Renowned historian Richard Mackie will be the guest speaker this Saturday at the Comox Archives and Museum Society annual general meeting.
The meeting happens at 2 p.m. at the Lions’ Den next to the Museum Lower Floor at 1729 Comox Ave. Mackie will follow at 2:30 with a presentation called Beyond the Valley: Comox Logging Moves Down-island, 1936–1955.
In 1910, the Comox Logging and Railway Company started logging its 60,000-acre property north of Courtenay, most of it contained in the jagged and sprawling Block 29.
Within 20 years, most of the best low-lying timber in Block 29 had been cut, and Comox Logging started to look elsewhere on the Island for accessible old-growth timber property.
In his illustrated talk, Mackie follows men and families from the Comox Valley as they moved south, some of them for good.
Mackie will also chart the technological changes in logging in these two decades, especially the replacement of crosscut saws with power saws, logging trains with trucks, and steam highlead skidders with gas-powered donkeys and yarders.
Admission to the presentation is open to the public by donation.
Refreshments provided. Some of Mackie’s books will be available for sale.
— Comox Archives and Museum Society