Come on board for the first season of Vintage Vignettes, a joint project of Cortes Community Radio and Cortes Island Museum and Archives, brings you “radio snapshots” of local life in simpler times. These brief episodes feature dramatized voices from the past with archive recordings of music from the “Old Timers”, a dance band that played locally for several decades. In Vintage Vignettes 1 -7 we focus on colourful characters and memorable events, from the first drive across Cortes Island to the 1946 earthquake.
Continue reading Vintage Vignettes 1-7Category Archives: History
Launch Of The Modern Environmental Movement

Greenpeace exploded into the public’s awareness after confronting the Russian Whaling fleet off the coast of California. This kind of environmental action was unheard of in 1975! The next day, there were photographs around the world. Looking back today, Rex Wyler thinks that, in some ways, that moment was the launch of the modern environmental movement.
Continue reading Launch Of The Modern Environmental MovementThe Survivor Fir

There are many stories of tree hangups, but one of the most colourful comes from Cortes Island. According to local tradition, the Survivor Fir would not be standing if it were not for a steam donkey’s explosion in 1923.
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