The Dollarton Pleasure Faire held in the summer of ’72, was meant as a celebration of alternative living, timed to clash with the PNE held across the inlet.
From Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History
I was at the North Vancouver Archives trying to hunt down some information from the city directories. On the way out I noticed a black and white photo exhibition by Bruce Stewart. Called West of Eden, these photos were all taken over a two-week period in 1972 at what’s now the Maplewood Conservation Area on Dollarton Highway.
Maplewood:
Since I’m used to seeing wood ducks, chickadees and the odd deer at Maplewood, it was kind of cool to see a bunch of naked hippies frolicking around down there. They seemed completely oblivious to Stewart’s camera.
Back in the ‘70s squatters used to live above the tidal mudflats in a row of shacks. It sounds kind of romantic today, but I’m guessing raising a family among salvaged materials, with no electricity or running water would not have been much fun, especially in winter.
The Dollarton Faire:
The Dollarton Faire was one of many held across North America in the 1960s and ’70s. Ours was also a show of support—the mudflat squatter community versus the District of North Vancouver who were determined to burn it down for a shopping mall.
I’m not sure what happened to the shopping mall, but in the end capitalism trumped the rights of people to occupy public land, and all traces of the Mudflat shacks are long gone.
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