Wednesday, March 21, 2012
THE LAKE COWICHAN GAZETTE
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON 2012/2013 BUDGET AND SCHOOL CALENDAR
www.lakecowichangazette.com
Kissinger Lake: the history of Camp 3
You are invited to give your advice and comments to the Board of Education about the 2012/2013 Budget and School Calendar at a Public Meeting on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 6:30 pm at Quamichan Middle School Multi-Purpose Room.
Cowichan Lake
Invitation Gerards’s
Kissinger Lake
Wedding Gallery & School for Artisitc Cake Doctorating
Grand Opening April 1, 2012 ~ 2pm - 4pm 102-205 South Shore Road, Lake Cowichan
Refreshments & Demonstrations *Special introductory offer, on opening day, for the ¿rst course
Photos Kaatza Station Museum Archives Today the Kissinger Lake area is used by campers and boaters and other outdoor enthusiasts unlike the days when the same area was a logging camp and community. Seen on the left is the railway bed that winds its way along the lake shore to it’s destination at Kissinger where it picked up then transported logs out of the valley. With no road into the area until 1956, the logging community was an isolated place for many years. Today one can drive around the entire lake.
Hidden not far from here lies the small but beautiful Kissinger Lake. Today the lake, which is situated at the west end of Cowichan Lake, is a magnet for many By Rolli Gunderson who like camping, canoeing, boating (electric motors only), swimming, exploring, biking, and hiking. Run by TimberWest, the Kissinger campsite is easily accessible from either side of the lake, unlike the early days when the area was a remote logging camp. During the 1920s and ’30s Island Lumber Company leased holdings from Cowichan Lumber Company. John D. Kissinger was president at the time, prompting the camp to be named Kissinger. According to the 2005 book, Caycuse Memories, the Canadian National Railway laid steel to Kissinger in 1928 thus enabling 5 million feet of timber a month to be shipped out. Island Logging then constructed a logging railway camp at Kissinger, complete with the most modern machinery then available. By 1929 there were close to 200 loggers working at the camp, which temporarily closed in 1931 (during the Depression). In 1934, Kissinger, by then called Camp 3, re-opened and was taken over by Industrial
Pages of History
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exico
Greetings from Cancun, M
Frank & Iris Hornbrook from lake Cowichan took their hometown newspaper with them on holidays this year. They are pictured here in Cancun, Mexico. Just by booking their trip with Sherri at whittomes travel, they are now eligible to win $500.00 off the next trip they book at Whittomes Travel. AROU ND
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RLD WO HE
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Lumber Mills Co. (ITM) who also operated the ITM lumber mill at Youbou. In 1937, Camp 3 (still referred to as Kissinger by locals) had brought in a school to accommodate the children of the 20 families that lived in camp. Within the next few years, a dozen or so Àoat houses were brought to the head of Cowichan Lake. These houses were for additional employees and their families, bringing the total population to 47 families plus the many Chinese employees who lived in the company owned bunkhouses. Rail service to Kissinger stopped in the mid 1940s with the rails then being leased to ITM and later British Columbia Forest Products (BCFP) who took over the operation about 1946. Over the following years Camp 3 grew in size and population — building a community hall, new school and several new modern bunkhouses. Sports teams, a Junior Forest Warden group, a ¿rst aid team and other social groups were formed. Later a mobile library stopped at Kissinger twice a week, church services were held in the old school, and the Nitinat Trap and Gun Club was formed. A road to Caycuse was opened in 1956 two years prior to the permanent closure of Camp 3. In 1985, the camp was razed leaving barely a sign that the logging camp/ community had ever existed. Research: Kissinger article, Caycuse Memories, and Kissinger Lake Campsite website.