Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Sarah Simpson has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
This week around the Cowichan Lake area…
10 years ago
“The hills are alive with the sound of sirens” doesn’t have the same ring to is as the old Sound of Music song but alas, this was the headline on the front of the Aug. 29, 2012 Lake Cowichan Gazette.
“A suspicious fire at the top of the Cowichan Main logging road, approximately four kilometers east of Lake Cowichan burned for over two days last week.
“Lake Cowichan RCMP did have to rescue a man who had gotten lost on the mountain after a fight with his wife in the early morning hours of Aug. 22. ‘Long and short of it is, adult male has fight with wife so he decides he’s going to show her. So off he goes up the mountain,’ said Sgt. Dave Voller of the Lake Cowichan RCMP. The man phoned 911 at approximately 2 a.m. He could not distinguish any landmarks as fog had set in. Officers told him to stay where he was until they could reach him. ‘So our guys fired up the ATVs, went round and best guess was he’d be up Cowichan Main, so off they went and 6.5 kilometres up there they found him … but by then it was 6 a.m.,’ said Voller. Voller has queried the officers to find out if the individual was a smoker or if he lit a fire of any kind. No link between the man and the fire has been made, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.”
25 years ago
Here’s an odd one from the Aug. 27, 1997 Lake News:
“Youbou residents concerned with ‘scary looking’ man ‘hanging around’ the area” was the headline.
“Residents of Youbou are locking their homes and watching their children more closely because of a man who had identified himself as Leonard Danielson, and who just recently arrived in Youbou, has been menacing people by walking into their homes, uninvited, requesting cigarettes or attempting to trade his carvings for alcohol.”
The story went on to talk about how his family said he was relatively harmless but has been in and out of jail for minor offences and “he’s better off in jail because at least there he can be looked after.”
Also 25 years ago, according to the Aug. 27, 1997 Lake News, there were “Big Changes for Continuing Ed.”
“The instructing position for the Adult Basic Education at the Clode Centre, up until recently held by Barb Watson is now held by John Ward. The reason for the change is not being discussed, according to Geoff Johnson, Superintendent for School District 79 and it may be some weeks before a statement will be released.
“Watson has been at the centre for a number of years. When contacted, she was unaware of the reason for her replacement and said that she may comment more in the future regarding her position at the Clode Centre.”
40 years ago
“Minor quake rumbles thru” told folks that there’d been an earthquake on Aug. 19, 1982. The story appeared in the Aug. 25, 1982 edition of the Lake News.
“The Cowichan Lake area was shaken by a mild earth tremor Thursday, Aug. 19, at 7:10 p.m. The earthquake was centred about 10 km northeast of Lake Cowichan, according to the Pacific Geo-science Centre at Sidney. It registered 3.0 on the Richter Scale, and was not felt outside the Cowichan Valley.”
Also four decades ago, the school district was still battling budget issues as laid out in the “Teachers get in on act, rap budget cut order” and “Restraint decree, minister rapped by schools head” stories on the Aug. 25, 1982 edition of the Lake News’s front page.
“The president of the Lake Cowichan Teachers’ Association has strongly rejected the government’s demand that the Lake Cowichan school board slash another $111,213 from its 1982 budget by Aug. 30. In a prepared statement, Eric Lundberg said, ‘this action destroys the effectiveness of the local board to act as a democratic and autonomous body. Boards are forced to act as mere puppets dancing at the end of the government’s financial string.’”
The stories talked about how education minister Bill Vander Zalm had demanded the cuts.
“School District 66 has twice been told to make budget cuts this year — $88,515 in the spring and another $111,213 now. ‘The board of school trustees would like to take this opportunity to express its dismay with the government’s approach concerning the matter of restraint. The lack of consultation, the disregard for protocol, the flagrant lack of respect for the spirit (if not the legal requirements) of the Public School Act and Regulations are indicative of an approach that threatens the very basis of a democratic system’,” wrote the board.
