June 28th

June 28^th Penny wants to go to Ocean Falls so we plot the course and try a slow cruise on this journey. The GIRLS as I call them (Ford Lehman diesels) are not happy going this slow and I cannot find a sweet spot at low RPMs. As we slow down the starboard engine does not like the slow bell and is now complaining. I will have to look at it later.

BC Ferry fully loaded coming out of Ocean Falls

On our way in on Cousins Inlet (which is a long and deep) at the end you make an abrupt right turn, you are STRUCK WITH THE SURPRISE OF IT! Wow, there is Ocean Falls, quite a vision with a sparkling white waterfall that breaks over the top of a dam and evaporates from your view.

 

 

Coming here is an expedition that we have done before, but WE ARE STILL JUST AMAZED at the discovery of history crumbling before our eyes, an event that is happening in our time. For you history buffs this is an opportunity to witness a town disintegrating.  It is humbling and sobering to realize the humility of it. Ocean Fall is a ghost town. It is a town that was killed in 1973 when the Crown Zellerbach mill, the second largest on the coast, closed its doors.  There were over 5,000 residents at the time.  The Province of BC tried to keep it running until 1980.  The town perished but since then, with only a few houses left and many old derelict hotels, courthouses and equipment, others have moved in and made it a quiet sanctuary.  A BC ferry still comes and the town dock is full of yachters in the summer coming for the same reason as us, so the town refuses to die.

 

We arrive at the Ocean Falls government dock and it is blowing twenty bear and I will have to tie broadside to the dock with the wind pushing us off. There are a lot of yachts moored here and the crews all come out to help. Penny does a great job of casting the lines out to those on dock. Those on the dock are experienced at getting a boat in a strong wind and snub the lines down right away. I seem to be losing it as OA won’t come in the 6 feet to the dock. We are tied but strung out like a kite from the dock. I finely get a brain and us the engines in a forward and reverse gear to get us in. We are snug alongside the dock.

There are introductions all-around. Most every boat here has its origin in the US of A. Their yacht club is traveling together and they are enjoying a rendezvous at Ocean Falls for Canada Day, COOL!

Accomodation for Workers

David & Chevy at the Dam

Last Falls Slide Just Above the Marina

On the Dock at Ocean Falls

Old Downtown

The Shack for Happy Hour

Canada Day

 

THERE WILL NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, BE an OCEAN FALLS, BUTEDALE, NAMU and a host of others that are now lost forever. They were dreams in a time of giants and captains of industry, the finest crafts man, loads of talent and the best of timber that was harvested from the tallest of monarch timber that the world will never see again. (Well not in our lifetime.) Perhaps after a thousand years we will be blessed with the opportunity to walk among the kings of the forest again. We are not dyed in the wool tree huggers but we would like to preserve the last and the best so our grandchildren’s and great grandchildren into infinity will have the opportunity to enjoy what we have in our lifetime.