Seventy years ago this week, two tiny skeletons were found in Stanley Park and quickly became known as the Babes in the Woods. Last February, they were identified through genetic genealogy as Derek and David D’Alton aged 7 and 6 when they were murdered in 1947. This is an excerpt from my new book Cold… Continue reading Still Unsolved: Babes in the Woods, 70 Years Later

I’d heard of the Hope Slide of 1965, but it wasn’t until we stopped at the viewpoint this past July, that I could see how massive it really was. On Saturday January 9, 1965, about 20 km east of Hope, half an unnamed mountain plunged down the highway. It brought 46 million cubic metres of… Continue reading The Hope Slide of 1965

Michael Bradley Smith, 17 missing since December 30, 1967. Last seen at his North Vancouver home. Canada’s Missing website (National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains) Case Reference 2014003272 I put up a post about Michael on my Cold Case BC Facebook page yesterday—55 years after he disappeared. He is listed under missing children… Continue reading Where is Michael Smith?

This was supposed to be a short and happy seasonal post about a cabin and a Christmas log, but then I stumbled across a murder. Like everyone else, I’m familiar with Shaw’s fire log, but I’d never given any thought to its origins. Then Kyla and Grant Stuart Gardiner’s monthly newsletter came in the mail… Continue reading A Cabin, a Fireplace and a Murder

The Knight Street Bridge photo essay is the second in a three-part series by Angus McIntyre. The photos were taken on Angus’s Konica Autoreflex T Camera. December 31, 1972 was an unseasonably warm Sunday and Angus McIntyre jumped on his bike and headed to the Fraser River. He spent the day documenting the construction of… Continue reading The Knight Street Bridge: Part 2

December 7 is International Civil Aviation Day. It’s a great excuse to write about Margaret (Fane) Rutledge (1914-2004), founder of the Flying Seven and one of the country’s first female pilots.   Edmonton: Margaret Fane was born to an Edmonton family who were obsessed with making things move. Her father, William Fane, began by repairing… Continue reading Margaret Fane, Western Canada’s First Commercial Aviatrix

Do the tiled pile of bricks and cedar planks at UBC’s Gage Tower hold human remains, or are they leftovers from a six-decade-old childhood prank? Last week I wrote about the two graves near UBC’s Gage Towers. Gregg Doughty first heard about the graves when he started with the university in 1991. Various UBC officials… Continue reading The Mysterious Graves at UBC’s Gage Towers – Part 2

Gregg Doughty has worked at UBC as horticulturist and arborist since 1991. For the last few decades, he has tried to find out the names of the people buried in two unmarked graves. The university prefers not to talk about it. They’re worried that the graves may be vandalized or frighten students living in the… Continue reading The mysterious graves at UBC’s Gage Towers

The Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge was built in 1894 and linked what’s now Fraser Street with No. 5 Road, Richmond. It was demolished in 1974 after completion of the Knight Street Bridge. This is part one of a three-part series about crossing the Fraser River in 1972 by Angus McIntyre On December 31, 1972,… Continue reading The Fraser Street Swing Span Bridge

Pamela Darlington turned 19 on October 21, 1973. Seventeen days later her body was found at the edge of the Thompson River in Kamloops. She claims the number four spot on E-Pana’s list—the RCMP’s task force that was set up in 2005 to investigate 18 Highway of Tears cases of missing and murdered women. From… Continue reading The Pamela Darlington Murder

Jose Lee and her sister bought a house on Vancouver’s Glen Drive in 1984. For a time they shared the house with the previous tenant who had died some years before. This is an excerpt from a story in Sensational Vancouver. When Jose Lee bought her house in 1984, she said it had the most… Continue reading The Ghosts of Glen Drive

Architect Ron Thom designed a 4,000 sq.ft. prize home for the PNE  in 1981. It resided in South Surrey. In 1981, British Columbia was in the throes of a recession, house prices were plummeting, and first-time buyers were looking at interest rates of over 20%. Architectural offices were closing, and even a starchitect like Ron… Continue reading   The 1981 PNE Prize Home

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… Continue reading The Brill Trolley Buses of Sandon, BC

Malcolm Lowry may be North Vancouver’s most talented, paranoid alcoholic. He wrote Under the Volcano, his most famous book, from a shack in Cates Park. Lowry died on June 26, 1957 at 48. Under the Volcano: Born in England, Lowry lived in Vancouver for more than 15 years. He had a variety of addresses on… Continue reading Malcolm Lowry’s North Vancouver

On June 19, 1973, a three-alarm fire broke out at the old King Edward High School at West 12th and Oak Street. The building was destroyed, but remnants remain on the old site, now part of Vancouver General Hospital. From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Designed by William T. Whiteway: William T.… Continue reading Fire takes out King Edward High School

Mount Pleasant Stories: Historical Walking Tours, by Christine Hagemoen Walking Tour #1: We had a lot of fun road-testing Christine Hagemoen’s Mount Pleasant Stories: Historical Walking Tours this week. Christine, a researcher and photographer wrote and published her guide—the first of five walking tours in the Mount Pleasant area—last November. It’s a great mix of… Continue reading Mount Pleasant Stories

On June 3, 2005, 82-year-old Gim Foon Wong set off on his Ride for Redress. Starting at Mile Zero in Victoria, he planned to arrive in Ottawa July 1 on his Honda Goldwing motorbike, accompanied by his son Jeffrey. He planned to have a few words with Prime Minister Paul Martin about the brutal Chinese… Continue reading Gim Wong: Kick-ass Dragon Man

The Industrial School for Girls operated out of 868 Cassiar Street from 1914 until 1959 and was known as the “house of horror.” Now a residential condo, Cassiar is one of the properties featured on this year’s virtual Heritage House Tour, Thursday June 2. This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden… Continue reading The Industrial School for Girls

The Melbourne Hotel became No5 Orange in 1971, after 67 years as a hotel and beer parlour The Melbourne Hotel opened in August 1904 at Westminster Avenue and Powell Street. According to the daily classified ads that ran in the Vancouver Daily World and Province, it had steam heating, electric lights and a white cook.… Continue reading How the Melbourne Hotel became No5 Orange

Long before the Vancouver Film School occupied the building at East Pender and Columbia Streets, there was a railway station that was later repurposed into the legendary Marco Polo restaurant.  Story from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History Train Station: If you’re walking around Chinatown, you’ll likely notice the four-storey brick building at… Continue reading The Dupont Street Train Station and the Marco Polo Restaurant