Lower Mainland

Nora D.S. Robins is co-ordinator of Internal Collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

Thomas W. Paterson has written extensively on the local history of British Columbia. He is the editor of The History of the Canadian West and the author of British Columbia, the Frontier Years (Langley, B.C.: Stagecoach, 1979), Lost Bonanzas of Western Canada (Langley, B.C.: Sunfire, 1980), and Outlaws of the Canadian Frontier (Langley, B.C.: Stagecoach Press, 1974).

Paterson also authored The Encyclopedia of Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of British Columbia (Langley, B.C.: Stagecoach Press, 1979-84). This three-volume encyclopedia was the result of a 3,000-mile journey throughout southern British Columbia, during which the author visited almost 100 historic sites. Lower Mainland isan augmented version of the first volume of the Encyclopedia.

Britannia, Flushing, Clayburn, Tipolla City, and Derby are but five of the twenty “ghost towns” mentioned in this digest-sized book. These trading posts, pioneer towns, and mining camps at one time played a modest part in British Columbia’s development but are now lost to fire, flood, vandalism, or neglect. The origin, history, and demise of each town are told. The stories are well researched and make good use of eyewitness accounts and contemporary documents. The author knows how to tell a story, and the book is full of interesting tidbits and anecdotes. It benefits from old photographs and eight maps but suffers from a lack of footnotes, bibliography, and index (a good bibliography can be found in the Encyclopedia).

The three-volume Encyclopedia is a better purchase if one wants a complete picture of British Columbia’s ghost towns. However, Lower Mainland, with its digest format, makes an ideal companion for the traveller, armchair or otherwise.