Photograph of Whaletown Bay taken from the water, showing the navigation marker at the entrance, and the houses to the left of the future site of the ferry landing.
Photograph of Whaletown Bay taken from the water, showing the navigation marker at the entrance, and the houses to the left of the future site of the ferry landing.
File contains 3 receipts from the Cortez Lodge Store (Note the telephone number, "Cortez 1X"), and 2 Island Air receipts, one for a flight from Campbell River to Cortes for $12. Receipts are from Hector Graham.
Donated by Ann Dewar and Robbie Graham on Jan. 20,2017, along with items for the Artifacts Committee. Material donated is from Robbie Graham's father Hector Graham.
Scope and Content
File contains 3 receipts from the Cortez Lodge Store (Note the telephone number, "Cortez 1X"), and 2 Island Air receipts, one for a flight from Campbell River to Cortes for $12. Receipts are from Hector Graham.
Fonds consists of the records of the Whaletown Community Club from 1951 to 2016. The first accession (2003.003) consists of records from 1951 to 1985 and includes minutes of general and executive meetings, correspondence, administrative records including the original constitution and bylaws, financial records and reports on projects and functions sponsored by the organization. Files from Accession 2003.003 are described in five series: 1) Minutes; 2) Correspondence; 3) Financial; 4) Administrative Records; 5) Subject Files.
Accruals in 2017 (#2017.009) and in 2023 (#2023.008) comprise records of the Whaletown Community Club from 1985 to 2018, including minutes of executive and general meetings, financial statements, correspondence, and records of projects and programs. The material was kept in binders; it has been placed in folders maintaining original order, and described using the above five series.
The beginning of the Whaletown Community Club is unclear as almost all the Club's records were destroyed in a fire in 1950; the earliest records still existing date from 1948. (See Gilean Douglas fonds, Series 8). The WCC became a registered society in 1953 when the Gorge Harbour Community Hall Society disbanded and turned ownership of the Gorge Hall over to the Whaletown Community Club.
The activities of the Club are carried on chiefly within the Whaletown postal area, and are intended to promote the interests of the community in matters of general welfare, to sponsor recreational and sports activities, and to hold land and premises necessary for Club activities. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the Club was a channel through which Whaletown residents organized health and educational services and lobbied for better roads, hydro and ferry service, as well as sponsoring social events. From 1978 until 2010 it sponsored the Whaletown National Enquirer, a monthly community newspaper.
A main function of the Whaletown Community Club is the maintenance of the Gorge Harbour Community Hall. Originally built in 1933, it has been renovated several times and serves as the main venue for community functions in the Whaletown area. Until 1953, when the lease was turned over to the Whaletown Women's Institute, the Club maintained the Church Hall, which was owned by the Columbia Coast Mission and stood at the corner of Carrington Bay and Harbour roads. Before 1958 the Club held most of its meetings in the Church Hall.
Since 1958, when the Whaletown Women's Institute disbanded, the WCC has maintained the library in Whaletown (originally the Farmer's Institute building; now the Louisa Tooker Library) and the old and new Whaletown cemeteries. The Anglican Diocese transferred the title of the two Whaletown cemeteries to the WCC in 2012. In 1964 they acquired the lease for the last remaining piece of Crown land with access to Gorge Harbour, to preserve it as a park. They have leased the former Whaletown school property from the School Board since the school was closed in 1973, and purchased the schoolhouse for the sum of $1.00 in 2010.
Custodial History
Records were acquired directly from the Whaletown Community Club in 2003 (Accession 2003.003), 2017 (Accession 2017.009) and 2023 (Accession 2023.008). A few records were separated from the Cortes Island Ratepayers Assn. fonds in 2004 (records for both organizations had been kept in the same filing cabinet in the Gorge Hall).
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of the records of the Whaletown Community Club from 1951 to 2016. The first accession (2003.003) consists of records from 1951 to 1985 and includes minutes of general and executive meetings, correspondence, administrative records including the original constitution and bylaws, financial records and reports on projects and functions sponsored by the organization. Files from Accession 2003.003 are described in five series: 1) Minutes; 2) Correspondence; 3) Financial; 4) Administrative Records; 5) Subject Files.
Accruals in 2017 (#2017.009) and in 2023 (#2023.008) comprise records of the Whaletown Community Club from 1985 to 2018, including minutes of executive and general meetings, financial statements, correspondence, and records of projects and programs. The material was kept in binders; it has been placed in folders maintaining original order, and described using the above five series.
Fonds consists of sixty prints and slides dating from 1951 to 1971. It includes scenes of of Cortes Island school students, logging, and the Union Steamship. Most photographs are from the Whaletown area. There are 16 slides of a logging camp at the Quatam River in Ramsey Arm, BC.
The Maclean family (parents Don and Doris, and children Janice, Heather and Ian) lived in Whaletown from 1961 to 1973.
Don Maclean's parents, John and Edna Maclean, lived for many years in Edmonton, Alberta. When their son came home from the war they bought property near Coulter Bay and moved to Cortes Island. Don Maclean became a fisherman, eventually living on his fishing boat.
Doris Lancaster Maclean was born and raised in Victoria, B.C. In the late 1940s she answered a call from the Anglican Church to come and do Vacation Bible School with the Columbia Coast Mission on Cortes and nearby islands.
Doris and Don married in 1954. They moved to Cortes Island in 1961 when Don was hired to operate the Columbia Coast Mission boat, the "Alan Greene". They lived in the Mission house in Whaletown, next to the church. Don Maclean acted as a Lay Reader for the Columbia Coast Mission in the 1960s when no clergymen were available, holding services in the three Anglican churches on the island.
In 1967 the Diocese sold the "Alan Greene" and the Macleans were required to move out of the mission house. Maclean built a house on the beach of what used to be called Jardine’s property, although by this time it was owned by a cousin of Doris Maclean. He was hired as the Industrial First Aid man on site for the building of the Whaletown Ferry dock and after that worked as a clam digger.
The Maclean family left Cortes in 1973 and moved to Regina, SK. The house that Don built was rented for a couple of years and then sold and moved to a new location; it burned down a few years later.
Custodial History
Twenty-seven photographs and 15 slides were mailed to CIMAS by Janice Maclean Kerr in 2019; two more photos were mailed in Apr. 2021; 16 slides were mailed in Sept. 2021
Scope and Content
Fonds consists of sixty prints and slides dating from 1951 to 1971. It includes scenes of of Cortes Island school students, logging, and the Union Steamship. Most photographs are from the Whaletown area. There are 16 slides of a logging camp at the Quatam River in Ramsey Arm, BC.
A description of the event may be found in “Whistle Up the Inlet,” by G.A. Rushton (J.J. Douglas Ltd., Vancouver BC,1974; p 50):
"Good teamwork in the handling of the ships by the Union Company’s marine department was evidenced when, on September 19, 1907, at 4:30 a.m., the Comox, running in a heavy fog, went aground on Cortez Island reef. All passengers were landed safely in small boats, then picked up by the Cassiar and taken to Heriot Bay for transfer to their destination aboard the Coquitlam. The Comox was pulled from her rocky perch at high water the following day and beached at Mansons, where a three-foot hole between the boiler and starboard bunker were patched. The vessel was towed back to Vancouver on September 22 by the tug Tartar.”
A description of the event may be found in “Whistle Up the Inlet,” by G.A. Rushton (J.J. Douglas Ltd., Vancouver BC,1974; p 50):
"Good teamwork in the handling of the ships by the Union Company’s marine department was evidenced when, on September 19, 1907, at 4:30 a.m., the Comox, running in a heavy fog, went aground on Cortez Island reef. All passengers were landed safely in small boats, then picked up by the Cassiar and taken to Heriot Bay for transfer to their destination aboard the Coquitlam. The Comox was pulled from her rocky perch at high water the following day and beached at Mansons, where a three-foot hole between the boiler and starboard bunker were patched. The vessel was towed back to Vancouver on September 22 by the tug Tartar.”
File contains various local publications: Blue Jay Lake Gardening Partners newsletter, BC Ferries newsletter, Whaletown National Enquirer and SCCA newsletter.
File contains various local publications: Blue Jay Lake Gardening Partners newsletter, BC Ferries newsletter, Whaletown National Enquirer and SCCA newsletter.
