The following was
taken from Scotty Finlayson’s memoirs that he wrote in the 1980s. Scotty
died in Richmond, March 17, 1993.
While working for-
the Northern Pacific (1928 at age 16) I started going up Hollyburn ridge
crossing on West Van ferry then West Van bus to ''22nd Street then by
foot to the Ski Camp, at first stayed in the boys’ dormitory, one long
bunk the length of the room. Later met some youths the same age Harry
Morey, Conrad Brown, and Murdock Brown, we picked a site, cut down trees
and built a log cabin, there was no supervision by the District of West
Vancouver at that time.
(L - R) Con Brown & Harry Morey, Hollyburn Ridge, 1929
(Scotty Finlayson Collection)
We later found that we were on private property;
the land was surveyed to the 3,000 foot level anticipating that booming
Vancouver would build that high. The owner in England had bought sight
unseen from a map, we wrote to him and we were able to buy the property
from him. I think he was glad to be rid of the property when he realized
the location and taxes he had paid.
Scotty Finlayson's "Canuck" cabin under construction, 1930
(Scotty Finlayson Collection)
Hiking the North
Shore Mountains had an interesting experience one Easter weekend; there
was a Sun-rise Service on the peak of Goat Mountain, the mountain behind
Grouse Mountain. We too the North Van ferry and the streetcar to the top
of Lonsdale, then walked all night to the top of the mountain. There was
quite a turn-out and it was a sight--the hikers strung out along the
trail with their “bugs” this was the common light system for night
hikes, a four pound jam pail with a coat hanger wire for a handle and an
”X” cut on one side and candle pushed through, amazingly the wind did
not blow out the candle. What a sigh from Goat Mountain when the sun hit
the Peak of Crown Mountain the next ridge and people joined in Easter
hymns.
As the depression
worsened no jobs were available at all, young men rode the freights
looking for work. We had our cabin on Hollyburn and many more who still
had jobs also had cabins. People were breaking into these cabins for
food left in them. Some of us without jobs set up a patrol system, for
25 cents a week we would check the cabins twice a day, put up a sign
that they were patrolled. It cut out the stealing and every four cabins
was a dollar, and a dollar went a long way for beans and pancake flour.
At one time we had six living together and doing the patrol work. There
was George Lumsden, “Chuck” Rolston, and Dick Lundgren, Joe Olsen, a
friend of Dick, was a member of the crew of the RCMP ship that made the
East-West crossing of the Arctic, “The Northwest Passage: he stayed
while on leave.
The cabin proved
too small, it was only 12 feet by 16 feet, so we added another story
with a four-foot overhand on each side and in front this gave us a
living room downstairs and a 20 by 20 foot sleeping area up.
"Up mountain at Scotty's cabin with second story addition, 1933"
(Scotty Finlayson Collection)
Then the district
of West Vancouver awoke to what was at their back door and decided to
set up and organize things. I was nominated by the cabin owners to
represent them, Joe Leyland, the Reeve, approved the choice. This was in
1932.
I was sworn in as
a Special Constable and for $25.00 a month became the Park Ranger.
Cabins no longer were built anywhere, but had to get a permit and I
would allocate a site and mark trees to be used, then they paid an
annual lease for cabin site and I collected for the District. I ran all
the old surveys so knew where all cabins were located. During the summer
I also patrolled Brothers Creek, Cypress Creek and Nelson Creek, which
were used for domestic water supply for West Vancouver on the lookout
for pollution such as dead animals. In winter I would open the main
trail after a snowstorm with snowshoes, by Sunday night it would be
packed as hard as cement and six feet wide.
Scotty Finlayson, Ranger "HCOPA", May 1932
(Scotty Finlayson Collection)
I moved a log
cabin that was located about a half mile outside the area set aside for
the regulated cabin area, numbered the logs as I took it apart and with
a horse hauled the logs down to the Ski Camp and rebuilt it as the
Ranger Cabin. During the week I took care of First Aid, on the weekends
had volunteers from St. John’s Ambulance Brigade. Depression was at its
worst, the Provincial government took over the Vancouver Ski Club
clubhouse and brought a group of unemployed youths to train in forestry,
a labor force for the lumber industry when conditions improved, together
with an instructor and a cook. I would mark the route e for a ski run
and the instructor would bring in the crew to cut down the trees,
felling into the hollows, to make a ski run about two hundred feet wide.
We were having a problem with “rogue” black bears, breaking into the
cabins, we tried heavy shutters over the windows but then they took to
tearing off the roof. I went hunting and killed off some of the rogues
and then the camp cook ground the meat for hamburger and it was much
appreciated. I rendered some of the fat into shortening and found it
made excellent pastry; in fact my blueberry pies were quite famous.
There seemed to be
much heavier snow fall at that time than we have today, eighteen to
twenty feet was common, I can remember one week in which we had six feet
of snow fall. Cabin owners had to tie a snow shovel up in a nearby tree
with a rope and when they arrived on the weekend get down the shovel and
dig down to their cabin entrance.
By 1937 I was also
assisting the regular West Vancouver Police in uniform at dances at
Horseshow Bay on Saturday night. At daylight I would change to
hiking clothes and climb over Black Mountain and cross to Hollyburn
Ridge for rent collecting from cabin owners. I would usually have a nap
in the sun on top of Black Mountain before completing the trip.
November 15, 1936
I was out with another skier checking snow conditions before opening ski
season. I ran one ski under a buried tree branch and spun around until
the bone broke in my lower leg, a spiral break like a corkscrew.
We had not heard
about hypothermia then so I lay there in the snow until my companion
returned with ski camp operators and a toboggan. They hauled me down to
the road end and then by Ambulance to Vancouver General Hospital. After
the ski season I had a chance to join the regular West Vancouver Police
force so left the Ranger job for a younger man.
(Scotty
Finlayson's memoirs relate the remarkable adventures of the first ranger
on Hollyburn Ridge. Scotty's stories and photo collection have come to
us through his daughter, Darlene Nickull. Darlene also gave us the
opportunity to convert Scotty's Hollyburn movies into a digital format,
a copy of which is now in our archives. This historic film, taken during
the 1930's, includes panoramic views of First Lake (in colour), winter
trips to the peak of Mt. Strachan, and several shots of skiers on the
Romstads hill. HHS is indeed fortunate to have a copy of this rare
film.)
