|
|
 |
This
is an image (at left) from a postcard owned by Chris McGregor, who
gave us kind permission to place it on this Web site. The large
building housed the Heaps mill offices—the mill was across
the tracks—a store, and a hotel. It stood on the south side
of the tracks at the coming together of the Stave and Fraser rivers.
From 1899 until they went bankrupt in 1913, Heaps had an important
logging operation in the Stave area—they took over from the
co-operative that had started “Ruskin Mills” in 1896.
Other images of the Heaps building are known, but not this one.
What caused some excitement was that tiny railway station in front
of the Heaps building with a train order signal on the roof. It
came as a surprise to see that Ruskin had a railway station before
1910/1911, and at that site. We still don’t know how long
it stood there, but Alex Price, a Divisional Engineer for CPR, reports
that the 1908 version of the employee’s timetable shows “Ruskin”
in very fine print, acknowledging its presence.
|
| When the Europeans
arrived at the confluence of the Stave and Fraser Rivers the steep
shore on Ruskin side of the Stave River was cover with a magnificent
stand of trees. In the 1830s the cooper from Fort Langley found white
pine here, the wood he needed for the staves of his barrels—thus
the name of the river. |
| The recognition of Ruskin
as a distinct community started with the establishment (1896) of the
short-lived co-operative called “Ruskin Mills.” This sawmill
was the first of a long series of lumber mills in the area creating
steady work. The influx of workers and their families in 1896 warranted
a school—Stave River School—and a post office carrying
the name Ruskin even after the demise of “Ruskin Mills”
in 1900. Around 1910 a railway station with the name Ruskin was established
in conjunction with the construction of power stations at Stave Falls.
That was also the time when the school was renamed “Ruskin School,”
reflecting the consolidation of Ruskin as a community. |
| Residents call the entire
area between Whonnock Creek and the Stave River “Ruskin,”
regardless of municipal boundaries. The shore where the Stave River
meets the Fraser River is still occupied by the logging industry as
it has been for more than a century. Away from the shore Ruskin has
kept its rural character. For many years logging, sawmilling, the
damming of the Stave, and the power stations created hundreds of local
employment opportunities providing some form of financial stability
unknown in other areas. That work and the people who did it have diminished
and sadly Ruskin had to give up its railway station, its post office,
its general store and not too long ago its elementary school when
it merged with the Whonnock School. The 1923 Ruskin Community Hall,
however, survives due to the dedication of a group of proud volunteers.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
