Ocean Falls Museum - Personal Recollections

David Leverton - Resident ('52-'72)

I lived in Ocean Falls from 1952-1972; age 2 - 22, though for the last 4 years of that time I was there during the summer only, being away at university the rest of the year.

I remember my brother came home early from the basketball game. Some time later we heard the slide coming down the mountain ... myself, my brother & mother rushed to the window not knowing what to look for .... for a moment there was nothing then I saw it .... One duplex seemed to be lifted and gently carried down the to the chuck ... another duplex seemed to explode from within .... smashed to bits.
Later my mother told me her bridge club was to have met at Mrs. Taylor's that night, but Mrs. Taylor worked for The Bay and had to work that night doing inventory so the meeting was canceled. The Taylors lived in one of the duplexes that was hit and Mr. Taylor died in the slide.

Mr. Buchanan's photo shop was mentioned ... I often wondered if kept any of negatives of the pictures he took ... or did he lose the bulk of them in the slide? Perhaps someone knows; would be interesting to browse through them if they are around.

Yes, Mike and I were about the same age, I think when he first arrived he went to the Catholic school - I seem to remember him telling me about his trials with Mr. Lamb. Mike probably joined us at CHS in grade 6 or thereabouts.

I remember, before Mike & I became good friends (must have been 11 or 12 at the time), that we got into a terrible argument & we agreed to meet behind the church after supper to fight it out. So at the appointed time I waited behind the United Church & he never showed up -- turns out he was waiting behind the Catholic Church & I never showed up. Now, these churches were side by side (God's Holy Acre we called it) so how we missed each other I know not. Perhaps God, in his infinite wisdom, didn't approve of little boys fighting on church grounds so he arranged it that way ;). In any case, we both set out to do battle with the enemy & came away unscathed - & later became good friends.

The only things I heard about how the school fire started are 'don't know' and 'arson by person or persons unknown'.

I was away at university and due to the exam schedule missed the last boat before Christmas from Vancouver. So, I flew to Prince Rupert (half fare student rate I believe), stayed over night at the Goss's, and came south on the boat the next day.
As the boat rounded the point I was watching the town come into view identifying the various buildings & homes & thinking that the school would be visible next. What came next was a wisp of smoke & no school. When I got ashore I heard all about it -- my brother had taken a photo of the school in full blaze, which I think I have somewhere.

An eerie spectacle greeted me when I inspected the remains of the fire. No one died in the blaze, but death lurked near by - something was gone that could not be replaced. 'Bleak' and 'desolate' do not quite capture the scene. I was shocked and awed at the totality of the destruction. Great iron beams which a short time earlier had proudly held the building in place now lay pathetically contorted and useless on the ground.

Harold C, were you in town at that time? Your dad's house was right beside the school, so I am sure that would be another exciting evening for you.

You mentioned playing for the Charmers -- do you remember the 'Rupert trip? and ice skating - on the school grounds, the tennis court, Link Lake or more often Lost Lake? What a trek that was to Lost Lake, through town, past the lake, across the ball park, then through the forest and finally to Lost Lake. Always seemed to have energy after that to skate for a couple of hours, then take time out by the a fire to drink hot chocolate. All good fun.

Photocopied the directory for 1918 (I'm on a roll here with directories) from Wrigley's British Columbia Directory -- it says:
Ocean Falls, a post office, pulp and paper mills, situated on Dean Channel and served by the C.P.R., G.T.P. and Union S.S. Co's boats between Vancouver and Prince Rupert. The plant of the Pacific Mills, Limited, has an output of 75 tons of newsprint paper daily, and with the second unit being added a total of nearly 200 tons per day, constituting one of the largest paper mills in the Dominion. There are some 400 men employed in the mill and in the woods. Seems to me Bob, you, Daryl White (Dar), myself and a few others met the boat most Thursdays & Sundays to pick up the Vancouver Sun for delivery about town. Frank Rowe was the agent at that time. Remember that narrow paper shack & sorting three days of papers for 40 - 50 customers? Remember the papers being bundled with copper wire? Ever deliver papers in the rain?
The other thing I remember about Bob Langdale is that when I tackled him once playing football I ended up with a bone separation in my wrist.

The fire that killed 8 people was the Balsam Apartment fire in 1950. This Willows was later built over the same place as where the Balsam apartments were. I was reading about this fire in the Vancouver Sun recently - 46 survived; 36 adults and 10 children. One of the children who survived was Pat Monteith.
The newspaper article described the Balsam apartments as a 25 year old structure.

The old tennis court - to me this was that area of bush, rock & stumps to the east of the gym. I never saw the tennis court there, but had heard that it burnt down. The first tennis court I remember was the one down the street from the theater. I didn't play tennis there, but remember skating there in the winter. That court was taken down when the Cypress apartments were built & new tennis courts were built at the ball park. Now if you will look at your 1928 map of OF you can see tennis courts marked behind the hotel and in the area of the gully & where #5 was built. The contract to build #5 was awarded in 1940 & the tennis courts on the hill near the school were built to replace the tennis courts by the gully. Was there another tennis court somewhere in between when the one on the hill near the school burned & when the one near the theater was built?

Certainly do remember delivering 6 days of papers in one day because they forgot to load the papers on the boat from the previous time. Remember how they used to bundle the papers in packets held by copper wire? You could hardly call yourself a paper boy if you needed to use wire cutters to get the papers out :).

Learned my first lesson in business doing that job - If you want to collect money ask on pay day. The monthly subscription was only $2.00 so I thought people would always have a couple of bucks to pay their bill -- wrong. Get them on pay day before they get a chance to invest it in the pub or Legion.

I got the following from "The Management Report", #161 March 6, 1964.
Do you remember this publication? It was a one page newsletter put out by CZ at Ocean Falls with information about what was happening in the mill and town. They started printing a history of the town in 1964 - my mother kept all of the issues relating to the town history. Anyhow, the relevant quote is:
" Other residents, Jack and Marion Black, nephew and niece of Lester W. David and Frank and Caro Audreae nephew and niece of one of the largest holders of company stock in London, England were the first on record to climb the mountain at the north of the town. They gave it the name Caro Marion."
This information is also in "Rain People", except the name Audreae is given as Audres.