[BCMA] Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives media release for Kinsol Trestle online exhibit

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

For Immediate Release

Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives

July 20, 2011

 

Kinsol Trestle online exhibit for the Virtual Museum of Canada. 

 

The Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives, in partnership with the Shawnigan Lake Museum, is pleased to announce that Canadian Heritage has published a new online exhibit for the Virtual Museum of Canada called Abandoned, Then Embraced: The Kinsol Trestle.   The exhibit was developed with funding from the Community Memories Program.

 

Built by the Canadian National Railway and completed in 1920, the historic Kinsol Trestle spans the Koksilah River in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  Abandoned in 1979, years of neglect and vandalism created liability issues and it was felt that the trestle could not be saved.   However, in 2006, when the trestle was most in danger of being demolished, heritage conservationists determined that the Kinsol Trestle could be conserved and that it was not only structurally sound but also culturally significant.  It has undergone a remarkable rehabilitation from July 2010 to the present.

 

With the imminent opening of the rehabilitated Kinsol Trestle it is very exciting to present a history of the historic railway bridge that incorporates oral histories gathered over several months, as well as new archival material that surfaced during the course of our research.  

 

Oral histories were undertaken with people who worked on maintaining the trestle, were advocating for its preservation, or who were part of the rehabilitation team. Retired Fire Chief Glen Sanders recalls in his interview fighting not one but two fires at the trestle, in 1988 and 1998 respectively: "The water bombers that came down were the Martin Mars and they were just dropping water with foam in it so we had to ask the question, "Is this going to impact the structural integrity of the bridge?" When it came in, it was just like a snowstorm. They flew right over top of the bridge almost like on the same curve.so from north to south, and the water and the foam just fell like snow all over everything."  

 

Gordon Macdonald, Macdonald & Lawrence Timber Framing Ltd., internationally renowned for his conservation work on heritage timber structures, described in his interview the challenges he faced arguing for the conservation, not replacement, of the Kinsol Trestle: "It never really occurred to anyone to ask the question, 'What is the minimum that could be done in order to conserve the Kinsol and preserve it?'...It's not just a heritage object, it has a purpose.  Unless you can provide cultural relevance and use as a place, objects are static and it's very difficult to convince people to throw money at them." 

 

Ralph Morris, P.Eng, donated a valuable collection of Kinsol Trestle- related archival material to the Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives in 2006 after he had visited the museum's summer exhibit Kinsol in Crisis. Mr. Morris oversaw maintenance of the CNR bridges in western Canada, including the Kinsol Trestle.  Several of the images used in the new online exhibit are from this collection, including an iconic David Wilkie photograph of the last train crossing the trestle on June 20, 1979.  Mr. Morris became a valued member of the rehabilitation team, and his knowledge of the Kinsol was integral to the rehabilitation project.  

 

The Abandoned, Then Embraced: The Kinsol Trestle online exhibit can be found on the Virtual Museum of Canada website: www.virtualmuseum.ca.  The Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives and the Shawnigan Lake Museum gratefully acknowledge the support of Canadian Heritage and the Virtual Museum of Canada's Community Memories Program.

 

For more information please contact Kathryn Gagnon, curator, Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives at 250.746.6612 or email cvmuseum.archives at shaw.ca. 

                         

Kathryn Gagnon
Curator/Manager
Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives
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