history

The Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens in Victoria. (Black Press Media file photo)

Popular Victoria historic site closes citing lack of provincial funding

Point Ellice House and Gardens is operated by a non-profit on behalf of the province

 

Alexander Gillespie with his daughters Daphne, Sheila and Jean pose in 1918 with a “stone boat,” used to gather and haul rocks off farm fields. (Sooke Region Museum)

Alexander Gillespie’s former farmhouse now a marine safety centre

Pioneer built home in 1911 on East Sooke property

  • Mar 6, 2023

 

John Woodworth and Hälle Flygare at the bronze plaque placed on a granite boulder east of Burnt Bridge Creek in Tweedsmuir South Provincial Park on July 31, 1988 when the Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail was dedicated as a provincial heritage site. (Photo courtesy of Halle Flygare)

Efforts afoot to correctly identify one leg of Alexander Mackenzie’s 1793 travels near Bella Coola

Hälle Flygare of Canmore, Alta. has been documenting, researching the trail for decades

 

The agarikon conk on display at the Sooke Region Museum. A team of fungus and mushroom specialists identified it as a tree fungus after it was mistakenly identified as a rock. (Sooke Region Museum)

CURATOR’S CORNER: Sooke’s identity strongly influenced by fungi

Marvellous Mushrooms exhibit on display at Sooke Region Museum until April 22

  • Feb 3, 2023
The agarikon conk on display at the Sooke Region Museum. A team of fungus and mushroom specialists identified it as a tree fungus after it was mistakenly identified as a rock. (Sooke Region Museum)
Historian David Saint-Pierre shows photos of the salvage operation from the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914 at his home, Thursday, January 12, 2023 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Quebec historian obtains photos of salvage operation for Empress of Ireland shipwreck

David Saint-Pierre found the photos on eBay

Historian David Saint-Pierre shows photos of the salvage operation from the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in 1914 at his home, Thursday, January 12, 2023 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
OPINION SIG

SOOKE HISTORY: All Red Route connected British Empire to all corners of globe

A telegraph line passed through Sooke

  • Jan 20, 2023
OPINION SIG
Ascalon Academy has started swordsmanship classes in Kelowna and Penticton for 2023. (Brittany Webster/Capital News)

VIDEO: En garde! Fight like medieval men with Ascalon Academy in the Okanagan

Black Press reporter Brittany Webster attended a class learning the Italian rapier sword

  • Jan 10, 2023
Ascalon Academy has started swordsmanship classes in Kelowna and Penticton for 2023. (Brittany Webster/Capital News)
Parks Canada underwater archaeologist Jonathan Moore observes a washing basin and an officer’s bedplace on the lower deck of the wreck of the HMS Erebus during a dive in this September 2022 handout photo in the Northwest Passage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Parks Canada, Marc-Andre Bernier

‘Hallowed space’: Divers pull 275 artifacts from 2022 excavation of Franklin ship

The discovery of a leather book cover has researchers particularly excited

Parks Canada underwater archaeologist Jonathan Moore observes a washing basin and an officer’s bedplace on the lower deck of the wreck of the HMS Erebus during a dive in this September 2022 handout photo in the Northwest Passage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Parks Canada, Marc-Andre Bernier
Professors Eske Willerslev and Kurt H. Kjaer expose fresh layers for sampling of sediments at Kap Kobenhavn, Greenland. Scientists have analyzed 2-million-year-old DNA extracted from dirt samples in the area, revealing an ancient ecosystem unlike anything seen on Earth today, including traces of mastodons and horseshoe crabs roaming the Arctic. (Svend Funder via AP)

Oldest DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago

Scientists discovered the oldest known DNA and used it to reveal what…

Professors Eske Willerslev and Kurt H. Kjaer expose fresh layers for sampling of sediments at Kap Kobenhavn, Greenland. Scientists have analyzed 2-million-year-old DNA extracted from dirt samples in the area, revealing an ancient ecosystem unlike anything seen on Earth today, including traces of mastodons and horseshoe crabs roaming the Arctic. (Svend Funder via AP)
A map of Esquimalt in 1913 on display at the Esquimalt Archives. (Courtesy of Tara Zajac)

Esquimalt Archives reopen to public after damaging flood

The archives, which had to be moved after flooding in a previous building, await a permanent home

A map of Esquimalt in 1913 on display at the Esquimalt Archives. (Courtesy of Tara Zajac)
OPINION SIG

Sooke History: Wadams Way paved the way for new street in Sooke

Small farm on Church Road became lifelong home of Peter and Olive Wadams

  • Nov 21, 2022
OPINION SIG
Victor Earl Ordano’s headstone at the Chemainus Cemetery. (Photo by Mike Russell)

No Stone Left Alone links family’s history to Penelakut

Close connection found from a friend in teacher’s research

  • Nov 10, 2022
Victor Earl Ordano’s headstone at the Chemainus Cemetery. (Photo by Mike Russell)
Cassandra Hatton, senior vice president, global head of department, Science & Popular Culture at Sotheby’s, touches the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull excavated from Harding County, South Dakota, in 2020-2021, in New York City on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. When auctioned in December, the auction house expects the dinosaur skull to sell for $15 to $25 million. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

VIDEO: T rex skull unearthed in South Dakota to be auctioned in NY

Skull expected to go for at least $15 million

Cassandra Hatton, senior vice president, global head of department, Science & Popular Culture at Sotheby’s, touches the tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull excavated from Harding County, South Dakota, in 2020-2021, in New York City on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. When auctioned in December, the auction house expects the dinosaur skull to sell for $15 to $25 million. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)
It would be hard to find anyone more true-blue Sooke than Pat Forrest, writes Elida Peers. (Contributed - Sooke Region Museum)

Sooke History: Pat Forrest left lasting mark on Sooke

Life-long fisher contributed to salmon enhancement

  • Nov 7, 2022
It would be hard to find anyone more true-blue Sooke than Pat Forrest, writes Elida Peers. (Contributed - Sooke Region Museum)
The Saanich Pioneer Society’s Log Cabin Museum and Archives, located in Saanichton, will hold the first of its popular Talk and Tea presentation on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. (Black Press Media file photo)

Royal fashion subject of talk at Central Saanich museum

Log Cabin Museum in Saanichton will highlight fashions of Queen Elizabeth II

The Saanich Pioneer Society’s Log Cabin Museum and Archives, located in Saanichton, will hold the first of its popular Talk and Tea presentation on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. (Black Press Media file photo)
Robert Friedman plays a Steinway grand piano once owned by Thomas Edison, with possible bite marks from the inventor visible, on Sept. 28, 2022, in Woodstock, N.Y. Edison, who was hard of hearing, bit into phonographs and pianos to help him better experience music. Friedman purchased the piano last year and hopes to find a home for it where it can be seen by the public. (AP Photo/Michael Hill)

VIDEO: Thomas Edison may have left his mark on piano

Famed inventor left ‘toothy signatures’ on piano

Robert Friedman plays a Steinway grand piano once owned by Thomas Edison, with possible bite marks from the inventor visible, on Sept. 28, 2022, in Woodstock, N.Y. Edison, who was hard of hearing, bit into phonographs and pianos to help him better experience music. Friedman purchased the piano last year and hopes to find a home for it where it can be seen by the public. (AP Photo/Michael Hill)
A new exhibit now open at the Wentworth Villa Architectural Heritage Museum features a scale model of Francis Rattenbury’s Oak Bay mansion. (Wentworth Villa/Facebook)

The Wentworth Villa Architectural Heritage Museum in Victoria reopens with 3 new exhibits

The three exhibits will feature the history of architecture and the architect that made Victoria

A new exhibit now open at the Wentworth Villa Architectural Heritage Museum features a scale model of Francis Rattenbury’s Oak Bay mansion. (Wentworth Villa/Facebook)
A person poses for a photo in front a large replica of National Geographic’s Sept. 2010 magazine cover at the Beyond King Tut Immersive Experience, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, in New York. The exhibition will open to the public on Friday, in commemoration of the the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb on Nov. 4, 1922. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

King Tut and his treasures to come alive for a high-def age in Vancouver

B.C. among the stops planned for immersive digital display of the Egyptian boy king

A person poses for a photo in front a large replica of National Geographic’s Sept. 2010 magazine cover at the Beyond King Tut Immersive Experience, Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, in New York. The exhibition will open to the public on Friday, in commemoration of the the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb on Nov. 4, 1922. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
OPINION SIG

Sooke History: Settlers took the passing of Queen Victoria to heart

Former monarch died in January 1901

  • Oct 7, 2022
OPINION SIG
OPINION SIG

Legends of T’Sou-ke and West Coast First Nations

Elida Peers | Contributed How great it was, almost half a century…

  • Oct 3, 2022
OPINION SIG
Pop-up banner image