Before opening the doors of the BC Forestry Museum (now the BC Forest Discovery Centre) in 1965, Gerry Wellburn had been accumulating a quite extensive collection of trains and other forestry related items. He started his collection for his personal enjoyment and the museum for the community.

Few people know the remarkable man who collected donkey engines, locomotives, and tools of the logging industry; pulling them from scrap yards and out of the bush to create the unique living museum of forestry - in fact, B.C.'s first theme museum which guided the formation of places like Fort Steele.

Life before the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum

Born in Yorkshire, England in 1900, Gerry moved to Victoria with his family where his father ran a grocery store at the corner of Pandora and Cook. Young Gerry had started collecting stamps in England so when he discovered both British Columbia and Vancouver Island had once issued their own stamps he became fascinated. He visited many of the older residents of Victoria to collect old letters and to hear their stories of British Columbia's beginnings. He also spent his time riding as many trains as he could find.

He graduated from Victoria High School with the likes of Bruce Hutchinson and Ansley Helmcken.

His first job was with the circulation department of a Victoria newspaper. His duties took him on trips up the Island where he observed that there were more jobs and opportunities than in Victoria. In 1923 he moved his wife Ethel May and daughter Lois to Courtenay where he worked in logging and sawmilling. He was soon promoted to foreman and worked for several companies on the Island and mainland.

In the early 1930's he founded Wellburn Timbers Ltd., a sawmilling and logging company in Duncan. In 1943 he sold the company to his friend H. R. MacMillan and continued on as manager of what is now the Shawnigan Division of MacMillan & Bloedel Ltd.

During his career, Gerry started logging with six horses; progressed to using steam yarders and was one of the first to use Caterpillar tractors and trucks. He and others proved that not only were trucks cheaper to run than railways but that the flexibility of being able to select cutting areas provided much improved forest practices. He was a founder of the Truck Loggers Association and made an honorary member of the Association of Professional Foresters.

Always active in community affairs Gerry Wellburn was president of the Duncan Chamber of Commerce and the Victory Bond sales drives during the second world war. He was the Chairman of the Duncan Hospital Society for 12 years and was successful in obtaining the funds for a new hospital for the district.

His Collecting

Gerry got to know all sorts of people in the coastal forest industry, from company owners to the railroaders, loggers and mechanics, especially during the Depression years when many companies were on a shortened work week and there was time to dig around. He interviewed old timers in the 1940's, and many of these recollections are in the provincial museum with a mass of papers Gerry collected relating to the history of the Island's forest industry.

"He could see the changes coming in the forest industry. He set out to try to save this stuff. In his collecting he was very perceptive, and he did it systematically. He has a very good eye for things," (Bob Turner in Gidney) He collected horse-drawn wagons, automobiles and fire engines - some of them in the BC Transportation Museum in Surrey and with the Atchelitz Threshermen's Association in Chilliwack. He had an interest in old toys, some now in the provincial museum . From his knowledge of B. C. history he became involved with the founding of Barkerville Historic Park, Fort Steele Historic Park, the BC Forest Museum, the B. C. Transportation Museum and the National Philathetic Museum.

But his first passion remains philately. Wellburn is acknowledged to have one of the finest collections of postage stamps in Canada, particularly from B.C.'s colonial period. In 1990 Wellburn published a book on the postal history of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. One collector told Robert Turner, Curator at the Royal BC Museum, that Gerry's collection on an scale of 1 to 10 was number 10, 11 and 12. He is the only person ever to be honoured three times as International Stamp Collector of the Year, twice in the last ten years. The first time he was the youngest person ever to receive the award. He was only fourteen.

The Cowichan Valley Forest Museum

As a member of the Duncan Chamber of Commerce, he found himself in close association with the local people - the small business men and the professionals. He quickly realized that there were fundamental misunderstandings, even prejudices, concerning the forest industry. He noticed that a woman was proud to be the wife of a doctor, a real estate salesman or a storekeeper, but the wife of a sawmill worker was often looked down upon.

So he set out to put the record straight. He wanted to make a point that small businesses and growing townships would not have survived without the logging camps and the sawmills which pumped the big money into the community.

In Gerry's words: "I thought we'd better do something about telling people what the real story was. To make people listen you have to entertain them, and there's nothing like a live steam railway to put people in a good humour. So that's how we start our story."

He's put a lot of himself into the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum, his monument to the forest industry. Along the way he's entertained hundreds of thousands of people, young and old - and incidentally, three Lord Mayors of London, a President of the New York Stock Exchange, and the late Walt Disney. As a result of Gerry's advice, Disney added a live steam locomotive to the attractions of Disneyland. (A Walk in the Forest, Guide to the BCFM)

"By 1950 all the logging railroads in BC were being pulled up and replaced with trucks. Nearly all the railway equipment went to Japan for scrap. I just drifted up to Chemainus one day to see what was going on. There were great piles of it lying around." (Gerry in Gidney )

"The price went up when people knew how keen I was to get old logging articles," he remarked, adding, "I was able to gather some 200 articles, however, before this increase had gone too far. This collection gave me a record of the industry's growth." (Leader 1964) He said one of his first items was a hewn Hudson's Bay timber 12" by 12" from the company's old warehouse in Victoria.

In 1951 he happened to be driving by the MacMillan Bloedel yard at Chemainus and found them putting the cutting torch to an old Shay locomotive he'd ridden as a boy, turning it into scrap. He stormed into the office, outraged. They gave him the pick of what was left. His choice was "Old One-Spot", because she was the oldest and most interesting. She was built in 1911 by Lima Locomotive Works of Ohio and was the first of her type brought into British Columbia. He bought the locomotive for $1750.

His passion for railways created the "Glenora Western Railway" on his 10 acre property near Deerholme, 4 miles from Duncan south of the Cowichan River. The last spike on the G.W.R. was hammered in place June 28, 1958. The line was completed with the help of the Victoria and Nanaimo Model Railway Clubs.

The unique museum attracted growing numbers of visitors to the Wellburns' backyard. He jokes that it was his late wife who finally said,"Enough", although he adds with a smile, "It really wasn't as bad as she made out. She had a lovely garden out front, and many of the visitors stopped to see the flowers and tell her how much they enjoyed them while I was at the back of the house with the train's".

The collection attracted increasingly large numbers of visitors and became increasingly well known. It's very popularity eventually became a burden to the Wellburn family.

In 1963 Mr. Wellburn began looking for a permanent location for the collection and did secure an arrangement with the Provincial Government for the transfer of the entire collection to a site at Beaver Lake, near Victoria. A golfing Saanich mayor envisioned a golf course on the same property instead.

Through local negotiations a group of civic leaders, including the former Mayor of Duncan and North Cowichan, and assisted by Gerry Wellburn, was able to secure the present site and keep the collection in the valley.

Gerry Wellburn sold his collection to the Museum for a price which was considered modest - $50,000 - and was not paid in full until 1972.

The Official opening of the Cowichan Valley Forest Museum was Saturday, June 4, 1966.

He also has an artist's skill with pen and ink and an aptitude for design. "He planned it like a landscape architect." (Turner in Gidney)

Through Gerry Wellburn's diligence in collecting these valuable artifacts; in his generosity in contributing them to the Valley, and his persistence in seeking and establishing financial assistance for the establishment of the museum, we in the Cowichan Valley have one if the Province's finest living museums containing collections of historical logging equipment and artifacts.

In addition to other financial support; Mr. Wellburn has donated an initial $100,000 towards a foundation to provide financial support to carry on museum functions at this facility. While managed by the Vancouver Foundation the fund benefits the BC Forest Museum. As well, in 1988 Vern Wellburn announced a further $10,000 donation in memory of his mother, Ethel May.

Gerry Wellburn has been presented with awards of recognition from the Province, the City of Victoria, the Canadian Institute of Forestry and others.

Gerry and Ethel May had three children and now have nine grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

Sources

Cowichan Newsleader, "Forest Museum project will get 4 to 1 support outside", May 1964

Norman Gidney, "Gerry Wellburn recalls old train that drove him to create museum", Horizons, December 30, 1990.

Gray Campbell and Michael Coney, Forest Adventure: A Guide to the British Columbia Forest Museum, Porthole Press Ltd: Sidney, 1985

BC Forest Museum scrapbooks

Gerry Wellburn, speaking to the Pacific Forestry Centre, "The History of Logging in the Cowichan Valley", May 31, 1989 Vern Wellburn.