Murals

In the summer of 1991, special efforts were undertaken to commemorate the rich and valuable contribution of Japanese Canadians to the community of Chemainus. “The Winning Float” is a result of those efforts and pays tribute to citizens who so long ago took such joy in celebrating our history.

In a composite of scenes, Chemainus Hospital, built in 1899, sits majestically at the left of the mural. When built, it was the only hospital between Victoria and Nanaimo. It remains a strong focus in the community even today. Some of the doctors, nurses, staff and patients from over the years are portrayed in the foreground across the expanse of the mural. From left to right are: Nurse Graham, Head Cook Chang, Nurse Johnson, Ruth Heslip (wheelchair), Dr. Herbert Burritt Rogers, and Nurse MacDougal, holding an infant.

On May 16, 1897, Harry Smith and a partner staked the famous Lenora claim, named after Smith’s only daughter. That began the development of Mt. Sicker as a copper mining centre. The price of copper was high, and two other companies opened mines in the area

Around 1898, oxen were the main form of power in logging, where good timber was available. “Large, well-equipped outfits used twenty to twenty-four oxen. These were divided into two teams: one drawing the logs from the bush to the road, while the other and stronger team was employed in skidding the logs to the water. Crude roads were built and small logs embedded skillfully athwart them at 8-foot intervals. These were the skid-roads over which the oxen drew the logs to the sea.” (R.I. Dougan, from Cowichan My Valley).

The central theme of this expansive triptych is that of the mill and its workers anticipating the end of a shift with the sounding of the handsomely crafted steam-operated whistle. Sombre greens and blues mark the dying light of an evening in summer.

A luminescent cedar bark cloak envelops the figure of a Native princess as she contemplates the arrival of the sloop Her Majesty’s Ship Reindeer. The ship’s commander, Captain A.E. Kennedy, was an acquaintance of Isabel and Thomas George Askew, pioneers of Chemainus and mill owners for many years.

Working as a team, fallers cutting a coastal giant fir had to stand at the same elevation. This was made almost impossible by the rough ground and steep slopes of the rainforest. To overcome the difference in heights, and to get above the massive flaring butt of a tree, springboards were used.
Made from yellow cedar planks, and iron tipped, these were wedged into notches in the tree. Each faller would stand upon a springboard and wield his double-edged falling axe with precision.

Fong Yen Lew was known to almost everyone as Hong Hing, the name he gave to his store. Born in the late 1800s, he came to Canada and set up his business in Chemainus around 1915. His enterprise began as a laundry, but he later sold groceries, chickens and second-hand goods. Eventually, he expanded into bootlegging and running a gambling house.

Thundering across a log bridge over the Chemainus River is Locomotive No. 4, an 80-ton Porter 2-6-2T, once the pride of the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Co. Ltd.’s Copper Canyon Railway System. Chemainus was the delivery point of the first, the last, and the longest enduring rail logging operation in BC. After the Chemainus Fire Hall was demolished in2015, the mural was recreated on aluminum composite panels and installed on the TELUS Building on Will Street.

On the left, a crew of stevedores at the Chemainus wharf stands before a fully rigged ship, her sails clewed up for drying. Based on a photograph from 1901, the scene is typical of the busy harbour on any given day. Sailing ships and steamers, as many as five at a time, would be loading or waiting to begin their ‘lay days’. At the centre, a boom man sorts logs in the slippery danger of the log dump. The mill is portrayed here as it was in 1892; it was the third operation to be built on the site. Owned by the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Co. Ltd., it was improved over the years until a fire destroyed it in 1923.

Edward Shige Yoshida was born in Victoria, BC in 1908, and was raised in the quiet mill community of Chemainus.
In 1929, he realized his dream in starting the 2nd Chemainus Boy Scouts, an all-Japanese Canadian troop and the first of its kind in the country. The delicate, porcelain plate quality of his portrait in the mural, The Lone Scout, belies the wit, energy and determination of this slightly built but significant character in the life of Chemainus.

The steam donkey was invented by John Dolbeer in 1882. The one in the mural was built by Murray Bros, in San Francisco and started work for the Victoria Lumber & Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (V L & M) in Chemainus in 1885. The painting is based on a photograph from 1902.