10 quirky facts, mysteries and legends of the North Shore.

1. Masee Murder Mystery

One of Vancouver’s most spellbinding cold cases is tucked away inside banker’s boxes shelved in the unsolved homicide locker at the RCMP detachment in North Vancouver.

VSE stock promoter Nick Masee and his wife Lisa (pictured above) had reservations at Trader Vic’s at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 10, 1994 to meet a mystery money man to discuss a million-dollar deal.

The investor was a no-show, and shortly after the Masees disappeared without a trace.

A waitress and piano player at the Western Bayshore were the last to see the North Vancouver couple alive.

Five years ago, the North Vancouver RCMP’s serious crimes unit sent out a news release on the 10th anniversary of the couple’s disappearance in an attempt to generate new leads, but only a few tips trickled in.

“There is a lot of intrigue surrounding the case,” Sgt. Gerry Webb said at the time. “They just vanished.”

Webb told The Outlook in 2004 that he believed the meeting at Trader Vic’s, the popular Tiki lounge at the Bayshore, was part of an abduction/murder plot.

The identity of the Masees’ dinner guest is still a mystery. Unsubstantiated theories about the couple’s disappearance included: Masee was eliminated because he had insider info about a VSE company or he was mixed up in money laundering for a biker gang, which made him a target. Some have even speculated the couple is alive and sipping tropical cocktails in the Cayman Islands, a destination visited shortly before they disappeared.

Anyone with information about the disappearance of the Masees can call North Vancouver RCMP at 604-985-1311.

-Justin Beddall

2.The hidden ‘Grouse Grind’

Want to grind your way up to Grouse but without the crowds?

The BCMC (British Columbia Mountaineering Club) Trail runs roughly parallel to the Grind and has long been popular to local hikers in the know in search of a trail without the foot traffic.

“The Grind is a phenomenon on itself, but its kind of like Kits Beach ... It’s an urban experience,” explained Matt Gunn, author of the ever popular hiker’s guide Scrambles of Southwest B.C. “They (hikers) look for other routes where it’s more like an outdoor experience, and the BCMC suits that.”

While the lack of crowds could be a draw for regular Grinders to check out, Gunn warns that it’s also more rugged.

“The BCMC Trail does not have the infrastructure the Grouse Grind has,” Gunn said.

Imagine those perfectly cut stairs and boardwalks have been replaced by tangles of roots and rocky patches.

According to longtime BCMC member Martin Kafer, the mountaineering club has a long history on Grouse with at least two club cabins once situated somewhere on the mountain. At least two trails were also cut to the access the cabins.

However, Kafer said the modern day BCMC Trail actually doesn’t have a true connection with the club.

“It didn’t go to the cabin,” Kafer said.

Kafer speculated that whoever built the trail might have given it that name because it passed near a BCMC cabin.

-Daniel Pi

3. Best Point cave

Enveloped in First Nations lore or is just an old mining tunnel now forgotten is up for debate.

Some local kayakers have long known about a mysterious cave near Best Point about halfway up the Indian Arm.

“It’s just north of Best Point on the west side,” said Bob Putnam, owner of Deep Cove Canoe and Kayaks.

Located on the cliff face, the cave can be easily reached during high tide, but it’s a slippery scramble when the water is low.

“I’ve only sort of poked my head in it,” Putnam admits, adding he was san flashlight that time.

However, he’s heard from others that shortly after entering the cave, an avid adventurer will come across a deep pool of water with a “sketchy” plank spanning it.

“I think it’s a mining shaft, it’s not a natural cave as far as I can tell,” Putnam said. “Someone once told me there’s some rock art or an image on the wall (on the other side).”

As for the location, Putnam figures the cave is about a

10-kilometre paddle up the Indian Arm, and paddlers might have to explore a bit before finding the dark entrance.

-Daniel Pi

4. Farming on the Shore

hree chickens — two hens and a rooster.

But William Mitchell eventually grew his modest brood into Lynn Valley’s very first chicken farm.

While the highway, residences and supermarkets tell the story of a modern community today, the North Shore once boasted a healthy agricultural industry that fed local residents and even some of those across the water.

Besides the Mitchell chicken farm, there was the Monteith family goat farm near Osbourne and St. Georges, North Vancouver Dairy — a 100-acre farm where today’s Tomahawk Restaurant sits on — the Keane and Crickmay dairy farm, and the Phibbs and Thompson Ranch, which records indicate “supplied the Hotel Vancouver.”

The Stoker farm at the top of Lonsdale by 29th and established in 1905 became a focal point in the 70s for the community when the North Vancouver Community Arts Council fought for the location to become a heritage sight.

That failed, but farming can still be found today on the North Shore.

Down near the Seymour River, Akiyo Kogo first started farming the land in 1914, but sold to Mr. Ellis, a “round faced, jolly Englishman” in 1924.

That dairy farm eventually became present day Maplewood Farms, a five–acre plot where more than 200 animals and birds call home, and educational programs are run for kids.

-Daniel Pi

5. Ace pilot lands in West Vancouver

More than half a century after the war, the letter arrived.

“Thank you,” wrote the British prisoner of war. Collateral damage is something that goes with the territory of any battle, says Jim Borthwick, but it must have crossed the mind of his late father, Roy, as he piloted one of the bombers sent to take down the bridge over Kwai River. “His plane dropped the first bomb that knocked out the first span on the bridge and other parts of it,” Jim said. The mission that day, June 24, 1945, was simple — wipe it out. The Thailand bridge was an important supply link. Dubbed by Allies as “Death Railway,” the 415-kilometre track between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma, was built under the Empire of Japan by thousands of slave labourers, including prisoners of war. But the logistics of wiping the bridge off the map were tricky. To avoid heavy gun fire, the Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant dove the plane to 30 feet above ground after bombing the bridge, before climbing up to 1,000 feet and doing it all again — five times in total. After the war Borthwick was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, but he wasn’t one to toot his horn, Jim said. “He considered it something he volunteered for to help out, he did it, he came back and lived his life.” Upon returning to Vancouver, Roy found himself on the North Shore ski slopes with June Turkington. The two had met before the war over tennis and didn’t take much notice of each other, June said. But this time something was different.

Two years after the couple’s marriage in 1947 a movie based on French novelist Pierre Boulle’s popular book, The Bridge Over River Kwai, was released. The writer was in Malaysia when the Second World War broke out and captured by Vichy France loyalists. The bridge Roy helped destroy was the crux of the story. The newlyweds went to see it. “My husband was quite disappointed,” she recalls, noting in the movie the bridge was destroyed by a ground troupe of American commandos. But within history and the hearts of Roy’s family, his legend lives on.

-Rebecca Aldous

6. Close encounters on the Shore

While the North Shore may not be known as a hub of alien encounters , many locals have reported witnessing UFOs.

Gord Heath, a director at UFO*BC, noted a report of paranormal activity occurred earlier this year at Cypress Mountain.

“There are ski lights (on the mountain) but these were much brighter and moving around,” Heath explained, noting that the UFO report also included photos.

At first, Heath wondered if it may have been a film industry lighting crane, but in addition to the bright bluish light “there was also a reddish light.”

“You don’t often get a report with accompanying photos – but they were from quite some distance away,” he said.

Also this year: a YouTube video of a UFO sighting taken from a mid-Lonsdale highrise.

“Daytime footage, something moving in the sky, by the top of Mount Seymour,” explained Heath, who remains somewhat skeptical, wondering if it perhaps could have been a paraglider.

Heath also recalls a recent paranormal viewing in the vicinity of Indian Arm. “It was a very good sighting – extremely well recorded.”

To check out more detailed reports of paranormal activity in these parts check out UFO*BC’s website (ufobc.ca), which documents several sightings linked to local mountains. In fact, according to the UFO*BC site, the high volume of sightings around the North Shore mountains in the 1970s prompted a UFO seeker to do a fly-by recon mission of the area. “Needless to say he found nothing to support his suspicions of a mountain UFO base,” says a posting on the UFO*BC site.

-Justin Beddall

7. Friendly ghost at Presentation House

The song was skipped again.

Graham Howard shook his head. He was sure he’d rewound the tape to the beginning. Once again he left the stage and headed to the sound booth.

He pressed stop, then rewind and watched the tape wheels spin. When they came to an abrupt halt he pressed play.

The tape looped round in the cassette player, but there was no sound.

“It was strange,” the Presentation House Theatre janitor says.

He repeated the process five times, but each to no avail. When the women who brought the tape returned home, it played the first song without a hitch.

“We ended up attributing it to Frank,” Howard says.

Frank is the theatre’s friendly ghost. Nobody recalls how he got his name or when he first appeared.

“We used to hear stories about the upstairs bathrooms and the taps being turned on,” the House’s managing director Brenda Leadlay says.

The Presentation House has a colourful history. Built in 1902, the house was the North Shore’s first school. When the student body grew to 34 youth, the community decided to build a new school. The building was then used for city hall, a police station, a justice facility and the city’s engineering department.

It’s also had its fair share of famous visitors. In 1939, King George VI was welcomed into the wooden structure. Then in 1977, at the height of Trudeau-mania, the man himself attended the opening of the Presentation House Theatre.

For 10 years, Howard has listened to the building’s creaks and groans. Like Frank, its character has steeped with time.

“I think it is a caring old building,” Howard says, “It has served the North Shore extremely well over the years.”

-Rebecca Aldous

8. Retro hockey jerseys

Like the Canucks new retro-style unis? Well, you can thank North Vancouver’s Joe Borovich.

Borovich designed the Canucks original stick-in-rink logo the expansion team sported when they stepped onto the ice in 1970.

The young graphic designer beat out several other logo designs, including those by the Canucks owner’s own ad agency in San Francisco.

Since Borovich designed the classic logo that has become as iconic as other Original Six team logos like the Leafs, Habs, and Red Wings, the Vancouver jerseys have undergone some puzzling redesigns.

Perhaps mostly notably the 1977 yellow, orange and black “V” uniforms that one New York reporter dubbed Darth Vader uniforms.

In 2007, the Canucks unveiled the latest uniform incarnation that borrowed from elements of the original jersey, including the familiar blue and green base colour scheme that Borovich originally chose to represent B.C.’s ocean and trees, with the stick-in-rink shoulder patches.

The club’s third jersey, meanwhile, is aside from Johnny Canucks shoulder patches, identical to the sweaters worn in 1970. Way to go Joe.

-Justin Beddall

9. Canada's oldest nudist club

The North Shore holds claim to one of Canada’s firsts.

On the lower slopes of Grouse Mountain, among the lush forest, sits a rustic group of cabins. The three-hectare sanctuary holds a wood-fired sauna, volleyball, badminton, horseshoes facilities and a wading pool.

It’s all part of the nation’s first nudist club — Van Tan Club. The facility was founded in 1939 by Ray Connett, the “Father of Canadian Nudism.”

The Saskatchewan native moved to Vancouver in 1934. When he saw a small personal ad in the local paper announcing the formation of a nudist group in Vancouver he replied eagerly, which led to the club’s beginning, according to Au Naturel, The History of Nudism in Canada.

Since then nudism or naturism in B.C. has experienced a slow growth, said Mick Malerby, the director of Fraser Valley Naturist Club. Malerby grew up in the lifestyle. His parents ran the club before him. It’s the freedom of being naked that hooked him, he said.

Skinny-dipping is also very popular in B.C., he noted. Skinnydippers Recreation organize a multitude of events throughout Greater Vancouver.

Last weekend North Shore’s Van Tan Club pooled together with Surrey United Naturists and the Skinnydipper Recreation Club of Surrey to set a new Guinness World record for the largest number of people simultaneously skinny-dipping. Forty-six swimmers bared it all for the event at Crescent Beach, placing them in the book.

10. Navvy Jack

His nickname became a term still in B.C. more than a century after he first arrived on West Vancouver’s shore.

But as history tells it, the Royal Navy deserter earned every letter of it in sweat.

As one of the first Caucasian residents of West Vancouver, John Thomas started the first service across the Burrard Inlet in 1866.

It wasn’t anything fancy. It was a simple rowboat. By request, Thomas would dip the oars in the water and row his passengers across. The Welshman soon earned the title of Navvy Jack, but the nickname’s meaning came a little later.

After two years of rowing, Thomas began extracting sand and gravel from the west side of Capilano River. He than transported the material, needed to make concrete, with a five-ton sloop to construction sites in Hastings, Gastown and Moodyville.

Thomas married Row-i-a, the daughter of Chief Ki-ep-i--lano, according to research by the Vancouver Welsh Society. The house he built for himself and his bride is the oldest continuously inhabited residence in the Lower Mainland. It stands at 1768 Argyle Ave., said archivist Shaunna Moore, at the West Vancouver Archives.

The point at the end of 22nd Street was also named after Thomas. His nickname also stood the testament of time, as it is used when referring to a combination of washed sand and aggregate, a combination ideal for making concrete.

-Rebecca Aldous

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