With tourism currently ranking as BC’s fourth largest industry, it’s interesting to note that as early as August, 1926, Vancouver, Victoria and all island centres and districts were reaping a rich harvest from an unprecedented tourist invasion.

The sole exception, according to Duncan Board of Trade president Mr. Kirkham, was Duncan.

Kirkham made his statement following a trip to a regional meeting which took him to Vancouver and Victoria, and where, he said, he saw American cars everywhere.

“We miss (the American dollars). Cowichan gets less money out of the tourists than any place on the island,” accused board member Major Rattray.

“We’re getting what we deserve,” quipped Kirkham, adding that he hoped that eventually people here would see the light and that it would become possible for a tourist camp to be established near Duncan.

Rattray said it would be wise for Cowichan to watch what other parts of the Island were doing to attract tourists. European brown trout were being introduced elsewhere for flyfishing to replace an earlier abundance that had been destroyed largely through netting on the rivers.

Refering to timber conservation in beauty spots he asked whether nothing could be done to clean up the unsightly debris on the Cowichan Lake Road.

Apparently, tourists were being warned against taking that route.

1926: ambulance

Miss Doreen Day, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Athelstan Day, was the first patient to be carried in a new Cowichan district ambulance supplied by Messrs. Thos. Pitt Limited and driven by Mr. J. A. Kyle of Cowichan Taxi Service.

Assistant district engineer H. C. Mann supervised construction of new bridges over Quamichan Creek at Jayne’s, the Koksilah River at Corfields, and the Cowichan River on the island highway (the white bridge).

1926: holidays

Driving a 1917 Ford touring car, Mr. Adrian Townsend and Mr. Eli Plaskett, Duncan, traveled 3,000 miles to Regina and back. The 325 miles from Medicine Hat to Regina took 19 hours, they said.