Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, is writing a history of Whaletown. Her manuscript is already 300 pages long. In the first of a series of interviews about her research, Jordan describes the history behind Whaletown’s name.
Continue reading How Whaletown got its name
On Saturday Robert Bringhurst (RB) brings his own brand of literature, local history, science and humour to the stage of the Quadra Community Centre. He just gave Cortes Currents a taste in a rambling conversation that at one point went off topic to include remarks about Cortes Island, Campbell River and Whistler. Bringhurst started out by describing his intentions in the epic description of ‘the Ridge’ on Quadra Island where he lives.
RB: “I wanted to make good poetry out of, among other things, good science. I wanted to walk the ridge and relish it as one does without any thought of scientific measurement or accuracy, but I also wanted to think about it as a real place in historical time and to look at the species in relation to other species on the planet, and at the rocks in relation to other rocks. I began to wonder how much biology, geology, astronomy and climatology I could put in this poem without sinking it. The answer turned out to be quite a bit.”
Continue reading Robert Bringhurst on local history, science, poetry, the ridge where he lives and much more
After more than a decade of service, the Oyster Bay schoolhouse was barged over to Whaletown in 1950. There it opened its doors to the children of a new community.
Brigid Weiler started attending the Whaletown School in 1959.
Her earliest memories are in that area.
Continue reading Memories of the old Whaletown Schoolhouse
Norm Gibbon’s novel ‘Sea Without Shores’ is set in the tiny village of Refuge Cove, on West Redonda Island, during some of the years he was a member of the community. Refuge Cove’s story goes back several decades before that, but in today’s broadcast Norm outlines some of the history surrounding the beginnings of the Refuge Cove Land and Housing Co-op.
Continue reading Beginnings of the Co-op at Refuge CoveGeorge Sirk explained some of the history and wildlife that he and Kim and their friend Janet Gemmel recently explored during a walk to Carrington Lagoon and Grandmother Grove.
“Janet Gemmel came to visit us for a week. Her husband, Jim Palmer, died last December. He had a very rare lung cancer.”
“Jim and Jan lived out in Carrington, at the Reversing Rapids, in the 80’s. So Jan wanted to take the ashes back and release them there, but she forgot to bring them from Courtenay.”
Continue reading A walk through memory lane to Carrington Lagoon and Grandmother Grove with George Sirk
