cranton
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Post by cranton on Nov 15, 2011 20:52:18 GMT -8
I'm hoping someone here can fill in a nagging void in my memory. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me about a former BC Ferries route going up the north end of Vancouver Island and which got cancelled, I'm thinking around about 1998, give or take a few years. I'm fairly certain I even took two trips on this route but none of the details have stuck. Does anyone remember what the route was called, where it ran between and what ship was on the route. All these missing little details have been nagging at me for the last year so I'm hoping someone at this site with a much better memory can put me out of my misery.  thanks Chris |
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Post by lmtengs on Nov 15, 2011 21:04:48 GMT -8
You might be thinking of any routes out of the Kelsey Bay terminal. They closed it down in the '70s though when the Island Highway was cut through to Port Hardy. So not in the '90s, but it's all I can think of.
BCF also used to stop at Namu on their Discovery Coast trips, but no longer, as of around the time period you're wondering about.
They also used to do trips from Tsawwassen to Port Hardy (Kelsey Bay before that) when the ships were repositioning from being in refit to their normal season, or the other way around at the end of the season. They haven't done that for many years now, but sometime around the Millennium might have been when they ended that.
Any help?
The ships that you might have ridden could be the Queen of the North, Queen of Prince Rupert, Queen of Chilliwack, Nimpkish, maybe Nicola or Albert J Savoie, maybe Tachek or Tenaka or Quadra Queen II, and maybe North Island Princess (formerly Island Princess)
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Post by Low Light Mike on Nov 15, 2011 21:29:31 GMT -8
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me about a former BC Ferries route going up the north end of Vancouver Island and which got cancelled, Hi Chris: I think the key clue is for us to know what you mean by "going up the north end of Vancouver Island". Do you mean from say mid-island to north-island? - or do you mean from the northern tip of the island to points north beyond Vancouver Island? |
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cranton
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Post by cranton on Nov 15, 2011 21:35:23 GMT -8
No the route had to have lasted past the 70's since I didn't arrive on the coast until 79. This was a regular route because the one other memory I have is that it had its own fold out brochure that used to be available for each route and they were available on the tourist info board on board each ferry. Sorry, I know all this is pretty vague. As I recall there was quite a fuss when they announced that the route would be abandoned.
cheers
Chris
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cranton
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Post by cranton on Nov 15, 2011 21:44:32 GMT -8
I'm thinking that the route was mid island to north island rather than from Port Hardy to points further north.
Here's a bit more vagueness. Did any route have a stop midway over on the mainland side. The reason I'm thinking I had a few trips on this route was to go up to a MacMillan Bloedel logging operation that was over on the mainland side further north then Powell River. This would have been in the early 80's when I worked for MB in Nanaimo. Since then I've made probably as many as 100 trips from Little River over to Powell River and back over the years so it's definately not that route.
cheers
Chris
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Nov 15, 2011 21:46:16 GMT -8
There have been no routes abandoned since the Kelsey Bay - Beaver Cove connection was replaced by the new highway. You're probably refering (second post above) to the Discovery Coast route, which is still very much in operation.
On a related note... does anyone know if there is any remnant of the BC Ferries terminal at Beaver Cove?
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Post by Balfour on Nov 15, 2011 21:47:38 GMT -8
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Post by lmtengs on Nov 15, 2011 22:51:14 GMT -8
There have been no routes abandoned since the Kelsey Bay - Beaver Cove connection was replaced by the new highway. You're probably refering (second post above) to the Discovery Coast route, which is still very much in operation. On a related note... does anyone know if there is any remnant of the BC Ferries terminal at Beaver Cove? I never noticed anything outstandingly ferryish when I drove through there in 2009, but of course I didn't pay very close attention. Nothing popped out in my mind. |
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Post by WettCoast on Nov 15, 2011 23:13:13 GMT -8
Chris, the (North) Island Princess does seem to fit in as your mystery ferry except that it does not meet your timeline. It did operate to points on northern Vancouver Island and adjacent islands (Alert Bay, Sointula) from Kelsey Bay (about one hour north of Campbell River) up until 1979. Its service was cancelled when the Island Highway was extended through to Port Hardy. I am sure that many people were unhappy when the service was discontinued. Please see this thread for more on this vessel including a schedule for the sevice in the 1970's.... Another possibility for your mystery ferry could be the Queen of Chilliwack's 'Discovery Coast' service. This only operates in the summer months, and was threatened with cancellation soon after Gordon Campbell started changing things to 'improve' ferry service. Another possibility is the ferries to Prince Rupert used to sail all the way south to Tsawwassen once per week during the fall, winter and spring. There were stops en route at Kelsey Bay (Port Hardy after 1979), Bella Bella & Ocean Falls. This was ended in about 1982 when tough economic times prompted BC Ferries to go with just one vessel for off season service to the North Coast. One vessel had to serve both Haida Gwaii & the Inside Passage route. I do recall that there were some upset users when service from Port Hardy to Tsawwassen was ended. |
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Nov 16, 2011 13:36:16 GMT -8
The NIP route began in Kelsey Bay and went to Beaver Cove, and then went north to Sonitula and Alert Bay on alternate days I believe. The Kelsey Bay departure was a 4 PM, landing at Beaver Cove around 8 PM or so. The Department of Highways had ferry service from Port McNeil to Sonitula and Alert Bay to co-incide with the Kelsey Bay / Beaver Cove route. Old Schedule Guy here. Up until 1973 the Island Princess did one return run per day, Sointula-Alert Bay-Beaver Cove-Kelsey Bay. On Fridays it did an extra run between Beaver Cove and Kelsey Bay, not arriving back in Sointula until 5:00am Saturday morning. As of '74 the Island Princess did two return trips a day between Beaver Cove and Kelsey Bay. The Nimpkish served Alert Bay and Sointula; I'm not sure if it was out of Beaver Cove or Port MacNeill in it's first year, but it was from Port MacNeill from '75 on. |
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Post by lmtengs on Nov 17, 2011 16:16:43 GMT -8
Plus M and B still had their Kelsey Bay Division log dump and camp which was right up next to the end of the road. I thought MacBlo was still operating out of Kelsey Bay. Maybe I'm wrong? |
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cranton
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Post by cranton on Nov 18, 2011 1:41:30 GMT -8
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Post by WettCoast on Nov 24, 2011 12:56:57 GMT -8
There was also Eurocan at Port Alice, but they had just the mill up there, and not a large forest cut. Canfor ran the Nimpkish Valley activity and was the operator of the only logging railway on The Island, which is still being used, although not as much as before. A couple of corrections here Paul. Eurocan, a division of West Fraser, never operated the pulp mill at Port Alice. That was, IIRC, 'Rayonier' and successors. Eurocan, up until January of 2010, operated a pulp mill in Kitimat, on BC's North Coast. The closure of that mill led to a loss of 1000 direct and 'spin-off' jobs in the Terrace & Kitimat area. Today, dozens of logging trucks are moving hundreds of raw logs daily to tide water in Kitimat & Prince Rupert. These logs are exported completely unprocessed out of the country, and with the full blessing of our 'conservative' leaders in Victoria & Ottawa. The last remaining logging railway on Vancouver Island in the Nimpkish valley was alive and well when I last took a close look last spring. Western Forest Products has recently done significant upgrades on this rail line, including the installation of thousands of steel cross ties (aka sleepers). It looks to me that they are committed to this rail operation for the foreseeable future.  Englewood Logging Railway (formerly Canfor) north of Woss, Northern Vancouver Island - 17 March 2011 photo © JST & hosted on the JST Flickr photo site |
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with the forest operations having been bought by Weyerhauser. There may have been some intermediary companies since Weyerhauser sold out but I'm afraid I haven't kept track since I left MB. At the moment the operations are part of Western Forest Products although it sounds like Kelsey Bay may only have resumed operations last year.