Stories, people and the history of the Sunshine Coast often seem scattered, overlooked and faded into the background like a black and white photo in a museum archive.
But, since 1972, writer, editor and founder of Harbour Publishing (HP) Howard White has been on a mission to document those unique, wild and often comical stories, from Sechelt to Desolation Sound, in a journal series called Raincoast Chronicles. Last November, HP celebrated 50 years of telling west coast stories by releasing a lushly illustrated collection called Raincoast Chronicles: Fifth Five.
"Raincoast Chronicles is basically an historical journal that we [wife Mary] started in 1972, because I grew up here on the Sunshine Coast, in the Sechelt area, Pender Harbour area, and also in Powell River part of the time," said White. "As a kid in school, I was always mystified by the fact that [school books] showed children going up and down apartment buildings and elevators, walking on sidewalks and things that were totally foreign to me."
White was raised in a series of logging camps and settlements on the BC coast, including in Powell River. As a kid, White spent much time outdoors in the wilds of the coast, and this experience had a huge influence later in life.
"[I wondered] why aren't there books that talk about kids that live in logging camps, and play in row boats, and fish perch off the float," said White. "So it became sort of a lifelong project of mine to put the kind of life that we live here on the coast, into literature."
Over the years, White said the chronicles have covered historical life on the waterfront: fishing, logging, Indigenous life and all the characters who lived up and down the 156-kilometre stretch of coastline.
"People in British Columbia, the interior as well as on the coast, love their own stories," said White. "We were always trying to find pioneers who were good storytellers and were able to be entertaining as well as informative."
Raincoast Chronicles: Fifth Five gathers volumes 21 through 24 of the series, along with a special essay about Portuguese Joe Silvey by historian Jean Barman.
Raincoast Chronicles 21: West Coast Wrecks and Other Maritime Tales, spans 140 years of BC's maritime history, written by maritime historian Rick James. The chapter begins with a detailed map and list of wrecks, plus all the breakwaters on the coast, including Powell River's Hulks in Townsite.
Writer Grant Lawrence has an excerpt from his book, Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound, included in Raincoast Chronicles 23: Stories and History of the British Columbia Coast.
"It [northern Sunshine Coast] was definitely a kind of a hideout for people who were on the lam," said White. "I think the Copeland Islands are named after a confederate soldier who was hiding out from the law."
Writer Robert Swanson details the life of early twentieth-century loggers in an excerpt from Whistle Punks and Widow-Makers: Tales of the BC Woods, including a character named Eight-Day Wilson. He was known as a fair-weather, eight-day staker, meaning, after eight-days on the job in any camp he would head back to town to go on a tear [get drunk], wrote Swanson.
But not all the stories are about weathered sailors and scallywag loggers, they are also about the beauty of the region.
The Story of Princess Louisa Inlet is an excerpt from The Sunshine Coast: From Gibsons to Powell River, written by White.
"That's one of my favourite places on the coast," said White. "It's sort of like our Yosemite [National Park]; it's got water in it, and it has an interesting history, too."
White said back in the early days, the Sunshine Coast was more connected [than now] because of people travelling on steamships, because there was no road.
"People all lived on the seashore, and the way they communicated was, they had this network of ferries and steamship lines that went back and forth, up and down the coast every week," said White. "So people would ride back and forth and it made the entire Sunshine Coast seem more like one place."
Writer Anne Cameron, who for many years lived on a 30-acre farm in Wildwood, has her poem titled Old Woman, also included in Fifth Five.
"[Raincoast Chronicles] is a book that you can read back to front, or front to back, or from the middle, because it's all separate stories," said White. "There's no real through line, except it's all about the coast."
White said the storytelling in the chronicles is about overlooked but crucial aspects of the past told by some of the most iconic BC and Canadian writers.
Join the Peak’s email list for the top headlines right in your inbox Monday to Friday.
