Project

Partners

• Capital Neighbourhoods: The history of Ottawa through the city's buildings, parks, commemorations and hangouts
• Buckaroos in BC: The Story of Ranching in BC
• Beauty in the Beast: The Mill at Britannia Mine
• In Their Words : The Story of BC Packers
• Voyage Beyond the Map: The Discovery of the Pacific
• From Camp to Community : Cowichan Forestry Life
• Graveyard of the Pacific
• The Sydenham River: Explore, Investigate, Enjoy
• Living Traditions: Museums Honour the North American Indigenous Games
• Voices of the Snuneymuxw First Nation

BC Forest Discovery Centre
Cowichan Valley Museum
IWA Local 1-80
Kaatza Station Museum

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• Click the thumbnails to the left to view a larger image in a modal window.

Visit the site online

Southern Vancouver Island is rich in forest resources and this website tells the story of what life in a logging camp in the Cowichan Valley was like and how these camps evolved into today's communities. The BC Forest Resource Centre worked with Zero One and a number of other partners (the Cowichan Valley Museum, the IWA Local I-80, and the Kaatza Station Museum) to present the history of logging in an interactive and entertaining way. This on-line presentation was supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage for the Virtual Museum of Canada.

Logging camps have been in decline since the 1950s and consequently understanding camp life has become difficult. A major goal for Zero One and this project was to bring to life a place and a lifestyle that no longer exists and to make that place sufficiently engaging that youth would become interested in the history of the industry. One clear objective was to show the communities rather than just write about them. There is an abundant visual record of the area and the logging industry and the archives section allows users to search through hundreds of historic images. Audio and video clips are also presented allowing the viewer to listen to stories of the past told by the men who worked in the industry. In addition to photographic evidence of camp and community life, the website includes comics by logger Bus Griffith who wrote about and illustrated the everyday life in the camps in the early 19^th century. Most effective in bringing life to the era is the walk through the camp component of the site. Zero One built this part of the site to display five buildings the user can explore. Inside each building the objects can be clicked on to reveal photographs and a description of the item and how it relates to camp life. Moreover, each room can be interactively explored in QuickTime VR allowing the viewer to move around the interior of buildings from authentic logging camp houses that are displayed at the British Columbia Forest Discovery Centre.