Seven antique cars pulled into Mansons Landing shortly after 12:30 on Wednesday, June 21.

There was a lot of anticipation prior to to their arrival.

Melanie Boyle, Managing Director/Curator of the Cortes Island Museum, explained, “So far as I know, we’ve never had 15 vintage cars arrive here on the island. We as a museum celebrate histories of various sorts and histories of the island, old technologies and looking back at a day when people traveled differently, slower forms of transportation and different speeds in the world. This is really a celebration of that and, I’m sure it takes a special sort of person who has a devotion to restoring older things and a value of not trashing things and always looking for the newest, but respecting something of the past and with it heritage and stories that go along with it.”

Access: Antique Cars coming to our Area this week

The Antique Chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada is in Campbell River this week. They have been making day trips out into the surrounding countryside. They were in the Comox Valley yesterday and tnow it was Cortes Island’s turn. 

A notice in the Tideline stated they would reach the museum by 11:00. CKTZ’s Wolfman Jake was among the throng that assembled to greet them. 

“I’m here to watch these beautiful cars coming up the Beasley Road here on beautiful Cortes Island.  I want to see these cars. I want to let everybody know, come on down, come on down. Slow down to see these cars. They’re beautiful. They’ll be well taken care of, and they’ve come over to show us their beauty.”

CC: This will air till tomorrow at the earliest. 

Wolfman Jake: “That’s okay.  My show starts in about an hour or so. I’ll let everybody know before you get that on the air then. Does that work for you?” 

CC: That works. 

Wolfman Jake: “Right on.” 

CC: How long have you been into antique cars?

Wolfman Jake: “My whole life, I’m an antique myself. My first car was a ’58 Pontiac way back in the days,” he replied.

Unfortunately, Wolfman Jake’s show starts at 11:30. So he was not among the 45 or so people that greeted the antique cars at the museum an hour later. 

First they drove to the Cortes Island School, where the students were given an opportunity to see them.

One of the teachers said, “I’m Monica Nawrocki and I’m working at the school casually for the last couple of weeks. The kids have been so excited about seeing the vintage cars and they are milling about, looking at them. I was saying to one of the owners, the kids see these cars when they find them abandoned in the woods. That’s about it. So this is pretty exciting. Everyone’s having a very good time.” 

She directed Cortes Currents to Peter Findlay, President of the Antique Car Chapter of the Vintage Car Club of Canada. 

CC: Tell me anything about your trip across, I understand that 15 cars started out.

Peter Findlay: “Two cars missed the ferry this morning to this island and that was a problem. I almost did because I had a tire blow-out while we were waiting in the ferry lineup but fortunately I had long enough time to put the spare on. Then on the way over here, coming up one of the big hills, one of our cars broke a universal joint, which means it is end of the road right there. He can’t go any further. Fortunately we have a truck waiting on the other side, he’ll come over on the next ferry and we’ll load him up and get that car back home.” 

One of the other drivers, David Kedroski, added, “I think it was 14 that started out today. We didn’t get all of them on the ferry over to Cortes, a couple got left behind, unfortunately. 12 got on the ferry. One fellow broke down a ways further back and a couple of guys stopped to help him.” 

CC: There’s only seven here, I believe. 

David Kedroski: “There’s still a few scattered around somewhere –  there comes one now.”

A spectator named Matt Powell listed the first cars to pull up, “A Dodge Brothers, a Rolls Royce, a couple Model Ts, and a Russell, which I’ve never seen before. I’m up  from Victoria for a little while and  it was quite something to see all these old cars up here at the museum. I’ve got a 1930 model A myself, and it would probably be a new car amongst these ones here.”

Lunch for the drivers and their passengers came from the Cortes Cafe, and was served in a pavilion in front of the Cortes Island Museum.

There were 9 vehicles parked in front of the museum by the time I left.

Peter Findlay is from Burnaby, David Kedroski from Surrey and one of the passengers in Kedroski’s car explained, “There’s a couple people from the States,  that little White Torpedo, that is a Model T and they’re from Bellingham, a lovely couple.  Colleen is originally from Hamilton, Ontario,  and then there’s another couple from Washington State as well.  It’s just  the love of old things and old cars that bring us together.

Cortes Currents asked Findlay, “What are you driving?” 

“My car is a 1915 Russell and Russell cars were built in Toronto by CCM, the bicycle company or the skate company, but up until the first World War, they made cars also. So this is my 1915 Russell, and as far as we know, it’s the only 1915 Russell still in use in the world. We haven’t been able to find another.” 

Kedroski said. “This is a 1913 Model T Ford, which is sometimes referred to as the car that put the world on wheels because it was the Model T Ford that made cars affordable for the working man. That was Henry Ford’s vision. Before the Model T, cars were only toys for the rich.  With the Model T and mastering assembly line productions,  the Ford Motor Company managed to get the price of cars down. His objective was that his factory workers could afford to buy the cars that they were building.” 

I asked about a canister on his running board.

David Kedroski: “The side lamps run on kerosene. The headlights run on acetylene that is produced in that acetylene generator that sits on the running board. While acetylene is manufactured, even today its produced by dripping water onto carbide.  So this gizmo on the running board would have carbide in the bottom and water in the top. That little control you see on the top would control the rate of drip of the water into the carbide, which would control the rate of production of the acetylene gas, which would in turn control the brightness of your headlights. 

Female Passenger: “You’ve noticed that there’s three pedals in the front and you’d think of them as clutch, brake and gas, but with the Model T, it’s a different arrangement. The far left,  It’s got a C on it,  when you push it halfway down the car’s in neutral. All the way down is low. When you let it off, it’s high. The middle one has got an R, it’s reverse. Then the far right is a brake.” 

She pointed to a lever at the top of the steering column, “The gas is here.” 

CC: How fast were you going on the road? 

Passenger: I bet you this guy could go up to about 45 miles an hour, but not here. We’re probably doing 30 because we took a lot of wrong turns. (laughs) 

CC: Do you mind if I take a picture?

Passenger: “It’s not my car, but I’d say yes.” 

She and her husband came up from the Lower Mainland with Kedroski. 

“Some of the Model Ts have brass on them and brass is from a particular era before the first World War – 1915 – thereafter the brass was used in the war effort,” she explained.

“Anyway, some of these cars are not Model Ts,  but there’s some huge fonts of information here . There’s an African proverb that when an elder dies, a whole library is destroyed and there’s many libraries here with the fellows. They all love mechanics. They do their own repairs. Some of them are disinclined to do the body work, but they’ll find somebody to do the body work  or they do it themselves. There’s a huge array of talent and  it’s probably a really interesting group to belong to. We don’t show these cars. We drive in them and we tour.” 

Top image credit:  They arrive at last! – Photo by Roy L Hales

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