Latest News
April 2022: Sowing Seeds Near Oyster River
See more historical images and stories like this in the museum’s 2020 book Stepping Into Wilderness published with Harbour Publishing. Photo credit: In the early 1930s, brothers Guy and Darrell Smith began developing a show garden and seed farm in the Oyster River area. The Oyster River Seed Farm, as it became known, would eventually cultivate lobelia, Canterbury bells and Iceland poppies as well as twenty acres of pansies, whose seed was shipped across Canada and to California. The Smiths sold their property, located just north of Oyster River to Barret Montford in 1949. For decades, the property was the location of the UBC Oyster [...]
Taking Eggs to Forbidden Plateau: June 1929
A horse team loaded with supplies and boxes of trout eggs, 1930. Photo: 2004.42.28 In the late 1920s, as Forbidden Plateau became a more popular destination, Clinton Wood, who would later become the president of the tourist trade development Bureau, contacted Major J.A. Motherwell, Dominion chief supervisor of fisheries, and suggested stocking some of the lakes. The fisheries department approved the suggestion, and in June 1929, one hundred thousand Kamloops trout eggs arrived on the E&N Railway from the Cowichan Lake hatchery. Local fisheries officer Captain Harry Beadnell supervised the transporting of the eggs up to Forbidden Plateau by pack horse in [...]
Precious Pysanky
Pysanky, also known as Ukrainian Easter eggs, are an ancient art tradition. Pysanky is the plural form of “pysanka” which stems from the Ukrainian verb “pvsatv” meaning “to write”. Artists use a stylus to create wax-resist designs that began thousands of years ago with pagan tribute to seasonal elements and the cycle of life. In later centuries, Christian symbolism melded into the designs. Courtenay residents, Willie and Moreen Haras met in 1983 and ran a business creating and selling pysanky. In 1995, they generously donated these beautiful eggs to the museum. Here is a YouTube video suggested by the Comox Valley Ukrainian Cultural [...]
March 2022 Gift Shop News
Easter and spring are just around the corner and the gift shop has items for perfect presents. There are adorable stuffed toys like lop eared bunnies, lambs, hares, chicks, and squirrels. If you are looking for eggs, we’ve got plenty that are dinosaur related! Everything from hatching to slime to coloured eggs that fizz in water to reveal the dinosaur inside. And don’t forget our mug and card selections which feature sweet Easter creatures.
It’s All There in Black and White: 1947 Fire at the Tarling Home
This fire caused quite a stir locally with “hundreds of spectators and the road ...lined with automobiles”. Something out of the ordinary to see on a Wednesday afternoon as described in this Comox District Free Press article from March 20, 1947. With legacy support from the Bickle Family and the Comox Valley Echo.
March 2022 Stepping into Wilderness
Here now is an image from the museum’s newest award-winning book Step into Wilderness – A Pictorial History of Outdoor Exploration in and around the Comox Valley. Photo credit: A stylishly dressed group gathered at the Comox wharf, 1910s-1920s. Note the elaborate fur accessories sported by three of the women. Jennie Lockhart is second from right. Photo: CDM Childs collection. Page 186.
Collection Selections March 2022
To celebrate our ongoing organization of the Courtenay and District Museum collection, please join us for the first in a Collection Selections series of re-discovered items, including those that became a vital part of life and business in the 20th century and went on to shape the future. CDM 972.152.1 This is the Oliver No. 5, a peculiar typewriter manufactured by The Oliver Typewriter Co. in 1913. Thomas Oliver, a Methodist minister from Woodstock, Ontario, founded his typewriter company in 1895 while on a business trip to Chicago, Illinois. The batwing-like typing bars are the most striking feature of this machine, but this [...]
The Optimists of the Comox Valley
To mark UN International Happiness Day on March 20, we present a photo flashback of “The Optimists” from 1941. Local historian Isabelle Stubbs described The Optimists as "...a Pierrot Troupe organized in 1941 by Mrs. B. Harvey, sponsored by the Kinsmen, [who] travelled to military camps on the Island to entertain troops and to raise funds for the war effort. They presented a variety program, bright, fast-paced, tuneful." Back row, left to right: Sid Williams, Rod Glen, Bill Stubbs, Mrs. Barnett [Edith] Harvey, Jack Reynolds, Reg Kelly, Add Clement. Front row, left to right: Grace Edwards, Pamela Harvey, Rose Hartwig, Margaret Smith, Doris [...]
Very Long in the Tooth
Our results are in from the BC Megafauna Project at SFU. A mammoth’s molar in the CDM’s collection which was discovered on the Brown’s River in 1928 was radiocarbon dated to (drum roll please) roughly 29,000 years ago. This molar is unique in being the most northerly tooth found on Vancouver Island so far. The tooth is on exhibit in our main floor gallery so drop in and check it out.
Heritage Week Display: Re-visiting Neighbourhoods
CDM #990.24.75 Dr. H.P. Millard family home, c. 1905 The Courtenay Heritage Advisory Commission’s photo and info panels highlighting neighbourhoods will be on exhibit in the museum’s Rotary Gallery from February 22 – 26 in commemoration of BC’s Heritage Week. Drop in to learn more about the historic Terminal, Old Orchard and 40 Houses neighbourhoods. The panels were created for 2013 Heritage Week and are being re-displayed this year as COVID-19 restrictions have hampered the Commission’s regular activities.
Heritage Week February 21 to 27
Theme: Altogether Inclusive A message from Heritage BC: “The theme in 2022 explores the many ways that heritage engagement requires creativity, as well as unique solutions and actions to encourage broad participation. Heritage can and must foster best practices in diversity and accessibility. By reducing the many different types of barriers that keep people from enjoying heritage and feeling safe, then lives will be enriched. When heritage responds to diversity and accessibility challenges, it becomes inclusive. This is possible for even the smallest of heritage organizations and is reason to celebrate.” What we do: We respect the alliance of natural and cultural history [...]
February 2022 Gift Shop News
The museum shop has a good variety of greeting cards in stock including those by four local artists: Sue Pyper, Andy Everson, Debbie Bowles and Daniel Lehman. Each artist’s cards are unique. Sue Pyper’s cards depict nature scenes such as birds, bears, and trees. Andy Everson’s ingenious cards are well known and feature neighbouring landscapes, whales, salmon, and eagles in amazing bright colours. Debbie Bowles from Winking Owl Design creates singular cards that are whimsical and popular. Daniel Lehman’s cards are all individually hand painted; design themes include ladybugs, bullrushes, and the ocean. The shop carries other popular brands like the sweet and [...]
Our Heart’s in the Right Place
George Law photo. July 1, 1958. CDM 2008.79.65. A flashback photo in honour of Valentine’s Day featuring Miss Comox Valley 1957 Jeanette Cottini on the Jaycee float. The Jaycees (Junior Chamber of Commerce) held the Miss Comox Valley Contest and the winner went on to represent the district in the Miss PNE beauty contest.