Chinese, Sikh and Japanese hunting, trapping, logging and farming
About 15,000 Chinese men building the railway
Chinese workers building the Great Northern Railway 1909.
photo courtesy of Squamish Public Library
Start of the logging industry
Arrival of over 5000 men from India in BC, East Indian workers arrive to Squamish
Sikh worker with group off-loading PG ... 915_Squamish Public Library 26.20.jpg
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Construction of the Fibre company started in 1910, pulp mill in Woodfibre produced in 1912. Woodfibre was a bustling community.
Around northern Howe Sound a community of Japanese immigrants and Nisei (second generation Japanese-Canadians) had become established especially at Woodfibre, but also at Britannia and various logging camps
Japanese workers were employed by the Britannia Mine
Sikhs left (no jobs) - no records of South Asians in Squamish for the next 30+ years
Britannia Mine operation: once the largest copper mine in the world employed many racially diverse workers. It had 2 townsites: Jane Camp and another one at the beach. These were company towns.
Around 500 Japanese men lived at Woodfibre (a small town 7km from Squamish and accessible only by boat), forced to leave in 1942
Takeo Ujo Nakano was ordered to leave Woodfibre to Vancouver and then to BC interior camps.
Before WWII, Japanese Canadian families were a vibrant part of life in Howe Sound, with communities in Woodfibre, Britannia, and nearby logging camps. But in 1942, over 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from the B.C. coast, including many from this region. Despite wartime fear and discrimination, the RCMP later dismissed the idea of local espionage as baseless.
Takeo Ujo Nakano was an Issei poet and author of the memoir Within the Barbed Wire Fence, which recounts his experience of the Japanese Canadian internment in road camps and the Angler POW camp.
Born in Japan, Nakano immigrated to Canada in 1920, and was living in Woodfibre, BC with his wife and young daughter when he taken away from his family to work in an Alberta road camp. When he peacefully protested against his separation from his family, he was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Angler, Ontario.
Train service between North Vancouver and Squamish began
Completion of Vancouver- Squamish Highway, called Seaview Highway at that time
East Indian men started to bring their families to Squamish.
Resham Singh Sangha was one of the early East Indian pioneers who found their way and settled down in Squamish in the 1960s…with many others who came to Squamish to find work at the local number mills and then settled down to raise a family.
Swaran Kaur, the first South Asian woman in the community, assisted many families during the 60s and 70s with settling down.
Read more stories of settlement here.
The opening of a new sawmill by Welwood in Squamish brought many East Indian men in (by the early 1970s about 150 men were working there).
First Sikh family to move into Squamish were the Mahngers, followed closely by the Ozlas
Squamish International Festival (later Folk Fest)
(Note for us: community icon from Ruth as pic)
Raj Sherman joined his father, Kumar Sharma, at the mill in Squamish. He later became MLA in Alberta and emergency doctor
Squamish Sikh Society incorporated, Sikhs started commercial and retail businesses
Squamish Gurdwara was built.
Squamish Days Parade had Sikh dancers performing
Sawmill jobs continue to decline. Significant new jobs in Whistler hospitality industry. Families moved to Squamish so that the family members could get jobs in Whistler.
Peace bus of '93 came to Squamish. First Multicultural Day ofTotem Hall celebration happened
Federico and Cristina Angel immigrated to Canada from Colombia. They became owners of the Squamish Connector in 2014. Federico published The Memory of a Name memoir.
The 2nd Vietnamese family in Squamish (the first had arrived in 1985) opens Classy Nails salon.
140 people from the Philippines came to Squamish
Doris Suarez published a book Halo Halo in the Snow documenting the stories of Filipino community members who immigrated to Squamish
Check out the story of Doris.
Squamish Multifaith Association was incorporated.
The Migrant Ministry was established by Sr. Josephine in Squamish due to the growing number of migrants coming and working in the Squamish-Whistler area. Pilipino Mass began to be celebrated also every third Sunday of each month.