Through the sharing of oral histories and traditional skills, our goal is to reawaken our community heritage.  During a year of public programs with the Living History Project, young and old joined forces in workshops, events and the gathering of stories from some of the Lake Trail area’s most vital characters. Their compelling stories give bright glimpses into an age of farming and industry, when a “sea of stumps stretched all the way to Powerhouse Road”, and horses were more common than motor cars.

To preserve these narratives, Grade 10 History students took to the reins – as community journalists! In workshops directed by Dan Vie with videographer Sarah Kerr,  the Lake Trail students were coached in how to conduct interviews in the intimacy of people’s homes. And in our ongoing all-ages workshops – from knitting to multicultural cooking and family ancestry – seniors were encouraged to jump in as mentors and bridge the generations.
 
Inside this site – produced by Lake Trail Neighbourhood Connections with funds from New Horizons for Seniors – you’ll find photos, interviews, transcripts and resources to explore. Each interview is presented in two ways: as a short video, or a full two-hour transcript to read. In these fascinating stories, the spirit, good humour and vitality of the elders shines through. Their diversity of voices, capturing the life’s memories of Comox Valley pioneers, honours us with a “living history” direct from the source.
 
You can add your own memories to the archive on our Share Your Story page.

Stories & Videos

Lawrence Burns

In those earlier days there were people moving here, what we called, “lock, stock and barrel”; horses, cows, cats, all their furniture and everything. They would come in on a freight train. All the livestock would be put in the corral and then they would walk them to the farm wherever the farm was, out in the country. Read more

Maureen Glowasky

Sometimes I’d go out with my dad, he was a logger and he had his own logging truck, and they logged, so different times I would go out with him. He fired me my first time. I was a “whistle punk”. I got the signals all mixed up; so I sort of got fired by lunchtime. Read more

Joy Huntley

I think my most fun then was travelling on the train! We loved that. They didn’t have a roundhouse out here. About here, where we are now, they had a big loop on the railway track and the train just went around till it got itself turned. Read more

Wendy Kotilla

We would go out and catch frogs, and in the winter time we’d have winter picnics. Mum would put together a thermos of soup and crackers. And up in Holberg my dad made a toboggan, this big long thing you moved with your feet for steering, and we used to tow it behind the car. Read more

Ruth Masters

We were church mouse poor and living just down the road from where I live here now, so it was a real event to get to Union Bay, and if we got to Hornby or Denman Island it was like going to New York, practically. So let’s say I had a very modest start in life. I’m here! Read more

Anne Minard

I came from Victoria. We were part of the “going back to the land movement”, and we bought property at the ‘Hermie’, in what people called Merville and I call Headquarters. I was a farmer when I first came. I had a horse and a cow and a goat, and a huge garden and a little field and stuff. Read more

Workshops

Morrison Flume Walk

Things here were all built out of wood and they rot really fast. But then, a lot of structures, they actually moved whole towns. Like, when Bevan closed, they just moved all the houses out. There’s just a few foundations left. Read more

Wildcrafting

My grandmother was a healer, and I tried to learn as much from her as I could. But I left home, I went in to study lab and x-ray technology in the hospital. We were not protected like they are in the hospitals now. Read more

Woolly Mammoth Craft Club

Sorting through a mountain of donated wool, our elder mentors joined with young learners in a revival of heritage handicrafts. Knitting memories were gathered in the Craft Club’s log book, as each knitter added a unique, personalized loop to B.C.’s Longest Knitted Chain – a visual metaphor for passing these skills down through the generations. Watch the video