Photo Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
2016.002.057 |
Object Name |
Print, Photographic |
Description |
Reginald T. "Reg" Harrison on the Hillcrest Lumber Company No. 1 shay locomotive. |
Image File Name |
unk - Harrison & No. 1 - Duncan - 2016002057 - tiff600 - 001 |
Date (y/m/d) |
/ / |
Place |
Duncan |
Provenance |
From the Collection of Reginald T. Harrison. Digital only and not available for reproduction. Reg Harrison was an engineer who worked for the BC Forest Museum. Shay No. 1 was built by Lima Locomotive Works in December 1920. It worked for Hillcrest Lumber Company before being sold to to the Mayo Lumber Company in 1943. It then sat idle until 1947, when it was sold to the newly formed Osborn Bay Wharf Company, a consortium of mill owners (lead by Hillcrest Lumber Company), which operated a deep sea dock served by the E&N Railway’s Crofton Spur. While at Crofton, the locomotive was fired with coal. In 1963, the dock’s lease expired and No.1 was sent to Hillcrest Lumber’s new operation at Mesachie Lake to be converted back to narrow gauge and oil firing for donation to the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum (BC Forest Discovery Centre). Born in Yorkshire, England in 1900, Gerry Wellburn moved to Victoria and later to Duncan in the 30s. Since a kid, Wellburn had been an avid collector first finding interest in stamps. In 1963, the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum Society (CVFM) was formed, and Wellburn, with the help of friends like Hector Stone, moved his collection of forestry artifacts (and more) from his home in Deerholme to a 15-acre site in Duncan overlooking Somenos Lake. It took several years of organizing and planning before the first visitors were welcomed in 1965. The museum was officially opened the following year. The name was changed to the BC Forest Museum (BCFM) in 1973. Gerry visited the BCFM for the last time in 1991 stating that, "I think you're finally getting it right." In 1999, the name was changed again to the current BC Forest Discovery Centre. In 1917, Carlton Stone built a sawmill in Sahtlam, BC, five miles west of Duncan, BC on Vancouver Island. It was destined to become the largest independently owned family sawmill in British Columbia, employing some 300 employees in the sawmill / planer mill complex and another 50 in the logging division. The company operated in Sahtlam from 1917 to 1943 and when the timber was depleted, Stone moved the whole operation lock, stock and barrel by rail to Mesachie Lake, BC, 19 miles west of Duncan, BC past the town of Lake Cowichan (From: The Last Whistle - Hillcrest Lumber Company LTD by Cecil Ashley). The work force of Hillcrest was made of five ethnic groups: European, Chinese, Japanese, East Indians and First Nations. Wages did not depend on ethnicity but rather on skill. |
Photographer |
Harrison, Reg |
Search Terms |
Duncan Reg Harrison BC Forest Museum BCFDC Collection Grounds Cowichan Valley Railway Railway Tracks People Hillcrest Lumber company No. 1 Shay Lima Locomotive Works Locomotive |
Collection |
BCFDC Institutional Memory |
People |
Stone Harrison, Reginald T. |
Subjects |
Locomotives People People associated with manual labor Documentary, Cowichan Valley |