Books and articles I'm currently reading or publishing. Published any good books lately?
Sunday, July 27, 2014
The Gold Will Speak For Itself
Book Review by Bill Irvine (read that: book corrections) July 27, 2014
The Gold Will Speak For Itself; Peter Leech and Leechtown, Victoria’s Gold Rush" by Dr. Patrick Perry Lydon’s self-published book on B.C. history, (2013)
Bill Irvine first met Patrick Lydon July 16, 2011 when he attended at Ross Bay Cemetery where Lydon was presenter and tour guide at the Lt. Peter Leech graveside memorial service. This service commemorated the 147th year since Peter John Leech, when he was given command of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition (VIEE) in July 1864, reported discovering gold in Sooke River.
Lydon also wanted to draw attention to his desire -- as a member of the Vancouver Island Placer Miners Association (VIPMA) -- to erect a monument in Kapoor Regional Park (KRP) in a clear area at the 55.5km location along the Galloping Goose Regional Trail (GGT). Known by park users for years simply as "The Clearing", recent improvements by the Capital Regional District (CRD) have named this area: Kapoor Regional Park.
Kapoor Singh Siddoo opened this area to development in 1928 by building and operating a sawmill some three kilometres (at mile post MP35.6) farther north along what was then the Canadian National Railway (CNR). The GGT was created in 1987 by a rails-to-trails conversion, named after a 1920s gasoline powered passenger car that operated on this abandoned CNR line. Kapoor's mill built at Council Creek is now in the CRD Watershed and inaccessible by the public.
Therefore, when Lydon states or publishes this clearing at MP33.5 on the former CNR was either the site of Leechtown, Leechtown Station of Kapoor Lumber Co., he is flat out wrong. The Clearing took its moniker "Leechtown" from the railway station of that name just beyond its northern border -- on the other side of Wolf Creek at MP34. The Clearing has not and does not have anything to do with the gold mining town of Leechtown. None of these places were located here.
What was located here was the site of Cameron Lumber Co.'s sawmill 1934-50. During 1950-53, The Clearing became Sooke Lake Lumber sawmill (both owned and operated by the Cameron Family of Victoria, BC). The operation which was owned by Newton Cameron and his daughter, Loula Mearns, burned to the ground July 23, 1953. The Clearing (Leechtown) has seen no industrial use since. Newt and his daughter then started operations in Victoria, BC by incorporating Victoria Plywood, Ltd.
On p.73, Lydon's book has the transcript from an accompany Times Colonist article dated June 18, 1933. This is another error as the Times Colonist is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the merger, in 1980, of the Victoria Daily Times, established in 1884 and the British Colonist (later the Daily Colonist), established in 1858 by Amor De Cosmos. The article has a hand-written note on it stating: Colonist; this would mean it came from the Victoria Daily Colomist. But I digress.
Byline for said article names one R. Enke no doubt an historian of some repute. However, one has to question his statement in the Old Trail Remains part where he writes: "Hotels and stores were started at the Forks, the grassy flat at the junction had been unexplored, but by the end of August it had been named Kennedy Flat."
Who can make any sense at all out of such a statement?
Here is an excerpt taken from Leech’s most famous comment on the extent of the gold:
“The Gold Commissioners quarters, which included the Court-house and Police Station, was a substantial log structure where Mr. Golledge officiated and kept his records. He was provided with a safe, firearms, and other conveniences. The site was designated in official records as Kennedy Junction or Kennedy Flat, after His Excellency, Governor Kennedy. Some thirty large trees were removed to make room for the buildings, leaving an open space in front. The buildings were erected in November and December, 1864. Prior to this Mr. Golledge transacted his business in a tent."
This begs the question: If "Some thirty large trees were removed to make room for the buildings . . .", the area could not have been a "grassy flat". Also how could Enke refer to the area as The Forks before it was named -- according to him? The only 'forks' my research shows as having this moniker is the western fork of the Leech River at 48°30'28.48"N 123°47'3.01"W. This location is the western extremity of Leech River mining claims.
Peter Lydon's most egregious errors in his book: The Gold Will Speak For Itself: Peter Leech and Leechtown, Victoria's Gold Rush, are regarding the location of few significant places; namely, Kapoor Lumber Co., Leechtown (CNR) Station and the two cairns built to commemorate the discovery of gold in Sooke River.
Although to his credit, Lydon does not specifically mention Kapoor Lumber Company's mill as being in "The Clearing" in his book, he does mention it in talks he's given in the past. Perhaps, Irvine is over sensitive to this issue as his father worked as a carpenter and millwright when the mill at Council Creek was built in 1928.
As noted above, Leechtown Station was located on the northern side of Wolf Creek. There is an online photocopy of the CNR's legal survey and it shows where the station was located at MP34.
The map published on p.91 show the location of the two memorial cairns farther north than their actual location(s).
Kapoor Lumber Company at 35.68 miles at Council Creek: 48°30'39.74"N 123°41'31.92"W
Leechtown Station CNR (passenger) MP34: 48°29'42.42"N 123°42'35.90"W (p.91)
The Replica Cairn is located at: 48°29'44.14"N 123°42'44.27"W (see two photos on p.96)
N.B. The actual mileage -- railway mile posts were measured in miles -- of the Leechtown passenger station was closer to 34.2 miles. There is no remnants of this station building but many photographs. Any photos taken showing the railway track, show this track curving westward when viewed to the north. This logic puts the station house on the eastern side of the track at what is today (2014) the entrance to Kapoor's Gravel Pit and its red gate.
On p.63, Lydon publishes a photo with the caption: Leechtown General Store and Post Office 1951. It clearly shows modern building built on the western side of the CNR tracks. This puts these buildings at Leechtown Two -- the modern site of Cameron Lumber's mill and townsite built up for company employees and their families. This photograph has nothing to do with the discovery of gold in the Sooke River in 1864.
These building were built after 1947 when Newton Cameron and his daughter, Loula Mearns, formed Sooke Lake Lumber Co., and opened a sawmill at what they called: Leechtown Operations. The caption underneath the same photo in another book -- 4,000 Years, A history of the Rainforest of Vancouver Island's Southwest Coast -- states: Mishap with a spar pole destroys lumber company office, Leechtown, c.1950. By the end of 1950 the Cameron family moved on to building and operating a veneer plant in Esquimalt.
Why Lydon would include such a misleading photo in his book about finding gold in the Sooke River some eighty-years prior is anyone's guess. I guess we'll just have to ask him.
Reference cited: p.140, photo p.88: 4000 Years, A history of the Rainforest of Vancouver Island's Southwest Coast; Sooke Regional Museum (second edition 1990) ISBN 0-9694942-0-3
Addendum - Peter Leech Youtube VIDEO: http://youtu.be/wZlYElYmzn4
Video caption by Irvine reads: Saturday, July 16, 2011, we attended the annual memorial to Lt. Peter J. Leech after whom Leechtown on Vancouver Island is named. The gathering is sponsored by a dedicated group of individuals interested in erecting a permanent memorial to Sooke's most successful miner. After meeting at Starbucks in the Fairfield Mall, the assemble group of approximately 30 souls were lead by Royal Canadian Scottish Regimental Piper, Kelly, across the road to Ross Bay Cemetery.
Patrick Lydon, a member of the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria and the Vancouver Island Placer Miners' Association, who led Saturday's event, told us some pertinent facts regarding Leech's 1864 gold discovery in the Sooke River as we gathered around the gravesite. Leech was born in Dublin 1826 and died in Victoria 1899. Leech must have been a man of few words as his epitaph reads: The gold will speak for itself. It was a marvelous meeting of minds of those who think alike; including, Leech's gg-grandson, Jeff Felker, and his 9-year-old-son, Gage.
Jeff has an uncanny resemblance to his famous great-great-grandfather. it was a pleasure to meet Jeff's wife, as well. Apparently, the proposal for the permanent memorial is to have it erected in the clearing where the former Cameron Lumber Company sawmill was located at the 55.5km mark on the present-day, Galloping Goose Regional Trail (GGT).
The reasoning being for not locating the memorial at the Leechtown site is due to the fact the last two such memorials (both cairns) were destroyed by vandals. The remnants of the second (replica) cairn remain, but is in poor condition. Furthermore, the general public cannot access the Cragg Main Logging road where the replica cairn sits today beside said road.
Unfortunately, this dedicated group is lacking significant facts regarding the history of the former Canadian National Railway (CNR) in regards to the logging and sawmill activities along this section of the CNR right-of-way (RoW). Peter stated this clearing (simple known as The Clearing) was the former site of Kapoor's 1928 sawmill operations. This is incorrect. My father worked at the Kapoor Sooke Lake Mill at Mile 35, in 1928-31. Mile 35 (MP35, mile post 35) was -- and is -- located where the CNR tracks crossed over Council Creek.
Doug MacFarlane, a lifelong Sooke resident and its most-knowledgeable resident, visited the old Kapoor Millsite many times until the Capital Regional District (CRD) fenced the area in as part of the Sooke Lake Watershed. Doug corroborates (yes, Doug's alive and well living on his large Sooke Riverside property) the fact the Kapoor Sooke Lake Mill was located mostly to the south side of Council Creek. The Council Creek site is off limits to the public.
Joan Mayo, author of "Paldi Remembered, Fifty Years in the Life of a Vancouver Island Logging Town", reports Kapoor and Mayo were fifty-percent partners in their logging and sawmill operations during and after the late 1920s. The truth of these matters is well documented; there are those, however, who cannot handle the truth. Kapoor Lumber's Sooke Lake Mill was located at MP35.68 where the rails crossed Council Creek. These lumber mills could not operate without an abundant supply of water to fill the the mill-pond(s).
Kapoor's official letterhead ca.1935 read:
Kapoor Lumber Company Limited
MANUFACTURERS OF FIR AND CEDAR LUMBER
SPECIALTY SELECT COMMON AND STRUCTURAL TIMBERS
In replying please refer to file SOOKE LAKE P.O.
MILE 35, C.N.R.
VIA Victoria, B.C
The Gold Will Speak For Itself; Peter Leech and Leechtown, Victoria’s Gold Rush" by Dr. Patrick Perry Lydon’s self-published book on B.C. history, (2013)
Bill Irvine first met Patrick Lydon July 16, 2011 when he attended at Ross Bay Cemetery where Lydon was presenter and tour guide at the Lt. Peter Leech graveside memorial service. This service commemorated the 147th year since Peter John Leech, when he was given command of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition (VIEE) in July 1864, reported discovering gold in Sooke River.
Lydon also wanted to draw attention to his desire -- as a member of the Vancouver Island Placer Miners Association (VIPMA) -- to erect a monument in Kapoor Regional Park (KRP) in a clear area at the 55.5km location along the Galloping Goose Regional Trail (GGT). Known by park users for years simply as "The Clearing", recent improvements by the Capital Regional District (CRD) have named this area: Kapoor Regional Park.
Kapoor Singh Siddoo opened this area to development in 1928 by building and operating a sawmill some three kilometres (at mile post MP35.6) farther north along what was then the Canadian National Railway (CNR). The GGT was created in 1987 by a rails-to-trails conversion, named after a 1920s gasoline powered passenger car that operated on this abandoned CNR line. Kapoor's mill built at Council Creek is now in the CRD Watershed and inaccessible by the public.
Therefore, when Lydon states or publishes this clearing at MP33.5 on the former CNR was either the site of Leechtown, Leechtown Station of Kapoor Lumber Co., he is flat out wrong. The Clearing took its moniker "Leechtown" from the railway station of that name just beyond its northern border -- on the other side of Wolf Creek at MP34. The Clearing has not and does not have anything to do with the gold mining town of Leechtown. None of these places were located here.
What was located here was the site of Cameron Lumber Co.'s sawmill 1934-50. During 1950-53, The Clearing became Sooke Lake Lumber sawmill (both owned and operated by the Cameron Family of Victoria, BC). The operation which was owned by Newton Cameron and his daughter, Loula Mearns, burned to the ground July 23, 1953. The Clearing (Leechtown) has seen no industrial use since. Newt and his daughter then started operations in Victoria, BC by incorporating Victoria Plywood, Ltd.
On p.73, Lydon's book has the transcript from an accompany Times Colonist article dated June 18, 1933. This is another error as the Times Colonist is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the merger, in 1980, of the Victoria Daily Times, established in 1884 and the British Colonist (later the Daily Colonist), established in 1858 by Amor De Cosmos. The article has a hand-written note on it stating: Colonist; this would mean it came from the Victoria Daily Colomist. But I digress.
Byline for said article names one R. Enke no doubt an historian of some repute. However, one has to question his statement in the Old Trail Remains part where he writes: "Hotels and stores were started at the Forks, the grassy flat at the junction had been unexplored, but by the end of August it had been named Kennedy Flat."
Who can make any sense at all out of such a statement?
Here is an excerpt taken from Leech’s most famous comment on the extent of the gold:
“The Gold Commissioners quarters, which included the Court-house and Police Station, was a substantial log structure where Mr. Golledge officiated and kept his records. He was provided with a safe, firearms, and other conveniences. The site was designated in official records as Kennedy Junction or Kennedy Flat, after His Excellency, Governor Kennedy. Some thirty large trees were removed to make room for the buildings, leaving an open space in front. The buildings were erected in November and December, 1864. Prior to this Mr. Golledge transacted his business in a tent."
This begs the question: If "Some thirty large trees were removed to make room for the buildings . . .", the area could not have been a "grassy flat". Also how could Enke refer to the area as The Forks before it was named -- according to him? The only 'forks' my research shows as having this moniker is the western fork of the Leech River at 48°30'28.48"N 123°47'3.01"W. This location is the western extremity of Leech River mining claims.
Peter Lydon's most egregious errors in his book: The Gold Will Speak For Itself: Peter Leech and Leechtown, Victoria's Gold Rush, are regarding the location of few significant places; namely, Kapoor Lumber Co., Leechtown (CNR) Station and the two cairns built to commemorate the discovery of gold in Sooke River.
Although to his credit, Lydon does not specifically mention Kapoor Lumber Company's mill as being in "The Clearing" in his book, he does mention it in talks he's given in the past. Perhaps, Irvine is over sensitive to this issue as his father worked as a carpenter and millwright when the mill at Council Creek was built in 1928.
As noted above, Leechtown Station was located on the northern side of Wolf Creek. There is an online photocopy of the CNR's legal survey and it shows where the station was located at MP34.
The map published on p.91 show the location of the two memorial cairns farther north than their actual location(s).
Kapoor Lumber Company at 35.68 miles at Council Creek: 48°30'39.74"N 123°41'31.92"W
Leechtown Station CNR (passenger) MP34: 48°29'42.42"N 123°42'35.90"W (p.91)
The Replica Cairn is located at: 48°29'44.14"N 123°42'44.27"W (see two photos on p.96)
N.B. The actual mileage -- railway mile posts were measured in miles -- of the Leechtown passenger station was closer to 34.2 miles. There is no remnants of this station building but many photographs. Any photos taken showing the railway track, show this track curving westward when viewed to the north. This logic puts the station house on the eastern side of the track at what is today (2014) the entrance to Kapoor's Gravel Pit and its red gate.
On p.63, Lydon publishes a photo with the caption: Leechtown General Store and Post Office 1951. It clearly shows modern building built on the western side of the CNR tracks. This puts these buildings at Leechtown Two -- the modern site of Cameron Lumber's mill and townsite built up for company employees and their families. This photograph has nothing to do with the discovery of gold in the Sooke River in 1864.
These building were built after 1947 when Newton Cameron and his daughter, Loula Mearns, formed Sooke Lake Lumber Co., and opened a sawmill at what they called: Leechtown Operations. The caption underneath the same photo in another book -- 4,000 Years, A history of the Rainforest of Vancouver Island's Southwest Coast -- states: Mishap with a spar pole destroys lumber company office, Leechtown, c.1950. By the end of 1950 the Cameron family moved on to building and operating a veneer plant in Esquimalt.
Why Lydon would include such a misleading photo in his book about finding gold in the Sooke River some eighty-years prior is anyone's guess. I guess we'll just have to ask him.
Reference cited: p.140, photo p.88: 4000 Years, A history of the Rainforest of Vancouver Island's Southwest Coast; Sooke Regional Museum (second edition 1990) ISBN 0-9694942-0-3
Addendum - Peter Leech Youtube VIDEO: http://youtu.be/wZlYElYmzn4
Video caption by Irvine reads: Saturday, July 16, 2011, we attended the annual memorial to Lt. Peter J. Leech after whom Leechtown on Vancouver Island is named. The gathering is sponsored by a dedicated group of individuals interested in erecting a permanent memorial to Sooke's most successful miner. After meeting at Starbucks in the Fairfield Mall, the assemble group of approximately 30 souls were lead by Royal Canadian Scottish Regimental Piper, Kelly, across the road to Ross Bay Cemetery.
Patrick Lydon, a member of the Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria and the Vancouver Island Placer Miners' Association, who led Saturday's event, told us some pertinent facts regarding Leech's 1864 gold discovery in the Sooke River as we gathered around the gravesite. Leech was born in Dublin 1826 and died in Victoria 1899. Leech must have been a man of few words as his epitaph reads: The gold will speak for itself. It was a marvelous meeting of minds of those who think alike; including, Leech's gg-grandson, Jeff Felker, and his 9-year-old-son, Gage.
Jeff has an uncanny resemblance to his famous great-great-grandfather. it was a pleasure to meet Jeff's wife, as well. Apparently, the proposal for the permanent memorial is to have it erected in the clearing where the former Cameron Lumber Company sawmill was located at the 55.5km mark on the present-day, Galloping Goose Regional Trail (GGT).
The reasoning being for not locating the memorial at the Leechtown site is due to the fact the last two such memorials (both cairns) were destroyed by vandals. The remnants of the second (replica) cairn remain, but is in poor condition. Furthermore, the general public cannot access the Cragg Main Logging road where the replica cairn sits today beside said road.
Unfortunately, this dedicated group is lacking significant facts regarding the history of the former Canadian National Railway (CNR) in regards to the logging and sawmill activities along this section of the CNR right-of-way (RoW). Peter stated this clearing (simple known as The Clearing) was the former site of Kapoor's 1928 sawmill operations. This is incorrect. My father worked at the Kapoor Sooke Lake Mill at Mile 35, in 1928-31. Mile 35 (MP35, mile post 35) was -- and is -- located where the CNR tracks crossed over Council Creek.
Doug MacFarlane, a lifelong Sooke resident and its most-knowledgeable resident, visited the old Kapoor Millsite many times until the Capital Regional District (CRD) fenced the area in as part of the Sooke Lake Watershed. Doug corroborates (yes, Doug's alive and well living on his large Sooke Riverside property) the fact the Kapoor Sooke Lake Mill was located mostly to the south side of Council Creek. The Council Creek site is off limits to the public.
Joan Mayo, author of "Paldi Remembered, Fifty Years in the Life of a Vancouver Island Logging Town", reports Kapoor and Mayo were fifty-percent partners in their logging and sawmill operations during and after the late 1920s. The truth of these matters is well documented; there are those, however, who cannot handle the truth. Kapoor Lumber's Sooke Lake Mill was located at MP35.68 where the rails crossed Council Creek. These lumber mills could not operate without an abundant supply of water to fill the the mill-pond(s).
Kapoor's official letterhead ca.1935 read:
Kapoor Lumber Company Limited
MANUFACTURERS OF FIR AND CEDAR LUMBER
SPECIALTY SELECT COMMON AND STRUCTURAL TIMBERS
In replying please refer to file SOOKE LAKE P.O.
MILE 35, C.N.R.
VIA Victoria, B.C
