Thought I’d take a break from my summer break to write up this post about Sandon, a super interesting town in the Kootenays. We dropped by there last week on our way to Nelson because I’d heard it was a ghost town and a graveyard for Vancouver’s Brill Trolley buses. We arrived there via a 10 km dirt road that runs off Highway 31A between New Denver and Kaslo.
Looking at the outside of the plain two-storey building at Victoria Drive and Truimph Street, you’d never guess that Fraser Wilson’s mural runs the full length of a 25-metre wall. The building is the home of the Maritime Labour Centre, and Fraser Wilson painted the mural in 1947.
Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Cartoonist:
Wilson was a bit of a rabble rouser.
An Interview with Jazmin Welch, book designer about working on Vancouver Exposed
I’m excited to tell you that Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History is now in bookstores. And, while the saying goes “don’t judge a book by its cover,” I have to disagree.
When David Rowland heard that Woodward’s was closing in 1993, he phoned up the manager and put in an offer for the department store’s historic Christmas windows. They agreed on a price, and David became the proud owner of six semi-trailer loads of animated teddy bears, elves, geese, children, a horse and cart and various storefronts.
Iaci’s Casa Capri Restaurant at 1022 Seymour Street was a Vancouver institution for more than 50 years. It closed in 1982.
Story from: Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
Rick Iaci was driving down Seymour Street one day when he was horrified to see dozens of framed photographs being thrown into a dumpster outside #1022—the house that was a family restaurant for more than 50 years.
With Aimee Greenaway, Nanaimo Mysteries curatorAimee Greenaway was reading Blood, Sweat, and Fear when she came across George Hannay, a safe cracker from Nanaimo. She’d heard a story about the former BC Provincial police officer turned criminal, but this was the first time she’d seen evidence of his crimes.
Chris Wright wants to start a cultural movement around history. A former location scout for the film industry and a treasure hunter with a metal detector, he is the owner of The History Store in Mount Pleasant.
The store has been there almost a year, but unless you have an appointment, it’s only open from noon to 4:00 pm.
In July 2016, several large cardboard boxes filled with photographs, clippings, forensic samples, and case notes pre-dating 1950, and thought to be thrown out decades ago, were discovered in a garage on Gabriola Island. They form the basis of Blood, Sweat, and Fear: the story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s first forensic investigator.