Production day for the Shoreline doesn’t leave much time but
feel I’ve been procrastinating about posting, so this is a compromise. Here are a few more details about Midden
Harbour that might help.
As I said earlier, the road into the town comes down out of
the coastal mountains as a gravel road used mostly by logging trucks bringing
wood to the mill. The road comes out of
the bush at the far northern end of the bench where the Snow property is, and runs diagonally across it before turning
in a broad sweeping curve down the hill, and finally becoming a paved street
heading due west, just after passing Cannery Road on the right.
The first bit of Midden Harbour you encounter is the
International Woodworkers’ Union hall on the northwest corner of Cannery and
Beecher. The building is typical of town
halls of a certain era. It is a broad shouldered
wooden structure with a large balcony jutting out over Geoduck Bay. Notes
on a couple of things: First, I don’t
think I’ve mentioned previously that the bay framed by the curve of the Midden
Harbour spit and the mainland. Second,
the bay is called Geoduck (pronounced Gooey-duck) because it is—or at least was
at one time—a prime breeding area for these weird looking clams.
Back to the union hall... It has a cavernous interior that is
regularly used for meetings, dances, weddings and anything else that involves a
large group getting together indoors. At
one end is a bar with a volunteer-run kitchen tucked in behind it. At the other is a stage large enough to fit a
dance orchestra or a Christmas pageant.
The hall was built by mill workers who donated their time using materials
donated by the Snow family. Serving the
hall, and directly to the west of it, is a large gravel parking lot.
At the other end of the parking lot, just before the road
turns north and becomes Beecher Street, the Midden Harbour Garage is
located. This business, with its pumps
out front, two bays with hydraulic lifts inside, and fuel dock for boats out
behind,
On the left side of Beecher Road, starting across from the
Union Hall is a residential neighbourhood that was started by the cannery
owners, and then expanded once the sawmill came into full operation. In the early days, the houses were owned by
the Snow family business. But after the
Second World War, the workers were given
an option to buy and most of them did.
There are five streets running north to south with a couple of cross
streets; about 600 homes in all. Most of them are small. All of them are wood framed. There are a few larger ones that were built
for managers, and others that summer residents built after tearing down the old
houses. These are at the west end of the
neighbourhood, closest to town and the ocean waterfront.
On the inside of the curve of Beecher is our elementary
school with its playing field and parking lot.
The children of The Harbour can go to school locally until grade 7, but
once they’re high school age they have to make the ferry run into town.
Across from the school, where Beecher begins its run north,
is the town cenotaph, out memorial to the men and women who died in various
wars over the past 100 years. Every time
the country gets involved in a new “conflict”, a new plaque is cast and names
added. It’s a sad reminder that our isolated
community is not removed enough from the dangers of the outside world.
Beside the cenotaph is the Shoreline office. The building, amazingly, had always been a
newspaper office. In its initial form it
was a company publication intended to bring news and company propaganda to the
workers. The propaganda included ads for
items carried by the company store.
Sorry, that’s all I have time for today. More on the town and the company store to
come.
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