Dolly Varden

While I was looking for an idea on what to write about today, I was looking over the headlines for the May 1, 1920 edition of the Vancouver Sun. The biggest headline read: City to Have Daylight Savings. Okay, interesting I guess. There was also something about the deadline for getting your tax returns in being extended until May 31, 1920. Nothing to inspire a blog entry. Then I saw Premier Oliver Declares Courts Lack Power to Deal with Dolly Varden dispute. Hmm, something interesting here?

Of course, my first thought was a politician and a female. Could it be a steamy story? Something whispered in the parlours of the day. Surely, my readers would be interested in that! However, with a little more research, I discovered Dolly Varden was, and is, a silver mine. 

I did an Internet search on Premier Oliver and the Dolly Varden mine and realized I had written a bit about it when I had featured Premier Oliver in September of 2013. (Yes, I sometimes forget what I have written on and what I haven't!)

So today I am going to revisit that story but be more thorough. I'll start with a look at the history of the Dolly Varden Silver Mines.

In 1910, four prospectors of Scandinavian descent discovered the Dolly Varden mine. The name is from a heroine in Charles Dickens' novel, Barnaby Rudge and it came to a relative of one of the prospectors in a dream. 

Those four prospectors didn't become rich of this find. Instead, in 1915, they sold it to Chicago financiers who had the foresight to build a railway, the last narrow gauge railway built in BC. It ran just 16 miles but it enabled the mining company to transport equipment and supplies to the mine and transport the rich ore to the tidewater in Alice Arm for shipping to the smelter.

In 1918, conflicts arose between the Dolly Varden Mine and the Taylor Engineering Company who had built the Dolly Varden Mine Railway. These disagreements led to the Taylor Engineering Company going bankrupt.

In a decision reached with the help of the BC Government, the mine properties were turned over to the Taylor group and the previous owners were reimbursed for their investment. A year later, in 1919, the Taylor Mining Company took over the Dolly Varden mine and the railway. The Torbrit deposit was discovered and explored while the Dolly Varden Mine continued to operate. (I looked up the Torbrit deposit and as of 2013, it is still in operation.)

Here's an interesting fact for my American readers. From 1919 to 1921, the Dolly Varden and North Star Mines produced 1,305 ounces of silver from 36,000 tonnes and Herbert Hoover financed the operation. This was before he became president, of course.

In 1920, the price of silver dropped to below $1.00 an ounce. There were high costs associated with bringing the mine into production and producing the silver. Taylor was forced to turn over the title of the properties to George Winfield's interests. It was 1922 when the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company took over and reorganized into Northern Mining Properties, later renamed Dolly Varden Properties Limited.

Whatever does this have to do with a BC Premier? I'll tell you, next time. I realize this isn't a story set in or about Vancouver but it happened in our province and I think it's interesting.

I want to thank the edition of the Vancouver Sun where I got the idea and the Dolly Varden Silver Corporation website where I got the information on history of the mine. The photographs are of Commercial Drive in Vancouver.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Newsmen

Allen Fotheringham was the Vancouver Sun's ace political columnist in the 1960's and 70's but he was 'run out of town' by the managing editor, Bruce Larson. Larson apparently wasn't fond of young, long haired idealists. At least, according to The Dependent.ca.

As we know, the 60's and 70's were a time of change in society and the new style of journalism was pitted against the old ways of doing things. It generally takes a while for the establishment to change.

Doug "Bulldog" Collins took charge of the opinion pages and his rants were filled with fear of the different.

“If it is racist to prefer our own traditions and institutions (poor though these may be) to those of others, I am again guilty,” reads page six of a paper dated Sept. 28, 1979. “If it is racist to think that our own Canadian kids should not become minorities in their own schools, and that they are entitled to learn their own language properly instead of waiting around while newcomers from totally alien cultures attempt to learn it, then I am thrice-damned, because I hold the view that Canadian kids have some rights, too.”

Perhaps not the most tolerant of articles but I am sure it struck a chord with many readers. As it probably still does today.

Then there was Mckenzie Porter. In 1975, this right wing columnist stated that “only the imprudent citizen knowingly elects a homosexual to parliament.”

“It is true that homosexuality often coincides with genius,” Porter admits. “But genius, which sometimes is akin to madness, is not a political asset. What a politician needs more than any other intellectual virtue is common sense. And common sense, as we shall see, rarely occurs in homosexuals.”

And Porter wasn't finished! He urged anyone with any inkling of homosexuality to immediately remove themselves from politics.

“During my 40 years in journalism, on both sides of the Atlantic, I have acquired many male and female homosexual friends. All make delightful, mentally stimulating company. But I cannot think of one who is suited to political office.”

It wasn't only homosexuals he was against though. He also campaigned against defecating in company toilets. Porter felt it was offensive.

The band, Pink Floyd, visited Vancouver for the first time in 1975, at the height of their creative genius. The Sun's music critic, Don Stanley, attended the show and he was not impressed.

“Music varied from stupidly trivial to the charmingly trivial … Both Gilmour and bassist Roger Waters have undistinguished voices.”  Stanley stated.

And even though Pink Floyd was the first musical artist to bring a live light show to the PNE stage, Stanley said it was “A consistently dull show, in other words.”

Th photos today are of a mural painted on the Royal Canadian Legion building on Commercial Drive.

Thanks to the Dependent.ca for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

A Collusion

During the 40's and the 50's there were three major daily newspapers in Vancouver: the Province, the Sun and the Herald. The Province had the most circulation with the Sun following and the Herald lagging behind the other two. All three were slashing ad rates and pushing the editorials to stay ahead of the others.

Southam Press from Toronto owned the Province and one day in 1956, Robert's son, Don Cromie of the Sun, arranged to go on a fishing trip with the general manager. Somewhere in Howe Sound, the two made a deal. The two larger papers would unite and buy out the Herald. The partnership was now known as the Pacific Press. 

Both papers were produced at the Sun's facilities. If an advertiser wanted to by an ad in one paper, they had to pay for a corresponding ad in the other paper. Ad prices were raised dramatically. The two papers quietly consolidated operations even though they were being investigated.

Not everyone was happy with this partnership, especially Canada’s Restrictive Trade Practices Commission, known as the anti-combines commission, began an investigation. The two papers had created a monopoly and the commission found the 'merger' was illegal.

Cromie and the Southam representative argued it was necessary for the two publications to unite in order for them to stay in business. They said it was financially necessary and didn't use the legally binding word 'merger', the businessmen danced around it. In their words, both papers would have folded if the two hadn't joined forces. Somewhere along the line, the demise of the Herald due to the uniting of the Province and the Sun was conveniently forgotten.

The anti-combines commission saw things a different way: “Pacific Press Limited is a combine in that it is a merger, trust or monopoly,” reads a statement of evidence presented to both companies. The document adds this competition-stifling monopoly “is likely to operate to the detriment of the public.”

This decision wasn't reached until 1960 though and by then it was too late to separate the mutual assets of the two papers. And the argument Cromie and his partner had made about combining the papers for financial necessity was now true.

The commission accepted the amalgamation and recommended that no further combination or collusion be pursued. That recommendation was forgotten when Southam purchased the Sun in 1980.

I would like to thank The Dependent.ca for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.