Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-02-02
CRACROF 7 ISLAND
As SEEN BY GRAND
AP|DS BOY
Vancouver, British Columbia,
A Growing City of Great In
tereSt.

Boat Harbor, B. c., Cracroft Is
land, Jan. II, 1911.
A. L. Fontaine, Grand Rapids, Wis.
Dear riend:-The tribe of Jen-
kins, has at various times furnished
the Reporter with copy" relating to
individual wanderings and places of
interest visited, but up to this mo-
ment it has been no less than twelve
years since the writer's name was at
tached to anything appearing there
in.
At present, am on a small Island
(Cracroft) 200 miles north of Van
couver, British Columbia.
Cracroft Island is one of the many
heavily wooded, rocky isles along the
upper western coast of North Ameri-
ca. 1t is situated in Johnston's
Straits between the mainland and Van
couver Island, near the upper end OF
that island Cracroft is completely
covered with dense forests of fir
spruce, hemlock and cedar, but is
fast being denuded of its valuable
covering by various logging firms
Even when completely stripped the
little island will not be without it's
attraction to the investor, for pros
pectors have already proved beyond
impregnated with copper, gold and
silver with the former predOminating.
Some of the mines have been worked
little but the monied interests are
holding back on account of the very
low price of copper at present. How
ever, if that mineral advances suffi-
GENTLY in the near future, Cracroft
Island will boast numerous mining
camps as well as logging camps.
Before going farther into my accou
I would say that for the past three
months l have been working on the
island for one of Mrs. Jenkins I'M
cles, VIM Reveler
Uncle Billy" as we call him is
heavily interested in timber and cop
per claims, both ON this island and
Vancouver Island, besides having a
ranch here at Boat Harbor; said
ranch being in the terms of the lum-
Der jacks here a pig ranch" Uncle
Billy, like most "Old Baches" likes
company of some sort and his COM
pany at present consists, among 9TH
! l.
odd pigs; hence the name.
The nearest post-office is Cracroft,
fifteen miles south; it being the only
one on the island. Altho we have
no post-office here at Boat Harbor;
the Canadian Pacific Railway CO. S
coast steamer, Queen City," sailing
between Vancouver and Hardy Bay
once a week stops here every Friday
with supplies and mail for the Mosh-
operating on the next claim to Uncle
Billy's ranch. In this wise we are
able 10 communicate with the outside
world.
l presume if the census enumerator
were to count noses (human noses)
on Cracroft Island he would earn a.
bout $3.50 at the regulation 10c each
and but 10c of the total would pay
for all the women he counted-she
being a rancher's wife on the other
side of the island next the mainland.
Several years ago vast hordes of
deer thronged the little island and
literally packed its fifty square miles
of surface, but becoming aware of
this, large numbers of mountain lions
swan over from the mainland across
the narrow channel and slaughtered
the fleet footed beauties by the whole
sale. 1t is also known that the ST.
washes Qndians) killed them by the
hundreds to, but that was not a pate
to what the lions did Now there are
but two deer known to be on the
island and they having eluded the
lions, the last named were compelled
to go back to their former haunts
on the mainland.
Uncles Billy is a truthful man, in