history of dept. bay/hammond bay?

[Steamer_1949]

Here is an aerial view of Departure Bay dated 1932. I have added a few labels to identify features. This is my first post. Hopefully it is possible to zoom into to read the labels!

[riverrat]

Very cool, thank you SO much!
You can zoom in if you right-click on the image, choose "copy", then paste it into an image editing program (the one that opens when you double-click an image file on your desktop). Then use that program to zoom in on the image.

[Steamer_1949]

You're welcome! Yes, I noticed it is possible to zoom once the image was posted. Thanks.

I have been enjoying the forums lately and decided to contribute. I have other aerial photos of Nanaimo from that era. Since you commented on the Departure Bay photo, perhaps it would be worth posting a few of the old city under a different thread.

The Wellington Colliery Railway grade shown in the aerial photo has intrigued me since first learning about it during the latter half of the 1950s while attending Departure Bay Elementary. We used to take a "short cut" to school following the railway grade where it left Departure Bay Road. We used to call the route the "back track". There is a book of maps showing the mine locations around Nanaimo and the associated railway grades. The map in the book showing the railway to Departure Bay does not have the location quite right.

Here is a photo of the back track from a 1960 publication.

[BigMac]

Interesting!! What book is that from?

[riverrat]

I have other aerial photos of Nanaimo from that era. Since you commented on the Departure Bay photo, perhaps it would be worth posting a few of the old city under a different thread.

Um, please do!! things are quiet on here these days, but people are certainly enjoying the posts, even if they're only "lurking" like you were!
I appreciate anything you can share with us.

[Steamer_1949]

Um, please do!! things are quiet on here these days, but people are certainly enjoying the posts, even if they're only "lurking" like you were!
I appreciate anything you can share with us.

OK. Stay tuned.

[Steamer_1949]

Interesting!! What book is that from?

A booklet called "The History of a Railway" by the province of BC.

[Peter Roosen]

Here is an aerial view of Departure Bay dated 1932. I have added a few labels to identify features. This is my first post. Hopefully it is possible to zoom into to read the labels!

It looks like there is evidence of another road to Wellington from the end of what is currently Linley Road near the biological station. There is a clear pathway visible from the left side of the image below the lake and enough of a swath through the trees to suggest a way through.

[Steamer_1949]

It looks like there is evidence of another road to Wellington from the end of what is currently Linley Road near the biological station. There is a clear pathway visible from the left side of the image below the lake and enough of a swath through the trees to suggest a way through.

Could be. I see the "left" pathway you mention which joins with Rock City Road if we are both looking at the same feature. Better have a look at this, though. The Linley Road area near that farm along Hammond Bay Road was cropped out of the original post.

[Peter Roosen]

Could be. I see the "left" pathway you mention which joins with Rock City Road if we are both looking at the same feature. Better have a look at this, though. The Linley Road area near that farm along Hammond Bay Road was cropped out of the original post.

I have heard there is a steam engine along that old road but have not been able to find it. It was sighted there sometime in the 1960s by the same gentleman who buried one of the early mining steam locomotives on the Bajich farm that he had on the back of a truck otherwise headed for a scrap yard. The engine he buried was from a place on Rock City Road that was a junk collection with more than one steam engine on it. Leo was brought in to clear the property back then. That is how he explained it. A couple months ago, he showed me the spot where he buried it and we also went to the end of Linley Road where he described how to get to the spot on that old back road that was only passable by 4x4 in the 1960s. There has since been a pipeline run through there and also a foot path, both now in use. He isn't in good enough shape to make the half mile trek from the end of Linley to where the steamer was supposedly sitting within a couple hundred feet of the old road. It would be nice if somebody else has heard or seen of this and knows the whereabouts or disposition of this engine.