Fort Rupert
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Issue Date
1994
Authors
Barraclough, Ed
License
Subject
Abstract
Audio recording and transcript of two brief presentations given by Ed Barraclough to the Nanaimo Historical Society in 1994 about Fort Rupert. In the first presentation, given in October 1994, Barraclough gives a history of the development of Fort Rupert by the Hudson’s Bay Company. To describe the fort and its activities, Barraclough reads passages written by naturalist John Keast Lord, who visited Fort Rupert in 1858, and HBC physician Dr. John Sebastian Helmcken, who was posted there in 1850. In the second presentation, given in November 1994, Barraclough continues the history of Fort Rupert, outlining the strike staged by the Muirs and other experienced Scottish miners who had expected to be successfully mining coal at the fort, but were instead doing manual labour they felt beneath them. Barraclough concludes his talk with an explanation of the demise of Fort Rupert, which was ultimately abandoned as a coal mining prospect when coal was discovered at Nanaimo.