Cowichan Chronicles - weekly articles online from historian T.W. Paterson

Entertaining and factual weekly historical articles about the Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island and British Columbia by historian T.W. Paterson, author of 30 books.

https://cowichanchronicles.com/

i'll admit to not knowing about this man's long-time writings.  but i quite liked this bit:

The question readers have asked me most often over the years is, Where do I get my “article ideas”? Often followed by a quick, “You must have a massive archives.”

They’re right about my archives but I wouldn’t be much of a storyteller if I didn’t go back—way back—to the beginning. Growing up in postwar Victoria (specifically, Saanich’s Swan Lake area, as yet unspoiled by urban sprawl) seems like another world to me now.

It was, to some degree, a Tom Sawyer-esque childhood, with its farms, lakes, woods and miles of railway tracks—and the American parallel isn’t all that inaccurate.

You see, when I was a boy we didn’t have, as I saw it, any visible Canadian history. My parents’ generation had come through the Great Depression and just fought the Second World War as equal partners with their allies—Canada had had, ever so briefly, the world’s third largest navy. Yet there seemed to be no visible national identity; at least, as seen through the eyes of a child.

 

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https://cowichanchronicles.com/about

i'll bet growing up in the swan lake area in the 50's or 60's was quite magical.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 June 2020 - 03:32 PM.

Interesting. My grandfather arrived in the Cowichan Valley in 1913. My cousin's ancestors arrived there even earlier and were some of the first "colonials" in the area. A road is named after them. I'm sure these articles would be quite fascinating.