Maurice Guibord Archives

Mountain View Cemetery may have been Vancouver’s first official cemetery when it opened in 1886, but Stanley Park was first.

Bodies had been buried on Deadman’s Island in Coal Harbour for thousands of years, and those who didn’t want their relatives interred alongside the socially undesirable, the diseased or unchristened, moved their burials further into Stanley Park.

This story is from Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History

Maurice Guibord estimates there are around 200 bodies buried between Brockton Point Lighthouse and the Nine O’Clock Gun

The Pioneer Cemetery:

“Its very association with the First Nations and Chinese immigrants thus designated Deadman’s Island as a resting place for the pagan, the unchristened, and the socially and culturally anathematized,” says local historian Maurice Guibord.

The stretch of land from Brockton Point Lighthouse to the Nine O’Clock Gun had always been a burial ground for the Indigenous people who lived there, but as Gastown was settled it also became an alternative burial ground known as the Pioneer Cemetery.

Chinese burials:

Chinese people were initially buried there, but for most, it was only temporarily. The custom was to return the bones to China eventually, so the graves were shallow to allow for faster decomposition and to facilitate exhumation. Once the body had turned to bones, they were dug up by bone collectors, cleaned, packaged and returned to China. Failure to do this was said to create po—homeless and malevolent ghosts who stuck around and haunted living relatives.

Maurice believes that there are up to 200 bodies still buried there along the peninsula, including the remains of settlers, some Chinese people and the indigenous people who had abandoned the custom of above-ground burials.

Unmarked graves:

The graves weren’t officially marked and the burials weren’t recorded, so when the perimeter road was built around the park in the late 1880s, the bodies were just paved over. “They are buried under the road, under the trees, under the bike path and the walkway. They are all through there,” says Maurice.

Something to think about the next time you’re sitting in the car park or taking a walk along the Seawall.

For more ghostly stories check out these podcast episodes:

S1 E9 Three Ghost Stories and a Murder

S2 E24 Halloween Special 2021

Victoria’s Ghost

If you think that museums are full of old fossils and boring exhibits, it’s time to get yourself down to All Together Now: Vancouver Collectors and their Worlds.

I went on opening night this week when 20 collectors were hanging out with their obsessions and it’s one of the craziest nights I’ve had in a long time. There were collections of movie posters, pocket watches, pinball machines and action figures mixed in with artificial eye balls, toasters and corsets.

We’re not talking stamp collectors here.

Rob Frith's history of music through posters. Eve Lazarus photo — Rob Frith’s history of music through posters. Eve Lazarus photo

Exhibit curator, Viviane Gosselin came up with the idea. She told me she sent out a call to various collectors about 18 months ago. “I wanted to be blown away,” she says. And she was.

When you walk into the exhibit you hit Angus Bungay, the action figure collector. Viviane recreated his own room.

“We know that collections are conversation pieces,” she says. “I wanted conversations about the history of disability, conversations about food security–that’s why we have a seed collector.”

Harold Steeves, a descendant from the pioneer Steveston family, collects heirloom vegetable seeds.

Harold Steeves (left) collects seeds. Eve Lazarus photo

“The history of disability is something that fascinates me and I wanted to work with David Moe who collects vintage artificial limbs,” she says. “We are trained not to look and stare at people wearing prostheses and this is the exhibition that says stare all you want.”

David Moe's vintage prosthetic collection. Eve Lazarus photo — David Moe’s vintage prosthetic collection. Eve Lazarus photo

Maurice Guibord has close to 5,000 pieces in his Expo 67 collection. He was 13 when the fair was staged in Montreal and he says it opened up the world for him. “It truly changed my life,” he says.

Maurice Guibord and Melanie Talkington. Jason Vanderhill photo

Maurice is placed between Melanie Talkington, a woman who collects corsets and Willow Yamauchi, a journalist with the CBC, who collects Drag Queen outfits, particularly those that relate to her father’s group the Bovines. Willow’s dad “Hydrangea Bovine,” performed in Vancouver in the ‘80s. She says she was too young to see them perform, but the Queens used to take her sister shopping. “My sister had really big feet so they took her shoe shopping so they could buy stilettos.”

Willow Yamauchi. Rebecca Blissett photo.

Neil Whaley tells me he still remembers the first time he collected, it was 16 years ago and it was a vintage glass Christmas parasol wrapped in wire that cost about $40.

“I was sitting on a bus in San Francisco, my heart was pounding with excitement,” he says. “it was a real adrenaline rush.” The buzz didn’t last though. Neil has since swapped Christmas ornaments for Vancouver items like the 1920s beach umbrella that says “Read the Daily Province,” pictured below.

“Yesterday I met this guy who collects bras,” Viviane tells me. “It took me back a little bit, but now I’m thinking how would I display a hundred bras? We could do the history of fashion through bras.”

I can’t wait for the next one.

The Lost Cemetery of Stanley Park

The Pioneer Cemetery:

Chinese burials:

Unmarked graves:

The Collectors

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The Pioneer Cemetery:

Chinese burials:

Unmarked graves:

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