British Columbia Heritage Articles

Here are interesting articles on wider British Columbia heritage themes that delve into a range of topics in some detail.

Major MacFarlane & the Malahat

MacFarlane’s Folly: The Building of the Malahat Highway on Vancouver Island

Before there was a highway over the Malahat Highway on Vancouver Island it was a huge obstacle to transportation and economic development. Its construction is an epic story that extends over decades. Now that its built it presents even more challeges as its danagers threaten to over shadow its successes.The story of Major James Francis Lenox MacFarlane's campaign to have it constructed helps to frame an understaning of the political and engineering challenges faced today.

Major MacFarlane’s Version of the Locating of the Route of the Malahat Highway

A letter to the editor by Major MacFarlane sets the story straight on the creation of the Malahat.

BC Coast Stories

Caretaker of Twin Islands Lodge – A Retreat for Royalty and Celebrities in the Strait of Georgia Twin Islands

21/11/2018 Shirley Whitehouse spent six years, from 1958–1964, on Twin Islands at the northern end of Georgia Strait where she and her then husband George Lott were caretakers and hosts of a magnificent log lodge – Twin Islands Lodge – frequented by well–known royal and celebrity guests.

Nauticapedia

Site News: March 16, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 91,134 vessel histories (with 15,557 images and 12,826 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters). The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,612 entries (with 4,007 images).

In 2023 the Nauticapedia celebrated the 50th Anniversary of it’s original inception in 1973 (initially it was on 3" x 5" file cards). It has developed, expanded, digitized and enlarged in those ensuing years to what it is now online. If it was printed out it would fill more than 300,000 pages!

My special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

Also my special thanks to my volunteer content checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who has proofread thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 10,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.


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