Cumberland Museum & Archives has announced its summer walking tour series featuring the popular Village Tour of downtown Cumberland, Old Townsites Tour at the sites of the old Chinese and Japanese settlements, and author Kim Bannerman’s Bucket of Blood tour based on her novel of the same name.
On Saturday, July 18 and Saturday, Aug. 15, Dawn Copeman will lead the Old Townsites tour featuring Cumberland’s unique cultural histories. In April of 1942, Cumberland’s nearly 600 residents of Japanese descent were banished from the coast and sent to internment camps. The decline of the Chinese community was more gradual as the coal mines shut down in the post-war era. The mostly abandoned Chinatown was finally razed in 1968 leaving only Jumbo’s cabin by the side of Comox Lake Road.
This tour tells the stories of the Chinese and Japanese settlements while walking through the majestic forests on the edge of town where they once stood.
Friday, July 24 and Friday, Aug. 14, Meaghan Cursons will lead the Village walking tour: a lively and engaging walk through town filled with facts, rumours, tragedies and tales from Cumberland’s colourful history. From the great fires and great strikes, to lavish garden parties, wartime injustices and small pox isolation houses - the Village walking Tour puts the legend in “Legendary Cumberland.”
Bannerman’s 2011 gothic murder mystery Bucket of Blood reaches its exciting conclusion on Aug. 17, 1898 (the same day as the Trent River railway trestle disaster). On Monday, Aug. 17, 117 years later to the day, Bannerman will lead a walking tour that explores the alleys, side streets and buildings featured in the novel, while delving into the history and folklore that inspired her writing. You don’t have to have read the book (or its sequel Mark of the Magpie) to enjoy the tour, but you’ll likely want to when it’s done.
Tickets are $15 with discounts for seniors, youth and museum members.
Complete details and tickets are available at www.cumberlandmuseum.ca.