Where Should We Aim Our Magnifying Glass Next?

Since we began publishing The Tyee’s Place Detective series in March 2023, we’ve taken you inside a famous glass house on Deer Lake, shared the case of a nuke lost in the Kispiox Mountains, and exhumed the ghosts of railways in Burnaby and the woods of Powell River, B.C.

All in all, we’ve brought you 20 Place Detectives so far. Why?

Because, as archaeologist Levi Mymko told The Tyee, “A lot of people are just not aware of the true history of places in Canada.”

“I like to think,” Mymko added, “that if people knew more about history, then there would be less racism and less animosity.”

This includes learning about Indigenous histories, about how colonization disrupted Indigenous ways of life, and about how place-based history can connect us with our particular cultures and backgrounds.

For us at The Tyee, they’re also very enjoyable to research — giving us an excuse to speak with archaeologists and historians, to delve deep into museums and archives, and take field trips to wayside chapels, Leg in Boot square and Crystal Mall’s infernal parking lot.

We’ve also now published enough Place Detectives that we can begin to see patterns emerge. Fourteen of our 20 stories, for example, have been based in Metro Vancouver. And while we’ve included Indigenous history in the stories, they’ve mainly focused on settler history.

So as we begin the New Year, we thought we’d bring you a little retrospective of our seven most-read Place Detectives — you’ve really liked a lot of them! — and ask you to share with us ideas for where we should next turn our magnifying glass.

Curious about a mysterious building or geographical feature in your place or town? Have a favourite cultural shell deposit, or fish trap?

Tell us in the comments below, or email us at editor[at]thetyee[dot]ca.

#7: In Kitsilano, the Case of the Beloved and Broken Pool

Coming in at Number 7 is Jen St. Denis’s timely look at the creation — and looming demise? — of Vancouver’s saltwater gem, the 137-metre-long Kitsilano pool. Nestled beside the ocean, with stunning views of downtown and the north shore, the 93-year-old pool has had its share of trials and tribulations. First modernized in 1979, the pool now faces another hurdle: the pressures of climate change, which are assailing its concrete basin, creating cracks and shifts with every big new storm.

#6: Uncovering the Bitter History of Vancouver’s Sugar Refinery

Former Tyee labour reporter Zak Vescera’s history of the 134-year-old Rogers sugar factory in Vancouver, our sixth most-read Place Detective, fittingly delves into the factory’s ties to indentured labour and its history of strikes. The factory, constructed in 1890, faced its first labour revolt in 1917, when workers began organizing. “B.T. Rogers got the news while aboard his yacht,” Vescera writes. “Rogers radioed a superintendent, instructing them to fire the worker who was leading the cause. The next day, workers walked off the job and formed a union.”

#5: The Case of the Least Touristy Gulf Island, Texada

Taking the Number 5 spot, andrea bennett’s piece on Texada proposes a thought experiment about the large, limestone-rich island, which has been mined by settlers since the late 19th century. Looking at satellite images taken from above, showing the aerial waves and ridges of Texada’s quarries, we can picture the removal of limestone from the island and its journey down to Richmond, where it is used in the manufacture of cement. As the rock is removed from Texada, it is added to the landscape of the Lower Mainland. An intimate relationship between the two places emerges over time.

#4: At Metrotown, the Case of the Bridge to Nowhere

In the middle of Burnaby’s bustling Metrotown is a bridge to nowhere. The walkway begins on the second floor of the Metropolis supermall, stops just short of touching the glassy SkyTrain stationhouse and ends abruptly with a sheer drop. In our fourth-most-read story, Christopher Cheung untangles why the passerelle didn’t come along for the ride when Metrotown got a new stationhouse in 2017.

#3: A Peek Inside the Mysterious Glass House on Deer Lake

Another Christopher Cheung story comes in at Number 3: the story of how a residential modernist gem designed by architect Arthur Erickson and completed in 1965 ended up nestled next to a public body of water in Burnaby. As the house is now owned by the City of Burnaby, Cheung was able to secure permission to visit, bringing us along on an interior tour of the preserved former family home.

#2: In Downtown Vancouver, the Case of the Vacant Hotel

Our second-most-read story, by Jen St. Denis, got a bump recently when the City of Vancouver’s chief building official recommended the city declare 500 Dunsmuir a threat to public safety, and order it to be demolished. The 168-room hotel was the second-largest hotel in the city when it was built in 1907. In its early years, it was opulent and grand. By 1942, it was owned by the federal government and was used to house merchant mariners during the Second World War. By 1949, it had been purchased by the Salvation Army, and began its third life, providing housing to low-income people.

Later, the hotel housed students — and again, low-income housing — before falling into disrepair. By the time we published our Place Detective, it had been sitting empty for a decade.

#1: In Northern BC, the Case of the Mummified Mining Town

Taking the Number 1 spot is Amanda Follett Hosgood’s piece on a curiously well-preserved mining ghost town in Northern B.C. Briefly a company town, Kitsault was abandoned en masse in 1983 after its molybdenum mine, which faced environmental controversy, was closed as a result of plummeting prices for the mineral. Today, it is a time capsule, kept up by a succession of caretakers. A bit like a mausoleum, Follett Hosgood writes.

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Share your Place Detective tips in the comments below, or email us at editor[at]thetyee[dot]ca.