Saturday Travel Feature

Happy Birthday Laura!

Long Beach, B.C.

The house in the photo above was taken in 2005 in the small town of Ucluelet B.C. Ucluelet is the southern of two towns at either end of B.C.'s Highway #4 on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The northern town on Highway #4 is Tofino. These towns are among the most western outposts of Canada. Halfway between Ucluelet and Tofino is the stretch of beach known as Long Beach. And on the hill above this beach is the original site of the house in the photo above.

Photoshopped to look more like house above Long Beach

This house is a Panabode House, a prefab made to look like logs inside and out. It was built as a one storey house with three bedrooms, a living room with a fireplace, dining room, kitchen and laundry room. Under part of the house was a dirt basement, where the water from the washing machine drained. The water supply to the house was a hose running from a creek on the hill above the house. The view from the livingroom and master bedroom windows was of the stretch of Long Beach, the Seal Rocks where the sea lions basked and honked, and the Pacific Ocean.

One view of part of Long Beach

The house was built on the hill of the gravel Combers Beach Road, just after the bend where it headed down to the water and west of Staghorn Creek. The owners were the Norton family. Mrs. Norton was an avid gardener and planted over 26 types of daffodils from catalogues she ordered from around the world. She cleared the salal from the side of the house for a patio and planted the daffodils along the gravel driveway to the house. The house was often rented out to teachers working in the area. One of these families was The Grants. And in 1969 to 1971 it was The Wilson's. This is the house that Laura Wilson came to in 1970 when she was one week old. She came from Vancouver General Hospital with her mother Suzanne, her father Alan, her sister Amy, and her brother Richard.

In 1970 Pacific Rim National Park was established. The house on Combers Beach Road fell within its borders. Soon after The Wilson's moved from the area the house was moved out of the park and into Ucluelet where it now sits. Some of Mrs. Norton's original daffodil bulbs were taken to North Vancouver by The Wilson's and planted in their front yard where they bloomed each spring for several years.

Note Highway #4 leading to Ucluelet and Tofino

Photos: Taken of house now moved into the town of Ucluelet and of a section of Long Beach in 2005 by SW. The lower photo of the house is photoshopped to resemble the house closer to what it looked like when it was actually on the hill above the beach.

Link 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ucluelet

Link 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Rim_National_Park_Reserve