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"Happiness always looks small when you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and at once you learn how big and precious it is."
Maxim Gorky

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Wandering, wondering and marvelling...

A beautiful, warm autumn day.
Finally feeling like going on an adventure again, so Norene and I headed out to Jordan River.
 Not much going on here these days except surfers and visitors to the beach,
but back in the day this was a bustling and busy, industrious place.
In 1911 the Vancouver Island Power Company built the second
and largest hydroelectric power plant on the island.
It's been shut down since the mid '70s but I had been there once years ago
and had marvelled at the architecture of the building.
Today's mission was to go find it again.
A short drive through the bush...
...peeking above the alders gone wild we could see the huge structure...
Like finding an Aztec temple in the middle of the jungle, we were giddy with excitement.
Coming around to the front you could imagine the manpower, equipment and materials it 
took to build this thing.
We were a bit nervous about going in, since it's become a bit of a derelict, creepy, party hole
and you never know who or what for that matter, is going to be hanging out here...
But looking beyond the rubble, it was easy to imagine the enormity of the place and 
the power it once generated.
There were huge turbines and pipes and cables.
This plant powered the city of Victoria an hour away.
Holes for massive cables, inside...
...and out.
There's something so grand about a building of this age and history.
Still standing and holding secrets of the one thousand men who worked, lived,
ate and slept here...
If these walls could talk!!
Kids and wild animals have taken over this ground now...
And NATURE herself!
Someday this building will be consumed by the elements...
Gobbled up by brambles and moss and ferns...
The Cumberland bamboo spreading out all around her foundations...
 But the bones of the cement walls should stand for many years to come...
beautiful in her art deco dress...
Shards of her past whispering in the bush beneath...
 On our way out we met this tiny frog who calls this place home...
I leave wanting to know more stories of this place.
A trip to the local museum might turn up some archival photos and put some
images of the faces and of the time when this building was in her glory days.
For now though she sits silently.



5 comments:

Ashley said...

very cool! you got some great shots. I love the one with the ferns growing out the side of the building.

the wild magnolia said...

Tre-men-dous post. Days gone by, so fun to travel back in time, you are a time traveler.

Wonderful sharing, the fern crown, growing below the roof. The history of this place, 1000 men working here.

Untold mysteries.

Thank you so much!

Stone Angel said...

Spooky and cool! I could die over the ferns.

farmlady said...

These photos are wonderful!! Some are worthy of framing.
An old building, it's architecture, it's attachments, and the ghost of its former life, is so intriguing.

Your photos are a visual history of a place that once thrived. Now, you have created beauty in its ruins..

gz said...

So beautiful and awesome...but why on earth is it derelict and unused?