Red Gap is a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

 in the vicinity of Nanoose Bay, British Columbia

Nanoose Bay, British Columbia

Nanoose Bay is a community of about 5 000 people in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located between Nanaimo and Parksville on the Strait of Georgia on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The town is named after a First Nations band related to the Nanaimo Indians...

, which was the site of a lumber mill. The community's name was inspired by Harry Leon Wilson's novel Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles of Red Gap was serialized beginning December 26, 1914 in the Saturday Evening Post and became a best selling novel in 1915 by Harry Leon Wilson, adapted for the Broadway stage as a musical the same year, and made into a movie several times, most famously in 1935.In the comedy Western film...

.

Location

Red Gap was the location of a lumber mill on the shore of Nanoose Bay across the water from the present location of CFMETR

CFMETR, Nanoose Bay

The Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges is a maritime test facility located on the east side of Vancouver Island, at Nanoose Bay....

. The settlement of Red Gap was across the road and E&N Railway line from the mill.

History

In 1912 Joe and Max McKercher established a modern lumber mill at Red Gap. The mill was taken over by Newcastle Lumber Company and Merchant Trust and then, in 1917 by Frank Pendleton as the Straits Lumber Company. Ships from around the world took on lumber that was barged across the bay from the mill. Japan was a primary customer of the lumber products produced. Lumber was milled to unique Japanese dimensions. The mill and accommodations for workers were built on pilings because there was insufficient land between the railway and the shoreline for the mill. Across the road and railway line a company store, a post office, a school, homes and boarding houses were built. There were separate areas where workers from Japan, India and China lived. The mill remained busy through the 1930s however when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...

, the mill lost its best customer and within months Straits Lumber was out of business. A fire during demolition in 1942 destroyed the mill which had damage from another fire two years earlier as well. The site continued in use by smaller operations into the early 1950s. For 3 years, at the peak of its operations, the Straits mill was the biggest mill in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

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Modern day

Today the site is marked by a rest area on the south bound side of Highway 19. No houses or other buildings remain. The name Red Gap is used by a shopping centre and some businesses in nearby Nanoose Bay

Nanoose Bay, British Columbia

Nanoose Bay is a community of about 5 000 people in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located between Nanaimo and Parksville on the Strait of Georgia on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The town is named after a First Nations band related to the Nanaimo Indians...

. The pilings upon which the mill stood remain in 2009.

External links

• August 2008 Newsletter Published by Parksville & District Historical Society with photo of mill. Accessed March 17, 2009