Campbell River

Campbell River is on the east coast of Vancouver Island, about 155 kilometres north of Nanaimo. I caught the Tofino bus between the two places and the trip took just under 2.5 hours. When I arrived I was pleased to see few high-rise buildings in the centre of town, giving the area an open aspect with views along the seafront towards Quadra Island on the other side of Discovery Passage. The waves were rolling onto the shore at a fair rate of knots, pushing back the masonry blocks on the shoreline. It was great to see nature at work in the centre of the town with no buildings blocking the view. 

After checking in at my hotel, I had a look around the centre. I bought two books at Coho Books and five more at the second-hand bookshop called Mom’s Book Bin. I was also delighted to find a cafe / restaurant that served craft beers and wonderful food. I visited the Museum at Campbell River, just off the Island Highway to the south of the centre. Before looking around the museum, I admired the Japanese gateway or Torii in Sequoia Park opposite the museum by the ocean. There is a twinning agreement between Campbell River and the town of Ishikari in the Hokkaido prefecture in Japan and the Torii was a gift from the people of Ishikari to celebrate ten years of twinning. In 1993, they constructed the gate in Japan and assembled it on site. The plaque, written in Kanji, the traditional writing style in Japan, says “Ishikari.” Campbell River’s gift to Ishikari was a totem pole carved by renowned local artist Bill Henderson. The Japanese placed the pole in a prominent setting beside the Ishikari City Hall in the autumn of 1993. In Sequoia Park there is also a totem pole honouring the Sewids, a local First Nations family with a rich history. Rick Sewid and Max Chickite, both renowned sculptors, carved this totem pole. 

Another Japanese object stands by the entrance to the museum, a cod boat called “Soyokaze” or Gentle Wind. Shigekazu Matsunaga of Quathiaski Cove on Quadra Island had this 37-foot boat built around 1939 in Steveston. Openings in the central part of the hull permitted seawater to circulate through a well divided to hold both bait and catch. Watertight bulkheads situated fore and aft of the fish hold assured the boat remained afloat.

In 1941, along with twelve hundred boats in the Japanese Canadian fishing fleet, the Canadian government seized the Soyokaze and sold the boat on the cheap. However, after 1945 Mr. Matsunaga repurchased the boat and continued to fish until declining stocks closed the cod fishery in the 1980s. The Matsunaga family donated the boat to the Museum in 1999.

The totem pole outside the museum depicts a thunderbird with wings outstretched, sitting above a bear holding a small man. The museum raised the pole in 2017 in a protected spot on the grounds.

Also outside is an original Empire Steam Donkey. Loggers used Steam Donkeys for hauling and loading logs. Mounted on log sleds, men would pull the steam donkeys onto floats and tow them to a new location. Steam donkeys were plentiful until replaced by diesel machinery in the 1940s.

Manufactured in Vancouver in 1916, the Empire Steam Donkey’s first owner was P.B. Anderson who used it for his logging operations at Knox Bay. He sold the machine in 1932 to Clarence Boardman of Dot Logging Company. The Boardman family logged with the Donkey at Hardwicke Island, West Thurlow Island, Boughey Bay, Chatham Channel, Lull Bay, and Glendale Cove until 1948 when the company abandoned the Donkey at the head of Knight Inlet where it remained until brought to Campbell River during the 1980s. The museum moved the Donkey onto the site in 1994. A restoration project began in 1999, and five years later, the Donkey raised steam for the first time in nearly 60 years, an event repeated annually on special occasions.