Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Lexi Bainas has been combing through oldnewspaperswiththeassistance 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 weekaround Cowichan Lake in years gone by.
This week around the Cowichan Lake area…
10 years ago:
“Car with drugs, money crashes on Youbou Road, driver flees scene before police, firemen arrive” said the headline in the Lake Cowichan Gazette April 16.
The driver of a car that crashed into a tree about 10 feet off the Youbou Highway at Lake Cowichan late Thursday afternoon wasn’t anywhere to be seen when the police arrived. What was still in the car included a bag of cocaine, a bag of marijuana and some cash.
It appears the car veered off the road and travelled more than 100 metres westward along the ditch before hitting the tree.
By the time the car came to rest, it was facing 180 degrees from the direction it had been travelling. The two front wheels of the car were severed off.
Cpl. Kirk Gottfried said the airbags were activated by the impact.
A witness who arrived on the scene after the car came to rest said he saw a woman nearby at the side of the road, who said she was fine. She started hitchhiking and it wasn’t long before a motorist picked her up.
The Lake Cowichan Fire Department was called to the scene and tried to disconnect the battery cables to prevent a possible fire, but could not get to the battery.
Gottfried said the car, a 1995 Buick Riviera, is locally owned, although it doesn’t appear the owner was the driver.
25 years ago:
“Theatre rental requests create a dilemma for school board” was the quiet headline in the April 14, 1993 edition of The Lake News that hid a bubbling controversy.
The board was asked if the policy could be changed because “there have been requests from two outside groups wishing to use the theatre…The Kaatza Lakeside Players Society first asked to use the theatre for their upcoming production. They were told they would have to adhere to board policy…$25/hour to a maximum of $100/day plus damage deposit.”
Rod Peters, speaking on behalf of the Society, said, “During performance nights the society, as you know, will be charging admission, therefor the rental of $75 would meet our budget. However, on April 21 and 26, the Lakeside Players would merely be using the theatre for rehearsal and setup, there would be no admission. The rental of $75 for each night would be paid directly from operating costs, which frankly is not available. We would appreciate a reduced rental fee for those two nights only, at a rate not to exceed $25 for each night.
According to Peters, after they were turned down, the Players decided to go for Centennial Hall, which they still use today.
The Lake Days Society also wanted to rent the theatre for their Talent Night but found that although allowances were made for non-profit societies renting the gym, nothing similar was available for renting the theatre.
A fresh look at board policy would be necessary, the school district’s secretary-treasurer, Lawrence White, told the Lake Days group.
40 years ago:
“Cheap lodging thing of the past at Nitinat Camp” said The Lake News of April 12, 1978.
It’s quite a story.
The decision to close the bunkhouses at Crown Zellerbach’s Nitinat Logging Division March 31 was based on simple economics. “It just costs too much to run them,” Nitinat manager Harold Peck said. “Where else can you get three meals and have someone clean your linen and room for $2.50 a day?”
The company had intended to close the bunkhouses in 1972 after the North Shore Road was completed but decided against it because at that time 55 men used the camp accommodation.
When the houses were closed at the end of March, 32 men [still] lived in camp. Most of them come from Nanaimo area but some come from as far away as Courtenay and Victoria.
Peck said two extra crew buses have been put on the road to bring the men through the back roads on the 80-minute trip from Nanaimo. “It doesn’t take much longer than the trip to camp from Duncan,” he said.
Peck declined to say how much the company spent running the bunkhouses but stated it was “an awful lot of money”.
He said the $2.50 daily rate charged for room and board was set in the 1930s and efforts to negotiate a higher rate in the past were met with “reluctance”.