Tag Archives: Ken Hansen

History, Rivers & Oceans

Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971

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Originally published on April 22, 2021

Born in New York, he chose Canada. Another two years passed before he arrived on a remote island off the West Coast. Paul Kirmmse remembers Cortes Island in 1971.

“I originally came here in January of ’71, looking for land. A guy gave me a job for the summer, beginning in April, serving coffee to the fishers and the loggers. There was a little cafe just above Mansons Lagoon, across from what used to be the Barton store – which I understand is now the Cortes Island Museum. It was dragged up the road and put in place to become the museum,” he says.  

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Education, History

Schools of Squirrel Cove

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Originally published January 22, 2024. This is the first audio recording of the article below, and may have sufficient additional details to be called the most recent version. The text was originally published in the booklet Squirrel Cove (Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society)

At the beginning of the 1900s, Squirrel Cove on the east side of Cortes Island was a hub of activity for homesteaders, loggers, fishermen, miners and trappers. They came from all the surrounding islands for supplies, groceries, mail, repairs, radios and dances in the hall. There were two stores, a post office, church, hall, two machine shops, a boatworks, a marine ways, and a big dock where the Union Steamships stopped regularly. Jim Spilsbury also stopped frequently to install or repair his radios in boats and homes.

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Community, History, Indigenous Nations

Cortes Day: Then and now

The Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA) estimate 500 people may have turned out for Cortes Day on Saturday, July 15, 2023.

Mike Manson, whose great uncle(1) and grandfather(2) were among the island’s first known European settler, remembers there were once two festivals.

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Arts, History

George Sirk & the Cortes Film Festival

Cortes Island will be holding its very own film festival in Mansons Hall on Sunday, July 17, 2022.  George Sirk produced Cortes Cinema’s films, all but one of which was originally shown at either Mansons or Gorge Halls during the 1970s and early 80’s. The exception is a video of Ann Mortifee’s performance at Manson’s Hall on October 23, 1981. This has not previously been shown in public. Doug McCaffry came up with the idea of holding a film festival, when he was digitalising Sirk’s films for the Cortes Island Museum.  

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Environment

Revegetating the Dillon Creek wetlands

In the conclusion of a 3 part series on the Dillon Creek wetlands restoration, Project Manager Maranda Cross talks about BC’s disappearing wetlands and the revegetation currently underway at Linnaea farm on Cortes Island.

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