Category Archives: History

Animals, Environment, History

A walk through memory lane to Carrington Lagoon and Grandmother Grove with George Sirk

George 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.”

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Clothing, History

Peeking into Cortes Island’s past through vintage clothing

On Wednesday, July 19, the Cortes Island Museum offered visitors a rare opportunity to see some of the clothing and accessories from its collections.

The event was organized by Lilly Allen, this summer’s intern, who was inspired by the dress that Margaret Smith wore when she married John Manson in the late 1890’s.

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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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Environment, History, Opinion, Technology

The Quadra Project: Sounds of the Earth

On August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 was launched from NASA’s facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida. And exactly 15 days later, on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 was launched from the same facility. The timing was crucial because astronomical calculations had placed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in a lineal alignment that would only occur once every 176 years. With this alignment, each planet could accelerate the two spacecrafts to their next destination, reducing the travel time from 30 years to 12 years.

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History, Transportation

Antique Car Club: Lunch stop at the Cortes Island Museum

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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.”

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