Second Day Ocean Falls, part 1

Today I learned a lot more history around Ocean Falls and Martin Valley while walking around and talking with a couple of the locals. I’m also over my allowance of 25 photos per blog footprint, so I’ll be uploading two footprints this evening. I walked over 6 miles today, starting this morning (after breakfast) with walking to Martin Valley. This included some time walking through the Ocean Falls Cemetery, which is located in Martin Valley. Bill and Mike arrived here in Ocean Falls around 11am. At the time, I was getting a tour of the Ocean Falls Marine Ways building and museum. After that I returned to my boat to eat lunch. Then walked back up towards the Ocean Falls Dam to meet up with Bill and Mike, who had hiked a little farther past the dam to Link Lake. Coming back through town, Mike and I went farther inside the Cypress Apartments and Hotel. Both these buildings are deteriorating and falling apart. Les, who owns and lives in the Marine Ways building with his wife, told me that the other apartments that look like they were knocked down, the Garden Apartments, are deteriorating like that from the weather and environment after folks have scavenged through them. He mentioned that from folks coming in and shooting video to publish, has caused vagrants to come in the past, and scavenge the buildings. He said that when he moved here in the late 90’s, the apartments were still nice enough to rent out. I will be jumping around some with this blog, as I remember the day. Eva is the “harbour master” for the Ocean Falls Municipal dock. She was not feeling well last night, so did not come to collect the dock fee. She was not here yet by around 9 this morning, so I headed out for my walk to Martin Valley. She came while I was on my walk, but then stopped when driving by me on her way back to Martin Valley. We talked a bit and she said she’d be back this evening between 4p and 5p to collect the dock fee. I asked her about anything to see in Martin Valley and she suggested the cemetery. I actually find cemetery’s interesting as they too can give a little look into the area’s past. While at the cemetery I found a lot of Japanese baby graves. Some that died the day of birth, and some that barely made it to two years old. I met another local, Josh, who is renting in Martin Valley and looking for a place to buy here. He shared that Martin Valley use to be a farm, and in the 50’s started selling land cheap, and spillover from the company town of Ocean Falls started buying that property that provided private ownership. Also, if you can spot the launch ramp in my earlier blog photos from yesterday, or in the photo today looking out on the water, there was a large Japanese cemetery under that ramp pavement. In the earlier days when the ramp was needed, that cemetery was just paved over. Eva was not feeling well again this evening, so a gentleman, Rob, came to collect the dock fee. He used to live and work here when the paper and pulp mill was running. He shared quite a bit of information about life here. How quite a few of the kids would use the pool after school. If I didn’t mention it yesterday, several of the kids placed in Olympic swimming. The pool is now filled in with dirt and gravel, and hidden in a field behind bushes. Rob can remember living in the Cypress apartments and how nice they were in their day. One thing I’ve put together on my own, along with some information received earlier when we had the cannery tour back in the Vancouver area, is a lot of the labor in early years was Japanese. And anyone else that was willing to work for cheap. There was a lot of segregation also. Later this morning, Les gave me a tour of the Marine Ways building and museum. He shared the history of the building, which use to be the Mill company shop, how he came to own it, and some personal stories about a well known local, “Nearly Normal Norman”. Norman was an eccentric caretaker and self-appointed museum curator well-known among boaters and travelers for his warm hospitality and extensive collection of abandoned town artifacts. It was he who put together the museum in Ocean Falls. I have not read the book, but several have recommended, “Rain People, the Story of Ocean Falls”, by Bruce Ramsey. Finally, the BC Ferry, Northern Sea Wolf, that makes a weekly run here, came in this evening. The rest of the week, there is water taxi service from Bella Bella and Shearwater.Read more