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March 2002 West Vancouver Hist on cal Society Page 3 By: Arute Veniori SCRAPBOOK This page contains scraps of West Vancouver's past - personal memories, magazine or newspaper articles, or stories told by parents atui gtandjmrents, extracts from letters or diaries which have been passed down through families. welcome any of your contributions. Hugh Johnston sent the following ai tide, which he calls EC.HOEJs FROM ANOl HER 7IME - Off-the-bookshelf (ales of the west shore." This is an excerpt from a series wiitten for the Vancouver Province in the early '20's and comes from the Rupert Harrison Collection in the IE V. Community Archives. The Shipwrecked Swedes by POLLOUGH POGUE "When I moved into the lookout station cabin on Hollyburn I saw no sign of wildlife about the place, except the unusually large tracks of a big old deliberate skunk. I heard of course many bird notes. The loud, "quick, three beers" of the olive-sided flycatcher, the wild whistle of the viiried thrush and the plaintive miaow of the towhee woke me up in the morning. Tie msset-backed Uirush sang her ridi song iill day. Soon I scattered oatmeal here and there near the lookout in little heaps, and strewed bread crumbs on the ground about the cabin door. Douglas squirrels and chip- munks appeared almost immediately. Squirrels carried away the breadcrumbs, greeting me with opprobrious chiriiing when I stepped outside the door to watch them. Tiey would not partake of the oatmeal, at least not while there were breadcrumbs available. But the chipmunks parked them- selves, as my young daughter expressed it, at the little piles of oatmeal, filled their cheek pouches, disappeared and having disgorged the oatmeal in tlieir underground store- rooms, returned for more. Tiis continued until there was no more oatmeal. I usually renewed the oatmeal heaps once a day. Towhees and Stellar's jays claimed a share of the bread cmmbs but the chipmunks monopolized tlie oatmeal. One day a logger, who ate lunch with me, noticed this. We sat on a log watching two chipmunks, one on each side of a pile of oatmeal, stuffing their cheek pouches. "Tiey like their oatmeal, don't they?" the logger said, chuckling. "Must be Shipwrecked Swedes". In the quaint and jocose but vigorously expressive vernacular of coast loggers, a "Shipwrecked Swede" is a Scotsman. Loggers explain this by telling you that Scotland was first peopled by Swedes who, sailing from Sweden, were shipwrecked and landed, not from choice, in Scotland, and established a colony. Tierefore in tlieir free picturesque and sportive way, loggers call all Scotsmen "Shipwrecked Swedes". 1 had been living in the lookout cabin about a montli, and almost all the small wildlife inhabiting the nearby woods had found out that at the cabin they could always get food and many birds and smaller mamals visited the cabin in the daytime or at night, according to tlieir habits. A hiker spent a sunny day photographing the wild folk at their free lunch. Around one heap of oatmetil there were five of the small dark Oregon chipmunks at the same time. I told the hiker what the logger had called Uiem. "I'll bet they aren't Scotch", he said. "Why don't you get some cornmeai and see if they really are "Shipwrecked Swedes". No Scotsman would eat cornmeai. " Tie next time I made a trip down the trail for supplies I brought up in my packsack some cornmeai. 1 am sorry to spoil the "Shipwrecked Swede" theory, but the chipmunks did not seem to notice tlie difference. Without iuiy hesitation they pounced upon the golden heaps." Note: The old lookout tower referred to was located near the "Forks" on the old Hollyburn trail - See 1934 Sun>ey. By: Peter Hall National Historic Site Status for the Lions Gate Bridge? A Progress Report In the June 2000 issue of "History-Onics" we reported that the Historical Society had applied to the National Historic Sites and Monuments Board to have the Lions Gate Bridge given National Historic Site status. Tiis would nicely complement the similar status ot Stanley Park, and would add to West Vancouver's two other NHS designations - Point Atkinson Lighthouse and tlie B.C. Binning house. We also mentioned that before the federal people would consider our application we must first obtain tlie consent of the owners - tlie government of B.C. Little did we know just what getting that consent entails! We requested Provincial consent in May 2000 by writing to the then premier Mr. Dosanjh. After meeting with the Ministry of Transportation and Highways in September 2000 we were iiifomied in March 2001 that consent could not be given. A renewed effort to get the elusive consent was launched in the fall of 2001 with the assistance of MLAs Ralph Sultan (West Vancouver-Capilano) and Lome Mayencourt (Vancouver-Burard). We recently met with officials of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways and came away feeling encouraged. Of course, the matter will need to be referred to otliers in the Ministry before a decision will be forthcoming. We remain cautiously optimistic. Peter added a footnote: There wa.s a plaque placed on the west pylon of the Bridge on or about the date of its completion in 1938. When the B.C. Government purchased the bridge this plaque was replaced in 1955 by another one which eliminated the names of the directors of the former owners - the First Nanows Bridge Company. Another plaque was apparently added in 1986 to mark the stringing of the lights on the bridge. Ed Note: If Peter's efforts to have the Lions Gate Bridge made a National Historic Site pay off, there may be yet another plaque placed on the bridge. Peter sent us a photographic reproduction of the original plaque, but unfortunately we were unable to reprint it in the newsletter.