Taking the Union Steamship Lady Cynthia from Vancouver to Squamish in ca...

Lady Cynthia was a steel-hulled passenger ship converted from a minesweeper, (formerly HMS Barnstaple), which served in the coastal waters of British Columbia from 1925 to 1957. Lady Cynthia was a sistership to Lady Cecilia, also a converted minesweeper. The ship was generally referred to as the Cynthia while in service.



My father worked in Bralorne from 1953 to 1954. Before he had a car his trips to Vancouver went as follows - bus from Bralorne to Seton Portage, train from there to Squamish and then a ship to Vancouver. The trip took him more than 12 hours. 



When the PGE was planned the line was supposed to run from North Vancouver to Squamish but the construction of the line bankrupt the company and the government took over. For 40 years the BC government did very little with the PGE. WAC Bennett finally built the line between Squamish and North Van on Aguust 1 1956. A couple years later the Squamish highway was built.



With the construction of the railway and highway one of the major destinations of the Union Steamship company was gone.



Wikipedia link about the Lady Cynthia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Cy...



Original source footage

https://youtu.be/l0FpYSC4rWE

1958 - the record year for Forest Fires in BC - 835,850 ha or over 2,00...

1958 was the worst year ever for area burned in BC Wildfires at 835,850 hectares. This is 200,000 hectares more than the second worst in the early 20s and 465,000 ha more than any year since 1958.

The largest fire in 1958 was the Kech Fire in North Central BC, the largest ever recorded in BC at a since of 226,000 ha, though it was left to burn out by itself.

Port Hardy ca 1920s