TIDELINES

 

Spring 2001

 

HISTORY PROJECT

The Finn Slough community began a history project in May 2000. Finn Slough residents (Arlene Hewitt, Kevin Craig, & David Dorrington) interviewed Gus Jacobson who is a 4th generation Finnish fisher whose family settled the community of Finn Slough. Gus gave the oral history of each building at Finn Slough (float houses, scow houses, and working net sheds).

This project has grown to include the history of all the fishers who lived and worked at Finn Slough and the Finnish community who homesteaded on Finn Road from the mid 1890’s.

archive photo of John Maikson c1900

collection Bill Bettison

 

Individual and family stories are important to record but are difficult to find as senior members of the Finnish community pass away.  Even small clues can give us a lead to important historical information. For example, the story of John Maikson has proved to be extremely interesting and full of great leads to more stories. We are currently in touch with his descendents in the USA.

  FSH & W Society would like to thank Inez  Huovinen, Gus Jacobson, Eve Wagner, Edwin Huovinen, Verna and Bob Stoltz, Alvin Jacobson, Ron Jacobson., and Bill Bettison.

 

 

LEAVING FINN SLOUGH

by  Simon Casey

Margaret has asked us for a short contribution to the newsletter to go under the title "Leaving Finn Slough."  This is a generous way of putting it--"Leaving"--because it signals an on-going process rather than a completed and final act: we are leaving; we haven't exactly left, not yet, anyhow.  "Leaving" in fact suggests that although the three of us are now living over here-in a town-house in Richmond, with its perfectly trimmed hedges, and its distant neighbours, and its warring strata council-there's still something of us left over there, with you, by the Fraser. That's how we like to think about this.

 

Una, fingerpainting  photo by D. Dorrington

But allow us to account for  what we have left behind when we left Finn Slough.  What follows will no doubt sound maudlin and a little predictable, but it's no less true for all of that.  And we'll give you a list, to avoid the risk of coming off like crappy poets.  Here's what we have left behind us:

 

•  THE ANGLES OF THE SUN

•  THE WILD LIFE

•  The tides

•  Insects

•  Birdsong

•  The wind in the cotton woods

•  The smell of cedar

•  The river

•  Fresh earth

•  Community

 

We feel a little further away from Finn Slough every time we fiddle with the thermostat; and even flush toilets seem to carry a certain corruption (but that's an Islander's point of view). One other thing we've left behind is this:  the voice of Stephen Smith no longer has the boom of malign authority for us: it now has the din of a village idiot who's crying out for help after falling down a well.  In at least this one  way -- we hope -- distance has brought the blessing of a truth.

 

 

 TOMATO PASTE

(Wait until the tomato season and I’ll ketchup with you there.)

photo by David Dorrington

Shortly past midnight on a Thursday evening in January, the corner of 4 Road and Dyke Road caught another one! Lost truckers sometimes lose their load at our corner. This time, it was tomatoes from Florida. Residents got a few free ones and one resident got a job for the afternoon to repack onto another truck.

French fries, anyone?

 

 

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

 

  1. Sign our petition to save Finn Slough. Need a copy? Phone/Fax/E-mail us.
  2. Get friends/neighbours/co-workers to sign our petition.
  3. Do you have photos of Finn Slough before 1950? We would love to have a copy for our archives!

 

HOW CAN YOU REACH US?

FINN SLOUGH HERITAGE & WETLAND SOCIETY

9480 Dyke Road

Richmond, BC

V7A 2L5

Email: tidetables@hotmail.com

Web:  www.angelfire.com/bc/finnslough

Phone:  604-878-FINN (3466)