caycuse bell
- April 13, 2009
This is Caycuse Bell in Lake Cowichan. The town of Caycuse has an interesting history as a floating village on the south west end of Lake Cowichan. Caycuse had 400 loggers/residents at its peak in the 1900s. Not yet a ghost town, 13 people currently live on the land in that area, though I've seen other numbers that say 65 people do. The town has a closed school and a 2 lane bowling alley called the MULTIPLEX. It also has an active firehall. You can access Caycuse on a gravel road from Honeymoon Bay.
The bell itself is in front of the musem in "downtown" Lake Cowichan near the Weir. The museum is normally south and behind the bell, but the light from the south was better, as was the backdrop, so I went behind the bell and took the photo, and then mirrored it horizontally to make it look un-backwards again.
I have no idea what the bell was used for. The museum was closed so we couldn't find out any official info on the weekend. In my head, I am imagining that it was rung when the waffles were ready for the lumberjacks to eat. Do you know anything about Caycuse? Have you been there? Have you heard of it until now?
Comments
towns from that far back in history often had centrally located bells to help call out emergencies such as fires, when people would be summoned to help put together a bucket brigade.
It's cool that you found that town - lots of history on the island that you never hear about (especially when you live in Calgary).
I grew up in Caycuse from 1960-78, and that bell was hung on the porch of the cookhouse, and was rung to call the loggers to meals, and by us kids to drive everyone nuts.
CaycuseMan, cool! Thanks for the history lesson. Glad you left a comment :)