Talk:Harewood, British Columbia
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[edit] Harewood a Ghost Town
Hi,
Interesting article except I need some clarification. Harewood, I believe, is a district (and always was) attached or within the city limits of Nanaimo. The name is commonly used to describe a district located approxiamtely south of Comox/Bowen road to 10th Avenue (in Nanaimo). It at one time may have been a separate corporate entity from Nanaimo but today is part of the city. I'm not so sure it is a "ghost town".
Last that I saw, is also very much still in existence and occupied by residents.
(the lake and plains that you decribed is/are correct).
Cheers, Wikipedia_V.I. 09:33, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
- Interjecting here because it's to your post I'm responding, albeit from last July it seems. Ghost towns are not just completely empty towns; Yale is a ghost town but still has a few hundred residents, likewise Bralorne or Wells or Hedley, and there's places like Sandon or Ocean Falls that maybe have a few dozen. They're both ghost towns and unincorporated settlements; or in some cases such as Harewood (part of Nanaimo now, right? Like Wellington, also technically a ghost town though also a Nanaimo neighbourhood) they're part of other incorporations, or like Greenwood they may still be an incorporation, or like Lillooet have acquired it since the boomtime; next-to-dead qualifies, as it were. See below about this also havin been a company town (I think?)Skookum1 23:37, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
Hello there,
Up until the seventies the area commonly know as Harewood was a separate municipality known as the Harewood Improvement District. An improvement district is a municipality under the direct administration of the province.[1] Harewood, along with other improvement districts (including Northfield) amalgamated with the City of Nanaimo in the seventies.
Indeed, it's no ghost town, a visit to the Harewood Bingo Hall will prove that! The author of this article was saying that there was once a settlement known as Harewood that served the Harewood mine but it is no more.
Cheers,
--Nathaniel Christopher 22:45, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
http://www.canadianencyclopedia.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0003970
Hey Nathaniel, Nice picture of the Harewood Mall! Winter time at that!
I have hiked up by the old Harewood Mine & Harewood Lake reservoir near the BC Hydro power lines. I am curious to know where in old mine town of Harewood was originally located. 90+ years of Westcoast weather erases pretty much everything. Is it at this co-ordinate? 49°08′N °123′57
Much appreciated, Wikipedia_V.I. 16:49, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
Hey V.I.,
Thanks for your comments! I figured the article needed something to spice it up... there's a video of Harewood somewhere on my website.
Anyways, did you actually hike into the old mine? What was that like?
I actually grew up very close to the old Harewood mine site... most of the stuff I know about it comes from family and old teachers who would go on about the old farms that used to be on the Harewood plain. As far as the old Harewood mining village is concerned, I believe that you are correct - it was at 49°08′N °123′57 (Western Acres Road). According to the book "Boss Whistle" by Lynne Bowen, Harewood Mine was only active for brief periods in 1876, 1892, 1902 and then for a longer period from 1917 until 1923 when it was finally abandoned. I don't think there was a townsite as such. It was probably more like a small group of houses and buildings to serve the mines. I can't seem to find any evidence of stores, post-offices, churches and the like. All of that stuff was located in the Five Acres area. But I could be wrong! There are so many interesting surprises with regards to Nanaimo's history!
Anyways, here's an interesting quote from that book about Harewood mine:
"Because its workings were above sea level it did not flood. Ironically this made it more dangerous. It became a place for intrepid young adventurerrs to explore. In 1968 two of them sat dat down to rest on the floor of the tunnel; low-lying carbon monoxide gas probably overcame them and they were found ten years later by yet another group of exploring youngersters. Veterans of the mine shook their heads in dismay when they heard this story."
Nathaniel,
So Western Acres is the spot? I had hiked by the one entrance (near the Harewood Mines road), I believe a second entrance was back (south) a bit further. The entrances have been sealed up. I believe the Provincial Gov. or someone ordered all the old mine entrances seal back in the late 1980's in part response to kids wandering in them and getting lost or over come by gas. "Boss Whistle" by Lynne Bowen - about 4 years ago I had the privilege of touring through the Nanaimo area with Lynne Bowen as she re-cant the history of the old mine sites and the stories related to them.
I also remember the interesting thing about the Harewood Mine in particular was the unique tram system for delivering the coal down to the dock (the buckets on the tram carried about 200 lb of coal).
You actually have given me a bit more information about the Harewood Mine that I did not know. (i.e. where the town site was located).
All very interesting - thanks. Wikipedia_V.I. 22:26, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Hey again,
Again, I am not sure there was much of a townsite up there. I am pretty sure that people working at the mine used the ammenities (ie. stores etc.) available in the nearby Five Acres district (Harewood). If you walk around Harewood you'll find some very strange old stores such as "Ye Olde Corner Store" and then there are a few that used to be on fourth. I imagine that those places constituted the "town" of Harewood. There were many mines in the area, including the Wakesiah and Jinglepot mines and present-day Harewood was a central location where many of the miners lived. I'll look into this the next time I'm in Nanaimo! I know my great-grandfather used to build the wooden trestles that held up the mines in Harewood and Extension and my other great-grandfathers were miners.
I took the mine bus tour this year... unfortuantely it wasn't given by Lynne Bowen, but some other guy who regarded my best friend and I with suspicion becuase we were the only two people in the tour under the age of sixty-five.
Hmm...
Anyways, I'm currently working on a film about Nanaimo's coal mining history in relation to my own life story, as a young person who grew up over the old coal mining sites. I believe that there are many interesting parallels between a life in the foster care system and a life in the mines. I hope to explore this.
Anyways, I might be coming home sometime this month and I was wondering exactly where the old mine enstrance is... I'm not going into it, I just think that seeing it might inspire me somehow. What cross-streets is it near? Do you have Google Earth?
Perhaps we should expand the article with information about the old mine!
You can email me at XmasMOURN@hotmail.com if you like.
Thanks again!
-Nathaniel --24.80.110.173 00:17, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Also a Company town
This article in its current state seems obviously written by someone who's writing only from the modern context; Harewood has IIRC an important forestry and labour history role and yes, is a ghost town; it was also AFAIK a company town, that is to say, company-run like Ocean Falls or Bralorne or Fraser Mills, British Columbia (formerly a village with the Crown Zellerbach CEO as mayor, with 50 voters, all company staff; now part of Coquitlam). Hopefully other BC editors, esp. those from the Island will notice this edit and the problems with the article and be able to address it; I know I won't have time.Skookum1 23:33, 29 March 2007 (UTC)
