lived there and the other working guys would live in different places.
Unknown Speaker 21:36
Where the man left Yes.
Unknown Speaker 21:40
Whatever first check. I think this gate and archways still there. Yeah, I saw that. So it's right behind it. into other pictures, you'll see the heat recording to the shack.
Speaker 1 21:54
Okay. Do you think that that's different from the Japanese house? Yes,
Unknown Speaker 21:57
definitely. Yeah. Because Japanese house I mean, in all the pictures it shows the shack shows is almost brand new. And the Japanese house is showing us as already at that point unused sort of falling apart. Trying to find a picture of the cat. Yeah, I looked at the log cabin where Mike was living using as his residence that it was just like looking at the picture. So he
Speaker 2 22:42
must have come out in the forest with his sister. Well, there's another picture of this catch. Feeding the foxes.
Speaker 1 22:55
Do you know how they set those animals but they set them on?
Unknown Speaker 23:00
A lot of seals that they would just shoot around the island. Horsemeat.
Speaker 2 23:05
They used to bring in barges with wild horses, and they turn the horses lives on the island. And then I think he said they said a horse every three days. rounded up. They had a shake where they were the ground up a meal. Yeah, see, I
Speaker 1 23:21
think Mike showed me that. Yeah, there was an old quite a small building. just done this.
Unknown Speaker 23:28
Maybe there might be a picture.
Unknown Speaker 23:32
And so then they feed that to the foxes.
Speaker 2 23:34
And I remember saying that every three days. Horse
Speaker 1 23:42
the these boxes look pretty team
Unknown Speaker 23:50
now even though they're eating for the cancer, yeah,
Speaker 2 23:53
I don't think he trusted them. I don't think he could trust and they were still
Speaker 1 23:56
there. So they were used to being fed by him and stuff. But that that was sort of as far as it went,
Unknown Speaker 24:01
I think probably just see
Unknown Speaker 24:02
or shaft or the coal mine. And then there's the window water pump. So the the drilled wells right there somewhere.
Speaker 1 24:12
Okay, I'm trying to orient myself here. What do you think this is? I'm wondering which way we're looking here.
Unknown Speaker 24:20
I think you're looking back this way. So
Unknown Speaker 24:25
we're looking at maybe this
Unknown Speaker 24:29
maybe, okay, so this is
Speaker 1 24:33
because however, that's amazing, isn't it? Be very interesting to go now that we know that those structures are there to go and I bet that you can see traces of what you're looking for relationship.
Speaker 2 24:44
The only one time I was on the island maybe 35 years ago, and the fox tans were still there at that time. They were still there. And a lot of the work he had done
Unknown Speaker 25:05
this is difficult seals and foxfi they had a pet seal man shot a mother and the baby and a lot of this nowadays sounds sort of horrible and stuff when you explain that's just the way it was they actually had a raised a baby seal that swam with his dog and everything else and one of one of his fellows was had to be at the seal wasn't a baby I was in the boat with him used to go everywhere sending the boat was like a dog if you're out in the boat I wanted to go with you. And he went I guess he went was checking out one of the islands and went around to the fireside and saw steel in the water Chinese Osceola shot it and the zealot got out of the boat and swam around So Jimmy
Unknown Speaker 26:01
this says backside of dike policy low tide
Unknown Speaker 26:22
here's the seals Minkin.
Unknown Speaker 26:26
This is a run runners. This floating plan was around runner playing he said these rum runners had caches during the time. That time prohibition in the states they had caches on the island that sort of just behind the driftwood and stuff. They'd come and store it there and then the Americans would come and pick it out for
Unknown Speaker 26:51
me never got anything I
Unknown Speaker 26:54
never got paid in Florida today. Break the bottle off because there's bottles missing and be real problems. He says he used to go with a coffee pot and break the neck off the bottom of the rung pour into the coffee pot.
Unknown Speaker 27:10
The bottles are all in sacks and sacks.
Unknown Speaker 27:16
So and once we said the fella threatened him with a gun once one yes.
Speaker 2 27:23
My husband came into Vancouver for some reason this in the wrong manner. His bosses had they met in hotel downtown Vancouver and they certainly was a gun. If he ever touched any of the liquor on the island Yeah, they were in
Unknown Speaker 27:49
the shack? It's a bit of a tent cabin there. Let's do it again.
Speaker 1 27:56
Yeah. Yeah, this really looks like the house burnt down.
Unknown Speaker 28:06
I can't find that picture of the cabin. Mistaken or not. But
Speaker 2 28:14
Don has some pictures of the time that he and dad went down.
Speaker 1 28:22
So did they? What do you know, either of you about the actual working day that they would have? Did they have for example of cook
Speaker 2 28:33
to remember any TFC they had a woman cooked? I know at one time she came from Vancouver and live there. I don't know what other cooks they had. But they did have a cook. Okay,
Speaker 1 28:43
and they would eat together a seed for lunch and they'd all did they do that. Were there any families? That was there? Do you know? Any families? Yeah. Besides
Unknown Speaker 28:55
offering Single,
Unknown Speaker 28:56
single? Okay. Do you know?
Speaker 1 29:02
Do you know? To what extent they lived off the land. And by that by that I mean things like just like fishing or? I
Speaker 2 29:09
don't think they did an awful lot of fishing. But they used to shoot deer. I know. Maybe a deer wouldn't be on their own island, but they would maybe go over to me somewhere.
Unknown Speaker 29:21
Places to turn over these to hunt all the time. Yes. There's a valley that sort of narrowed up up to a bluff named chase in the valley. And the deer had to come up over the block. And he said soon as there's one point where they sort of had to jump up. Someone would just wait at the top they just drive them up into the person that was waiting. So it was easy.
Speaker 1 29:42
at all do you know everything? Do you know who did that work at the actual bathroom? Yeah, my husband did do that. That's good. I usually when I talk it's usually the only the women who know how to do that kind of stuff. Get a Guy No I mean,
Unknown Speaker 30:02
when you look back on it must have been kind of a satellite phone.
Speaker 1 30:04
Yeah. Did he? Did he talk about any problems with living on the island, like, besides going broke at the end did he
Speaker 2 30:14
think he had to? Well, it was hard, hard work. I know. Yeah. But he was hoping that by the time he was 30, he would have had his fork to nail and make it get off there. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 30:24
Yeah.
Speaker 1 30:28
Yeah, we've looked at that when I actually quite liked that one. Because I stood right there looking at it, there's a Christmas it's
Unknown Speaker 30:34
grown over now hasn't changed the whole lot, though. To
Speaker 1 30:37
see the shape of the, of the land. I have a question I want to ask you Do you know, at low tide, you can see that there are a bunch of rocks in the water that are obviously not naturally put out there. But they're about four lines of rocks that extend from the from the shore over to into this day here. They just glowed on lines like this. Do you have any idea? I think it was a breakwater he built. Was it?
Unknown Speaker 31:07
I think so. For
Unknown Speaker 31:08
it to protect this
Unknown Speaker 31:11
must have been? Yeah,
Speaker 1 31:12
because there's really rips in there. Yeah, there was.
Unknown Speaker 31:16
I mean, there's a few pictures here of the boat sort of floundering around or sinking a few times.
Speaker 1 31:23
Was Was there a was there a peer Do you know at the time that right now there's appear here? So they hunted deer? Do you know on any of those pictures? Do you see any or did you hear your your husband talking about any gardening? Did they grow any vegetables? Or? Berries? I know that there is some fruit trees?
Speaker 2 31:48
Still pretty? No, I never heard him say anything about growing vegetables. I think they they brought everything down by union steamship to main island.
Unknown Speaker 32:01
And then they would cut they would take their own boats.
Unknown Speaker 32:05
They had they had a boat. Yes. And pick up the groceries and supplies
Speaker 1 32:11
for me. Do you know what kind of boat they had to know anything about
Unknown Speaker 32:17
a little speedboat. Now, I don't know whether there's ever a picture in there. No, no, I don't think I saw a picture of it.
Speaker 1 32:28
Because sometimes the weather's pretty rough. I know. Mike Herman Liang, sometimes he can't get off the island.
Speaker 2 32:32
For the days they couldn't get off. Yeah. But he was very friendly with the latest keeper at East Point. Georgia. Oh, yes, of course. That was his nearest neighbor. Yeah. Yeah. They were very friendly. You must have met some of the judges and I
Speaker 1 32:49
haven't actually well, yeah, I did actually talk to someone who was one of their descendants. You know, relate. Yeah. But I haven't actually talked to to any of the GA since although Marie Elliot has has talked. Well, they're in a really important family, obviously.
Speaker 2 33:05
quite large family. I know that the one who was the Lightkeeper. I think his sons eventually took over they're
Unknown Speaker 33:14
not there anymore.
Unknown Speaker 33:17
Not the family. I don't know where they're
Speaker 1 33:20
at. No, there's they've automated. They talked to somebody who was the brother in law the last Lightkeeper. There to Rosie. But yeah, that's that's a sad thing. For the island. So did they. Did you get any sense from your husband? Of how, how often they would get off the island? Did they have? Do they have a lot to do? They do the Georgia sons? Would they see them now like once every six months, or they
Speaker 2 33:51
quite often go over on a Saturday evening? And they play cards or something? As long as the weather was passable, I guess? Yeah, yes. Yes. I think they saw each other quite frequently.
Speaker 1 34:05
Do you know if they would go over to meet to mean to minors and stuff regularly to meet the steamer and things would
Unknown Speaker 34:13
just go when they were getting supplies? Yeah.
Speaker 1 34:17
That must have been quite an operation in itself. Yeah. Getting in enough food and provisions. Did Did he go back to Vancouver a lot during those
Speaker 2 34:29
No, no, not very often. Mostly lived there. His father was running the operation from the city and his father didn't come down very often.
Unknown Speaker 34:48
And they definitely didn't know that. Oh, they didn't.
Speaker 1 34:55
So after it well, it wasn't his fault, though. Right when the markets collapse done the sickness and everything like that. No, definitely.
Unknown Speaker 35:03
I didn't blame his father for bringing those diseased animals over, put so much work into.
Speaker 1 35:09
It must have been heartbreaking. So this day, I guess they just had to shoot the animals and then just leave.
Speaker 2 35:15
So they didn't leave at that time right away. And my husband loved the island after that, to try and get an income of some kind.
Unknown Speaker 35:27
Yeah. Do you?
Speaker 1 35:32
So you say most of the provisions that they had the Guardian from by steamer, did he ever talk about doing about using any of the other flora and fauna? As we say, for example, some of the microbiome was telling me one of the later caretakers used to eat the seaweed and there was some wild mushrooms and things like that. Did he? Did he talk about that?
Speaker 2 35:55
No, he didn't talk about that. As far as I remember.
Unknown Speaker 36:00
Say that. You could eat them. He just used to make sure that you can feel the stem. He said if you could feel the stem of the mushroom mushroom
Unknown Speaker 36:11
fishing today do you know didn't
Speaker 2 36:14
do very much fishing. Maybe a better card fishing, you know, just around. I don't think he did any salmon fishing. I never heard him say anything.
Unknown Speaker 36:26
Other than after that he became a commercial fisherman. Right. When he was with you, just after you got married.
Speaker 2 36:35
When you met him, have you just come back from Tampa? Yes. Not too long. About a year I think and he was very depressed
Unknown Speaker 36:46
and he's not the type of person to be depressing. No, he's always happy. I was totally
Unknown Speaker 36:53
Oh, yes. Very good nature.
Unknown Speaker 36:56
That I don't know if that's true or not. And there's another picture that boat here from a different angle. Billy Backman was the
Speaker 2 37:09
name of the book. Well, that'd be one that they used for their traffic.
Speaker 1 37:13
Yeah, this this photograph here seems to be right here. Now that's a place right here where Mike Herman said that there used to be there's evidence of an old fourth there right by the old mine was speculating
Unknown Speaker 37:32
and they would have just rolled it out to the boat
Unknown Speaker 37:37
pylons in the water
Unknown Speaker 37:40
you don't remember anything? No. No, I know. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 37:45
And that's not alive. It's been propped up
Speaker 1 37:50
because we shot on Turner so these were Coombs they had they actually had those for the third Do you think
Unknown Speaker 37:57
they didn't raise them no they are shoot or I guess his pet Lake he also had done a big trap lines you'll see a lot of the pictures any work there at Pitt lake as well as a trap line there was a big crease clinic had all the all the principles are preclinical the guys around that had like a private hunting grounds and stuff up there and he was like a caretaker for them. So this is
Unknown Speaker 38:30
before he went to Tambo
Unknown Speaker 38:35
it must have been before
Unknown Speaker 38:42
there should be some dates no
Unknown Speaker 38:43
after no wouldn't be after. It wouldn't be after that. He would know
Speaker 1 39:00
did you do you know anything about or did your husband ever talk about the guys that worked? There worked for him. Do you know what kinds of guys before like with a young man single man Okay, and there may be those that whole there's a whole group of guys like that who used to work on the coast. You know doing different things sometimes logging sometimes fishing and they would come to work to Diddy face where they like a steady
Speaker 2 39:30
one fella I know he talked about a Swedish so I think he was single fell he was with him for quite a few years to new Hanson his name was dickheads
Unknown Speaker 39:40
he was tough as nails Well, I'm sure that she's tough as nails are fearless, whatever the frontier type and he was a foster kid. Yes.
Speaker 1 39:54
And what, what exactly would they do? Do you notice that in a day to day run hang of this,
Speaker 2 40:02
the animals all had to be fed. So they had a horse that they would use to take the food around to the different stations around the island.
Unknown Speaker 40:11
And those would be all over the place on the way up here, we saw some
Unknown Speaker 40:17
sort of feeding stations were all over.
Speaker 1 40:22
And there is a road that we are remains of a road that we walked down, I don't know if he took you down there that went from the original mineshaft and it goes down the island and then down here, and then goes back here such as the trails that they would use to get to the feeding stations, maybe they had to get a horse up, they would have had to cut down some of those trees to make to make an area. What else do you remember him mentioning the other kinds of or maybe you know from kinds of day to day operations a people's a lot of people
Unknown Speaker 40:57
a lot of time was just
Speaker 2 40:59
well, they had to kill the animals to grind up the feed. I suppose that was one job.
Unknown Speaker 41:11
So used to shoot whales as well. We'll be the shark killer whales. And once they got one up on the beach type thing to grind up.
Speaker 1 41:26
And they just had the one vote that they would they would do that
Unknown Speaker 41:32
Robo and most of the stuff early on he said the issues of Robo Oh yeah, getting around.
Unknown Speaker 41:40
And
Unknown Speaker 41:48
okay, so
Speaker 1 41:52
yeah, it's hard to imagine just exactly. You know, they're far away from, from civilization and carrying on this, you know, quite extensive, extensive business.
Unknown Speaker 42:06
occasion, I went up to Salt Spring I think he had a girlfriend on Saltspring.
Speaker 1 42:15
Island. So
Unknown Speaker 42:21
there's lots of stories about just, you know, traveling all around the islands and all the different people and did lots of sort of sightseeing and Indian caves and stuff like that. Where was it? Right, he said up, there was a point where it was the turn of they're one of the one of the bays, the Indians used to come every winter while he was there. The Indians used to come and set up their summer camp with their canoes, just like you would think 200 years ago. And they just carry out there crashed and dry fish and everything he said in one year, they just never came back.
Speaker 1 43:09
What? What about the isolation? of living there? Did he talk about that at
Unknown Speaker 43:15
all? Yes, it was hard. It was hard.
Speaker 1 43:19
So I guess Yeah, I get the sense that if the weather was okay, which would probably mean in the summer, and parts of the spring and fall, then it would be quite easy to get off the island. And things that otherwise it was quite difficult.
Unknown Speaker 43:33
Well, of course they couldn't leave the animals. That's right.
Speaker 1 43:36
They'd be like, like farmers, which they were to
Unknown Speaker 43:39
be fed every day
Unknown Speaker 43:46
if he went off,
Speaker 2 43:47
I suppose you had a little fun. One, one layer I like go to the dances main or whatever.
Unknown Speaker 44:01
We talked about the the Turner Island, lamb roast. That's, you know, everybody's i He was reading an article about it in the paper and saying that they were saying it started with these people that were voting or one of the families or or something like that. And he said that wasn't the case at all. It was one of the guys that was a sheep farmer and a shepherd there that sort of used to invite everybody over for dinner once a year. Sister.
Speaker 1 44:34
Yeah. But of course they wouldn't have anything like that. Do you have it? Do you have any idea of how many animals they had? That they would keep at a maximum? I don't know. It's hard to get. It's hard to get a sense I'm sure it must have been changing all the time.
Unknown Speaker 44:55
This year with this pet sales.
Unknown Speaker 44:58
I don't know if those ones are alive or dead. Oh,
Speaker 2 45:01
that's Florence. It could be alive. Sister, she was an animal lover. Oh, that's the first house they lived in in Vancouver. The tents and they came to Vancouver from England.
Speaker 1 45:16
These are these pins here. There's still Mike Herman was saying if you there's some areas where the grass looks a bit different. It's kind of mossy. And if you dig under it, he found all kinds of pens that are very busy with just
Unknown Speaker 45:32
miles and miles. That chicken wire everywhere. Yeah, go through. They were the feeding stations.
Speaker 1 45:38
And they weren't very though. They were
Unknown Speaker 45:44
just been knocked down over time.
Speaker 1 45:49
Did your did your husband go back? After he finally left? You went back once? Yeah. Is that the only time he went?
Unknown Speaker 45:58
Yes. I know. He did. No, he went back with my son once. And they took pictures all over the I don't have no, he felt very upset about it. And he didn't want to go back.
Unknown Speaker 46:13
Yeah, yeah, it must have been
Unknown Speaker 46:15
this is what the fella from canoe passer wanted them to come over? Tell him the history
Speaker 2 46:24
that he didn't go. No, no, it didn't go. Well, one went down. And he went they just went down on the boat. And stayed in Sedona
Unknown Speaker 46:38
can't remember the name on the ferry.
Speaker 2 46:42
And then this person from the terminal took them over on their boat to see the island and they were down there for two or three days. And was were they invited there? Or did they just go? No, they weren't invited? No, they just went on their own.
Unknown Speaker 46:57
And there was no one there there was no Derek
Speaker 1 47:06
Are you aware of any of the other any other buildings and structures obviously all the the food farming and the pens and the feeding stations and everything were built by your by your husband. And you think that this house was built?
Unknown Speaker 47:22
Also right? Still Standing that Mike's living in pretty well positivity. He's talking about like is in so many ways like nothing had changed. Like he'd only been away for a few years. Oh, he was still standing exactly what he
Speaker 2 47:44
pins were still there. Slides moved up and down so they could put food in still there
Speaker 1 47:55
Do you know any any thing else that he built or change there's this wall here
Unknown Speaker 48:02
was built strictly to flood that back area, which it is almost permanently now. Yeah. So the swans and stuff in there? Yeah, they're still there.
Unknown Speaker 48:12
There were lots of ducks in there at the time.
Unknown Speaker 48:18
I guess they'd hunt those and then shoot goes to eat
Unknown Speaker 48:24
I don't remember that. That was mostly from us. Yeah.
Speaker 1 48:30
The lot of the people I've talked to have commented on the real decline in all in wildlife of all kinds, especially ducks, but also Wilson and CLT. Well seals actually so you're increasing. He
Unknown Speaker 48:44
says like things like bald eagles and stuff for just everywhere. And he had some sheep to it a few sheep for food or whatever. The minute used to shoot Eagles like shooting Sterling season. I'm sure it wasn't that extreme.
Speaker 1 49:03
To keep dogs so they just keep sheep do you don't think at any other kind of livestock for their for their own use. Must have had cows
Unknown Speaker 49:10
and horses. He had one ugly old bowl or something.
Unknown Speaker 49:16
They had a few milk cows.
Unknown Speaker 49:19
So that'd be milk for their own children
Unknown Speaker 49:21
themselves.
Unknown Speaker 49:27
And I think I saw Smokehouse there
Speaker 1 49:31
remains the smokehouse. Did you ever hear about that? Neither Sam and
Speaker 1 49:40
Mike was showing me somewhere around here. Did he ever mention any Japanese grades on the island? And say that because Marie Elliott was told that in this area here where the Japanese bunkhouse used to be that there is some old grid 80 of the Japanese miners some of whom were were killed in the mind when the boiler blew up. Did you ever hear or anything? Yeah, this is just a rumor that I couldn't see any sign of it out on this point here. I'll
Unknown Speaker 50:18
never heard that.
Speaker 1 50:22
Okay, and the guys that he had working for him they weren't they weren't Japanese or Chinese or anything. They were pretty well. White. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 50:30
They're more or less just different. Yeah.
Speaker 1 50:40
Yeah, it would be nice to be nice to talk to someone who lives, you know, live try to figure out because there's their life is quite different in some ways, you know, from from other people living on Saltzman because they had a real, single enterprise they were doing even though it was quite complicated with the feeding of the animals and things that in some ways, it's quite different from from the farms, which tended to be first of all, not so isolated. And secondly, more family oriented rather, businesses in some ways more like a logging camp.
Unknown Speaker 51:13
That type of mentality. Yeah.
Speaker 1 51:19
Even though some of those isolated, you know, those, some of those little islands that have that have families, you know, just one or two families living must have been some
Speaker 2 51:30
Negro families that were descended from families that originally came on the underground railway on Saltspring,
Unknown Speaker 51:38
or, on the other some
Speaker 2 51:41
of the other islands. Maybe it's the Turner, I don't know.
Speaker 1 51:47
The unknown unfaltering, there are quite a few families. And they're still I think, two families less they are now or their descendants, you know, from that time, but yeah, it's quite a mix of people from all over Europe and then quite a few Americans and then quite a few English acorus and people from from back east and a lot of people just sort of moving through taking whatever jobs they could and then eventually settling down some of them on the islands and some of them did your husband keep in touch with any of the guys who work there.
Speaker 2 52:22
While he did keep in touch with deckhands, I remember him coming to visit us when we were married. That's all I remember. Remember
Unknown Speaker 52:32
what he what he went on to do now
Unknown Speaker 52:41
there's a few like this, like the first call, you can see that there's an apron on the cook someone there two guys down in front of Fortune
Speaker 1 53:04
did they have fun? They obviously are. I don't. I know they didn't have a telephone regular telephone because they still don't have it. But did they have radio telephone? Did they have ways of keeping in touch with other people at that time? off the island?
Unknown Speaker 53:20
It was one to the lighthouse? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 53:23
think they had to go to the lighthouse.
Speaker 1 53:27
Yeah, I think at that time, they were just two telephones on main island, one of the lighthouse and when in the grocery store. Even.
Unknown Speaker 53:36
There's Dickinson with new calf who's got a few cows?
Unknown Speaker 53:42
I was gonna say they look like jerseys.
Speaker 1 53:46
You don't know by any chance they never mentioned selling milk to the cream. Do you remember?
Speaker 2 53:51
No, I think they use it all themselves are the animals or raise the pups?
Speaker 1 54:00
Lincoln rate study that, you know, quite a bit of for some kind of self sufficiency, right? They will use getting having a lot of stuff on the island that they told us. Right. 1000 Do you know any worried about chickens? Do you imagine
Unknown Speaker 54:18
they had chickens? I would imagine so. Yeah.
Speaker 1 54:23
And they had sheep. Again, do you think that was to feed the animals that they were?
Unknown Speaker 54:29
I don't remember anything about sheep.
Unknown Speaker 54:32
Did you talked about them shooting Eagles because they would take the lambs but maybe it was even the pups
Speaker 1 54:42
Yeah, Mike, Mike Herman mentioned that too. He mentioned that they had sheep at some point and I was wondering why, you know, unless the for the for the meat to feed to the animal.
Speaker 2 54:52
No, I don't remember him saying that. They did.
Speaker 1 55:04
Did he talk at all about this is kind of a strange question. But Did Did your husband talk at all about the island itself? Is it like the physically if it was really beautiful or it has some special significance to him in that way,
Unknown Speaker 55:18
so it was a beautiful place he said it had the largest Arbutus tree and all the Gulf Islands there as far as he knew. Which is in up in I think it was up in this area somewhere.
Speaker 1 55:36
Yeah, I saw some pretty pretty huge ones down at I guess around here around in this point here, which is quite a beautiful place, you know, hanging out over the over the water here. Another thing Mike Herman told me is that the tide right here, and I don't understand this, but he said the tide right by here runs the same way all the time. High tide and low tide. I guess it has something to do with
Unknown Speaker 56:00
the currents and stuff he said, when the storms would come up with the currents coming around to turn it and maybe down through the channel there that he said there were waves here like he'd never seen anywhere else. Like that big or that higher that roof that you never seen anywhere else in the Gulf
Unknown Speaker 56:19
because it's quite sheltered.
Unknown Speaker 56:21
Misters and stuff going to Well, there
Unknown Speaker 56:23
are the reefs. There are results I
Unknown Speaker 56:27
think down down here.
Unknown Speaker 56:30
There's a reef sort of all in here somewhere. I don't know off the off the point they're, like, way off the the north end of the island. There's there's lots of reefs up there. Yeah.
Speaker 1 56:43
This area too. Yeah. It's quite dangerous waters. Sheltered. really safe. Yeah, a lot of shipwrecks. lost lives. That simple as interested about the logging. We don't You don't know how extensive that was? Or how much they took off? Or if they it was, but it was just an operation that your husband,
Speaker 2 57:06
dude, yes. Well, I know that. They shipped the logs in barges. I know, to Vancouver.
Speaker 1 57:15
But he didn't talk about getting in crews or anything from the US the men
Unknown Speaker 57:19
that were already working. There. Were trying to say, man,
Speaker 1 57:23
it's right. Try to keep something going there. Yeah. Did you Did he ever mention to you about the different wells that there were on the on the property? Did you know that? Well, they're now on another one somewhere around?
Unknown Speaker 57:43
I know. I know. They had wells drilled
Unknown Speaker 57:47
that tower in the picture, which is right next to that quote.
Speaker 1 57:53
So when you you, your husband Stanley bought it they bought the whole island, right? They just buy the parts because it was
Unknown Speaker 58:00
$6,000 worth
Unknown Speaker 58:06
quite a change
Unknown Speaker 58:09
was a lot of money at that time, I guess.
Speaker 1 58:12
Yeah. Yeah, it was Was there anything else that he that they built there? Can you think of any other structures that they built during that that nine years that he was there
Unknown Speaker 58:28
to change?
Unknown Speaker 58:30
No, I really don't think so.
Speaker 2 58:34
Everything they built was further for the animals living quarters the operation.
Speaker 1 58:40
So that again gets back to water doesn't it? Must have been quite a concern that
Unknown Speaker 58:47
it was difficult.
Unknown Speaker 58:49
Did you mention a pond that they had.
Unknown Speaker 58:54
This was I mean, when they this was all just opened and drained away. So when they built that causeway He called this all backed up into a great big pond. So this became freshwater, I assume is over time with runoff and stuff. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 59:08
Yeah, that's what it was. I don't know.
Unknown Speaker 59:12
Well, maybe I chanted through my painted through the, but it's kind of brackish so it's all bullrushes it's amazing how it's filled in but it was just a huge pond. And they had and they they built it strictly to put the muskrat muskrats like fresh waters.
Speaker 1 59:33
Yeah, yeah, that's right. I know that it is fresh now because I was really thankful that I said oh, this is a nice salt marsh needs I don't know it's fresh. So even though it's you know, there's it's sort of deteriorated but it is some and I bet that's why they chose this rather than some of the other islands which don't have water like Russell island for example doesn't have any water so that's sitting in the harbor Fulford Harbour on salt Spray it's about 40 acres so it's probably smaller than this to to how many acres tumbles. Yes, I
Unknown Speaker 1:00:11
know he's told me a minute.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:15
Anyway, no, I can't remember it. I saw it on probably
Unknown Speaker 1:00:17
one of those newspaper articles.
Speaker 1 1:00:22
But yeah, Russell has no no freshwater so there are no deer on the island at
Unknown Speaker 1:00:27
260
Unknown Speaker 1:00:31
What's that brochure?
Speaker 2 1:00:33
Evidently the real estate people offering the island for sale and this is the brochure they put out.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:40
Pretty glossy, isn't it?
Unknown Speaker 1:00:46
Oh, wow, look at this. The marsh how big it is.
Unknown Speaker 1:00:49
That's huge right
Speaker 1 1:00:50
now. That's all that's all in between here. That's quite, quite extensive in the shape here?
Unknown Speaker 1:01:04
Whether that's tumble or not sorry to say?
Unknown Speaker 1:01:11
No, I don't know. I didn't find any of
Speaker 1 1:01:14
those kinds of fences. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I think I stole that from main island.
Unknown Speaker 1:01:25
So do you do wish she held on to it?
Speaker 2 1:01:30
Well, I wouldn't want to lose that knife. Like he lifted. It was a hard life.
Speaker 1 1:01:39
What did he do you know what he found the most difficult was the the isolation or was it just really hard work?
Unknown Speaker 1:01:50
I don't know.
Speaker 1 1:01:53
Although it does probably change your view of it. If you've worked, you know, put in nine years of work. And then it sort of all falls apart. That was really, you know, yes. You're starting all over again. Yeah, that's right. It was my delivery. Yeah. So he became a fisherman after, after he. Well,
Unknown Speaker 1:02:11
he worked in the shingle mill when he came in Vancouver, and the Kettle Valley, Kettle Valley. Then when we were married, you bought a boat.
Unknown Speaker 1:02:29
And we went fishing. Did you go to Church lived on the boat? Where did you go? Where did you fish?
Unknown Speaker 1:02:35
Mostly afterwards?
Speaker 1 1:02:40
Did you there's a really excellent film that's been written. It's called it's called the women of Northern Vancouver Island, that it's all about the women who lived well fishing boats but also in a logging camps that there were after the Second World War when they started wanting to have the families to go into the logging camp. Because the loggers had a bad reputation for getting so drunk. They thought it would settle them now you know, the wives and families did and this was before
