Category Archives: Lectures

Lecture: Logging the Valley, A Century of Stories

CDM 2008.75.25
A-frame crew at Comox Lake, 1931. Walter Montgomery photo.

Time and Date: 7 pm, Thursday, May 24, 2018

Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum

Speaker: Richard Mackie

Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets strongly recommended as lecture series frequently sells out. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

Popular historian and author Richard Mackie returns to the museum lecture series with a load of logging anecdotes to share.

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Lecture: A Perfect Eden

Time and Date: 7 pm, Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum

Speaker: Michael Layland

Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

In 1842, when explorer James Douglas encountered the rugged natural paradise that would become Vancouver Island, he described it as “a perfect Eden.” This talk, based on Layland’s book of the same name, will touch on the early recorded histories and personal accounts left by Chinese seafarers, Spanish and British naval officers, traders seeking sea otter pelts, colonial surveyors, as well as soldiers, settlers, and other adventurers, starting from many centuries ago up to 1858.

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This presentation is made possible with financial assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts through The Writers’ Union of Canada.

Lecture: The Queen of the North Disaster, The Captain’s Story

Time and Date: 7 pm, Thursday, March 15, 2018

Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum

Speaker: Colin Henthorne

Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

The captain of the Queen of the North reveals a first-hand account of what really happened the night of the ship’s sinking in 2006 and examines the aftermath of the disaster.

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Lecture: Views of the Salish Sea

Time and Date: 7 pm, Thursday, November 9, 2017
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speaker: Howard Macdonald Stewart
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

Stewart presents an illustrated lecture based on his newly released book Views of the Salish Sea, One Hundred and Fifty Years of Change around the Strait of Georgia.

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Lecture: The Nootka Sound Crisis

Location of the Spanish Fort

Time and Date: 7 pm, Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum

Speaker: Catherine Gilbert

Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

There is still time to get tickets for Catherine Gilbert’s repeat performance of her sold out lecture about this fascinating aspect of early Vancouver Island history.

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Lecture: The Nootka Sound Crisis

Location of the Spanish Fort

Time and Date: 7 pm, Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speaker: Catherine Gilbert
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

Don’t miss out! Get your tickets early for Catherine Gilbert’s repeat performance of her sold out lecture about this fascinating aspect of early Vancouver Island history.

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Lecture: Pacific Reef & Shore

Time and Date: 7 pm, Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum

Speaker: Rick Harbo

Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

Just in time for beach season, biologist Rick Harbo presents a colourful talk and slide show on Pacific marine life.

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Lecture: Nootka Sound Crisis

Time and Date: 7 pm, Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speaker: Catherine Gilbert
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

Questions about the settlement of Nootka Island will be explored by historian Catherine Gilbert in her pictorial presentation about the Nootka Sound Crisis.

Gilbert will also discuss the role played by the Mowachaht and the relationship between successive European captains and the powerful Mowachaht Chief Maquinna.

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Lecture: The Promise of Paradise, Utopian Communities in British Columbia

Time and Date: 7 pm, Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speaker: Andrew Scott
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

From Doukhobor farmers to Finnish coal miners, Quakers and hippies, many groups have struggled to build idealistic colonies in BC’s inspiring landscape. While most discovered hardship, disillusionment and failure, new groups sprang up-and continue to spring up-to take their place.

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Lecture: Aloha Wanderwell

The Border-Smashing, Record-Setting Life of the World’s Youngest Explorer

Time and Date: 7 pm, Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Location: Rotary Gallery of the Courtenay and District Museum
Speaker: Randolph Eustace-Walden
Tickets: $5 for Historical Society members; $6 for general public (plus GST). Advance tickets recommended. Tickets can be purchased over the phone by calling 250-334-0686 ext 5.

By the age of 25, Aloha Wanderwell had become a pilot, a film star, an ambassador for world peace, and the centrepiece of one of the biggest unsolved murder mysteries in California history. Her story defied belief, but it was true. Every bit of it. Except for her name. The American Aloha Wanderwell was, in reality, the Canadian Idris Hall.

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