Pat van Adrichem and David Gray sharing artifacts from Tod Inlet. David R. Gray photograph.
The information presented in this book is based on collections of materials in archives in Vancouver, Victoria and Ottawa, and on interviews with people in Victoria and Saanich who remember life at Tod Inlet. Many of my contacts have now passed on. I would particularly like to acknowledge Norman Parsell, who shared his stories with me in a delightful exchange of correspondence in the 1970s and 1980s. Pat van Adrichem and Dem Carrier were particularly helpful, providing information, photographs and artifacts, and spending time at Tod Inlet with me, pointing out locations of various features. Others who shared both information and enthusiasm were Mike Rice, Jim Gilbert, Claude Sluggett, Mary Youlden, Joyce Jacobsen, Lorna Pugh and Joyce Marshall. Dr. Manmohan Wirk, Amrik Singh Dhillon, Nad Lal Pallan, Mukund (Max) Pallan, Mony Jawl, Jeto Sengara, Paul Singh Johal and Jeet Dheensaw helped with information on the Sikh community, and Alan Lowe and Lorelei Lew contributed memories of their grandfathers.
I gratefully acknowledge the Tsartlip Elders I interviewed—Manny Cooper, Beatrice Elliott, John Elliott, Ivan Morris, John Sampson, Tom Sampson and Stella Wright—and also Elder Earl Claxton Sr. of Tsawout.
My parents, Alex and Annie Gray, my sisters Betty Stone and Dorothy Pekter, my niece Nancy Pekter, my long-time friend David Neilson, and his parents, Wally and Eileen Neilson, all helped with the explorations and fieldwork at Tod Inlet in various ways over the years. My mum continued to send me newspaper clippings about Tod Inlet well into her 90s, helping me keep up to date with the Tod Inlet story. My wife, Sally, contributed greatly though her thoughtful editing and encouragement through my years of writing about Tod Inlet. She has actively joined the family of those who love being at this “healing place,” as Tod Inlet is beautifully described by author Gwen Curry.123
Other original research and new information was gathered from papers found in the old Vancouver Portland Cement Company office at Tod Inlet and from Alex Gray’s collections of maritime history. Information on the ships of Tod Inlet came from the files of Robert Turner, Robert Spearing and Frank Clapp; from the City of Vancouver Archives and the Maritime Museum of British Columbia; from the newspaper articles of Norman Hacking and Archie Wills; and the recollections of my parents, Annie and Alex Gray, and my uncle Harvey Gray.
I would also like to acknowledge the assistance, cooperation and friendship of Derrick Mallard, founder of the Citizens Association to Save the Environment (CASE), who was involved with the effort to protect the Tod Inlet area for over 20 years.
I also thank the staff of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Library and Archives Canada, the Saanich Pioneer Museum, Saanich Archives, the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, the City of Victoria Archives, the Butchart Gardens and the Vancouver Maritime Museum for their assistance. Though the archives of the Butchart Gardens remain closed to the general public, the owners and staff have always responded positively to my requests for information and for permission to use photographs from the archives collections.
The long-term research that this book is based on was first funded in 1998 by the BC Heritage Trust, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and BC Parks Branch. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society provided funding for the historical mapping of Tod Inlet. BC Parks Branch provided a contract with CASE in 1998 and with Grayhound Information Services in 2001 to develop information on the ecological impact of the cement plant and the community on the land that is now Gowlland Tod Provincial Park. More recently, the Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada provided some financial assistance for additional research on the Sikh workers of Tod Inlet.
David Gray measuring the brick oven base at the Sikh village area. David R. Gray photograph.
I thank Dr. Nancy Turner and Bob Turner for writing the foreword, as well as providing helpful reviews of the book manuscript. I am also grateful to historians Dr. Peter Rider and Pardeep Singh Nagra for their reviews.
For their most helpful and careful editing of this book, I thank Eve Rickert, Annie Mayse and Grace Yaginuma. I also thank Kelly-Ann Turkington for her work with locating images in the Royal BC Museum and BC Archives, and Lara Minja for her work on the book’s design and layout.