In the most recent of her interviews about Cortes History, Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, traces one of the Island’s foremost industries from its pre-contact beginnings up until recent times.
Lynne Jordan: “ The First Nations cultivated clam gardens on this coast for 3,000 to 5,000 years, maybe even longer. One on Quadra Island was recently dated at being around 3,500 years old.”
Continue reading The origins of Cortes Island’s Shellfish Industry
By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca
Local artist Jane Newman is hosting a card making workshop this Sunday in collaboration with the Cortes Island Museum and Archives Society.
In the current digital age, Newman believes there’s something special about making and receiving an item that’s handmade during the holidays.
Continue reading Cortes Island Museum hosts card making workshop with artist Jane NewmanA great many fisherfolk once worked out of Whaletown. The Cortes Island Museum’s list goes back to the 1930s, at which point there were 7 men and a woman. Three of them used rowboats.
“There used to be a huge fleet rafted out, both six and seven abreast all along both sides of the dock, in Whaletown. In the last 10 years or so, there’s only been three or four boats in there, fishing. The main one that I know of in the last little while is the ‘C-Fin,’ but he goes outside of the Vancouver Island area and fishes tuna. When he comes back he doesn’t sell it to a fisheries, he sells it from the dock, and the same with his prawns. So he’s not using a middle man to sell his products, which I suppose is one of the few ways you could make a little bit of money now,“ said Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, in the latest instalment of her history of Whaletown.
Continue reading When fishing was an industry in Whaletown
According to Lynne Jordan, former president of the Cortes Island Museum, there have been telephones on Cortes Island for more than 110 years. They arrived in 1910, along with telegraphs, but only in the stores.
“Telegrams were really cheap. They were so much for 10 words and so much for 100 words. People got really good at confining their messages to 10 words. Telegraphs that came in for people were just put in an envelope and then pinned on the bulletin board at the store. Then they either had to check themselves or a friend would tell them that there was a message there for them,” she said.
Continue reading How telephones came to Cortes Island
“I feel that the museum should reflect the community. It helps to strengthen our identity and strengthen our sense of not only ourselves, but what we can do for one another,” said Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the Cortes Island Museum and Archives.
One of the mottos of the museum is ‘Reflect, Celebrate, Imagine.’
Boyle explained, “I’d like to think of it as reflect on the past, imagine the future and celebrate what we have today.”
Continue reading The things that keep Cortes Island Museum going
