If It Wasn’t For Mary

Mary Scholey was a missionary and postmistress in Bamfield, and a close friend of Nelson Dunkin. Nearly every week, Mary took her small boat the 10 km up Trevor Channel to bring Nelson his mail, a few groceries, a tub of ice cream and a consistent in-person connection with the world beyond his cove. Nelson once wrote, "i think sometimes that if it wasn’t for Mary, i would have died some time ago."

Sarah and I met recently with Anita—our postmistress here in Honeymoon Bay—and her husband Joe, who took over the Bamfield post office from Mary in 2004. We spent several hours talking about Mary and the quiet influence of her presence in that West Coast community. I learned that Mary's situation was even more humble than Nelson's, and that she was surrounded by a community that considered her their treasure.

Joe: The first thing I heard from Mary was that she worked with First Nations kids, first at Anahim Lake and then at a Pentecostal church in Chemainus.

Mary at her graduation from Bible college in Victoria

Anita: And then she made the decision to come out to the rugged West Coast. She jumped on a mission boat and came out to Bamfield, and started working with the First Nations—and got stuck there. She took over that tiny post office, where she worked for many years until shortly before she died. Mary got sick and had to go into the hospital. I think she would have been there still after that if she could. She had a First Nations lady named Rose who was her second in line. Rose didn't want to take the job, and she said, I hope Mary comes back. But of course, that was impossible. And that's when Joe took over the post office.

Anita: Mary did many things for the First Nations people. She gave them all the money she had, even when it wasn't hers—like, when it was post office money. She gave it away, and nobody ever said anything. They were First Nations and they needed the money, so they got the money.

Joe: The story was that her every second check went to them. It was a check for her and then a check towards the band or the people that she was taking care of—Angie Joe, or some of the older elders in the band, or people who just couldn't make it on their own. In Sarita or even up at Pacheena Bay, that's what she did. That was the way she wanted to fill up her life. We lived on the east side, so I would come over by boat to pick up the mail once or twice a week. And there she would be, working away, with open ulcers on her legs. She shouldn't have been working anymore. But that was her life and her way of giving to the community.

Mary helping lead a church service.

Joe: She lived in the net loft below Erik Wickham’s house. On the west side of Bamfield, you've got the grocery store, and then there was the Freer's house, Heather and Joe’s, and then beside that, the red house that was Wickham’s and Sandberg's property. I think they were all but lifetimers there too. But the net loft was down below that. It's still there. At the end of that building, at some point they put in a wall to close off one of the corners of the net loft for Mary. The net loft was a place to store nets, because it was a commercial fishing place, and they needed some place to pull the nets, dry them and repair them. So they created a small area for Mary, and she lived in there for as long as I knew her. No hot water—she had a cold water tap. And a toilet, bolted onto the floorboards, that went into a pipe that took it 10 yards further onto the beach.

Anita: It was just one little square room with a little oil cook stove. She had only candles in there at first because there was no power. It wasn't meant to be a place for anybody to live in. She just had nowhere else to go. And she was happy there. Later on, they put power in, but she had no hot water until just the last few years of her life. She had only the little cookstove to keep her warm. That was something that surprised me, how she managed the cold. She didn't complain about any of it; she just lived there. Mary was fine. She was happy. She spent most of her time in the post office.

Joe: She worked with the First Nations people in the church in Grappler Inlet. They built the church down there, a building they brought in by barge. Mary had gone in there with somebody else, and they brought Christianity in. But the church burned to the ground, and then they moved the church to Pacheena Bay.

The church in Grappler Inlet that later burned down.

Joe: They named a piece of the walkway on the west side after Mary. Between the store and the post office, there's a small walkway where people get their mail, and they called it Mary Scholey Way. We knew Mary for the last four years she was there, and she was showing her years. Not Alzheimer's or anything like that, but she had the clarity of somebody in their mid to late 80s. Sometimes you would go in there and she would just mutter to herself and ignore you completely, or not even know that you were there until she saw you, and she would say, Oh, hello. And I would say, Oh, hi, I need the mail. She was quite interesting. When I took over the post office, there was a transitional period. Rose was going in there and covering for Mary, but she wasn't interested in the job.

Joe: At the time we first moved there, Canada Post was allowed to cash government checks—band checks, welfare checks, senior citizens checks. So, Mary at the post office was the unofficial local bank. If Mary had money, she would cash a check. If somebody came in with a government check for $350, she would say she had $125 on hand and give them that, then save up cash to pay out the rest of the money. But she would also help out any who needed it. In the end, Canada Post was out quite a bit of money, not on purpose or anything, but people kept asking her, probably abusing the situation. And Canada Post wrote it off in the end. They knew it was not for her own gain, but she gave to people what she thought they needed.

Joe: The road to Bamfield was absolutely the worst you could imagine. The first time I drove in, it was four or five hours from Port Alberni to Bamfield. I'm driving a little blue Toyota Tacoma, and I am lost. People said, follow the power lines. But there was a branch road to one of the camps, down by the inlet. And of course, there were power lines that way. So I thought, Bamfield must be down that way. I followed another logging road and ended up down at the beach where there's one house and a logging camp. And I say, I'm trying to get to Bamfield. Oh, no, no, the wrong way. Back up the road again, potholes a foot deep all over the place. And finally ended up getting there.

Anita: When we knew Mary, she was old and could no longer walk quite upright, shuffling along slowly. She sometimes wouldn't even notice that you were there. But I found her incredible, interesting. Rose said, Yeah, I don't know how she does it. You know, she can barely move, but she keeps going.

Joe: Mary had that West Coast look about her, a face of maturity and experience. But calm. You could tell that she was happy with her role and the direction that her life had taken. I'm not a religious guy, but I think that's the satisfaction you saw in her face, that fulfilment. She had a direction she wanted to head, and she was happy with the decisions that she made and what became of them. Even on a challenging day for her physically, when you went to the post office, you never saw her angry or cranky or upset. There was always a smile, always a friendly hello, always a welcome. It didn't matter if she had six bags of letters to sort—there was always time to stop and talk and have that moment with you.

Anita: That was a specialty of Bamfield in general—people did that. This is what I enjoy about my job [as postmistress in Honeymoon Bay]: it’s like what she had in Bamfield, though a bit more busy. Some people still look at me strangely when I say hello and have a chat with somebody who comes in, as if that is wrong. Mary stayed at her counter, but still had her chats. And nothing could disturb her—she still had her little conversations with people. I felt it was something incredible. And I guess that's why I run my little post office like this, too.

Joe: You would go to the post office, and Mary was sorting mail with the Dutch door closed to give her a little privacy, and that was the rule at Canada Post. You take a bag of mail and you pour it out on the table, and that's where you'd start your primary sort to break it down into different names or different areas or whatever, and then you go to the boxes and start filling them. The cash was in a drawer; there was no till, because everything was manual in Bamfield. There was no accounting except with a pencil and a good eraser. You'd open up a cash drawer and there were four slots for bills and four slots for coins. That's how Mary plugged away for years. 

On a letter from Nelson, a postage cancel stamp by Mary's hand, dated December 9, 1986

Anita: It was still exactly the same when Joe took it over. I was hired as his intern, and he got called out one day, and he comes home and says to me, well, you know, tomorrow, you gotta go and run the post office. I had only a few hours one day to learn how to do it. So, here I am with my little rowboat, and that day was terrible weather. And I had to row over there. My arms hurt, but I made it. I thought a few times I would maybe tip, but I made it. And I said, oh my God, I have to do that whole thing again to get back home. And then I sit in this office and the first person comes and he had some kind of an account, but who knows how and what? Come back tomorrow, I said to him. And he says, this is easy. I’ll tell you what to do. So he actually had to walk me through how to run the post office.

Joe: When Mary was there, when you were mailing packages, Canada Post provided you with a destination book. And you'd open up the British Columbia section and then the Vancouver Island section, and then which column you are on Vancouver Island, you would have to go to that. And then you'd have to cross-reference with every other province or whatever, and then break it down into a district and a city—all so you could figure out how much to charge on a parcel.

Joe: Coming from the city to Bamfield and expecting to ship something, you go over to the post office and bother Mary. You stick your head through the little hole to see if Mary is free, or at least unbusy enough that she could take care of you. She opens up the Dutch door to receive your parcel, and she measures it all out. Then she looks at the destination and gets out the book. Five minutes of going through a book, trying to find the right page, and then she looks up the dimensions and finds out how much it will cost. Of course, there was no machine to print up a stamp for it, so it meant putting on stamps. Whatever Mary had there that was available to put on, she would stick on at that time. If the cost was $18, it was $18 worth of lick ’em stamps, stuck on the front, sides and back of the parcel. And then she had to cancel them all out with the hand stamp or round hand stamp hammer, hammering out all these stamps so that each one got cancelled. Also, if you were changing your address, you'd have a form that you and Mary would fill out. I'm moving; here's my address. Mary would say, that's $53. She would flip the form over to the back, and lick stamps. And that's what she had to do, and cancel them all because that was your proof of payment.

Joe: It would have been a three-day trip for officials to come down and audit Mary's office, because they would have come down on the Lady Rose. By the time they finished that audit, the boat had already gone over to the east side, back to the west side, and it was heading back to Port Alberni. The officials did not want to make the drive. They would have to stay up at McKay's or one of the other places. There was a lot of stamp licking, and 100s of stamps could go onto a parcel. We had stacks of sheets of stamps: there's the pennies, and there's the 2 pennies, and there's the 5 pennies. You take a sheet and cancel out the whole thing. And stick it on the top. And then you had to keep that form in your office in case they came down and audited. They would say, show me one of your mail changes. You go into your drawer and you pull out a mail change and they'd flip it over and they'd count the stamps to see if they had the proper amount on it. This must have been pretty crazy for Mary.

Joe: You think about Mary going up to Copper Island to see Nelson Dunkin, and she didn't have a big boat. She had a 14-footer with a small motor. As seaworthy as any lake boat is on the ocean, I guess. But she would go up there and deliver his mail. Once you get past Nookamus Bay, as soon as the afternoon comes, all the weather starts to change. During the day, you've got an inward flow of weather that goes up the inlet towards Port Alberni, and then in the afternoons, it starts coming back down. Suddenly, all these waves start backing up behind you. I fished a lot in a 14-foot boat out there, but it had a 20-inch transom on it. I had lots of room, but it was scary for me. And she had an 18-inch transom with a motor on that, pulling it down even farther. And these waves crashing up to the back of the boat. I couldn't imagine her coming back after dropping off the mail. She practiced her praying, let me tell you. And then doing that every week. Or every couple of weeks in the winter, you hope for a break in the weather or enough to get up there knowing that maybe that was the time to do it. You’re trying to stay close enough into shore because you don't want to be out in the open, not in a little boat like that. If you capsize, you hope you can swim to shore.

Mary visiting with Nelson Dunkin

Anita: The pictures of Mary show how resilient the woman was, because she had only cold water to wash, but she was clean. I never saw her unclean. Even when she was older, and she looked a bit more raggedy because of her age, I never saw her dirty. She was always a tidy person. This is something that amazes me, that she could do that for years and years, stay so clean, with cold water.

Anita: When Mary passed away, the time came for her family—I'm not sure if it was nieces or what connection of the family—to go through her stuff. They went over to the net loft and into her place and went through everything and kept a few indigenous baskets, and then everything else was just tossed into the dumpster. It killed me. I don't think Mary's connection was to that part of her family. It was to her broader Bamfield family at that point. Myself and Rose went over there and pulled lots of photos and stuff like that out of the dumpster. It was like her life had just been tossed away. The family only kept Angie Joe's little basket that was handmade for Mary with love, some beautiful carvings and stuff like that. We found photos that went back to her time in Chemainus in her 20s and her work with First Nations kids, and we asked the Pentecostal Church if they were interested, but there was no interest at all, like they didn’t want the documentation. In the end, after carrying it around for a number of years, I finally got rid of her stuff myself.

Finally, few tidbits about Mary that I gleaned from the internet:

Mary must have had a wood stove at some point: “Sometimes when he fueled up I would ask, where to today, Billy? And his reply might be that Mary Scholey had no wood, so he would look for a log or that she had some logs but they needed to be cut.” – Barkley Sounder, Jul/Aug 1991

Though Mary preferred dogs, she looked after many feral cats in Bamfield. She established the famous “Bamfield Cat Colony” that can still be seen along the walkway on the west shore.

She wrote articles for Ha-Shilth-Sa, a West Coast newspaper.

Someone posted this photo on the Bamfield/Anacla Photo Contest on Facebook six years after Mary was gone. Below are some of the many comments made on the photo:

• Wonderful woman, I loved her! Thanks for sharing this picture. - Rosanne
• Our beautiful Mary Scholey... she is so missed... so many precious memories... - Karin 
• She was an amazing woman, one of Bamfield’s best. - Jan
• Our angel with a speedboat, loved this lady. - Ruby
• What a beautiful photo of a beautiful woman. - Liz
• We used to hitchhike across to the west side to go see her, eh Marena... - Carole
• Mary was such a loving person. She is wearing her Foxy button. She never gave up looking for her dear Foxy. - Liz
• She was a great lady with a heart of gold. - Wendy
• What a sweet lady! - Mandala
• She was a wonderful woman. Miss her - Corene
• Awe, Mary Schooley, miss her. - Steph
• Memories of a beautiful woman. - Clara
• i remember as a kid seeing her on my way to Sunday school. - Alec
• Mary bought my first basket and totem pole I made, for $5.00 each. They were not very good. - Tom
• Mary, what an honest truthful lady you were. love ya and may you rest in peace. - Elaine
• I miss her. She made Sundays so much more enjoyable. - Belinda
• I miss her too. What a beautiful lady she was. - Naomi
• Awwe, beauty pic. - Karen
• All bamfielders thought so. - David
• Miss you, Mary. - Cecil
• Mary Scholey! Heart of gold, that woman, so many good memories of her. Riding around in her blue truck with her while she delivered mail. Getting candy and chips for memorizing Bible verses. - Terry
• What a Legend, Mary would pay for me to go to Copper Island Camp every year. - Owen
• Absolutely loved her, she was so good to me. - Laura
• Mary. Such a beautiful lady. Forever remembered in the hearts of many. - Victoria
• Loved Mary so much, she was the kindest soul you would ever meet. - Charlie
• Awe, I miss you, Mary. RIP. - Irene

Nelson the Philosopher

NOTE: As submissions of new material, photos and artifacts of Nelson Dunkin begin to slow down, I will be posting on this blog less often, and only as new items emerge.

The following writing was Nelson’s attempt at what is called “Theodicy” (“justifying God”) to explain how a good, perfect, all-powerful and all-knowing God could permit evil to exist. Though he doesn’t quite say it, Nelson comes close to saying that evil is necessary for good to exist. It’s a slippery path, because this line of thought could lead one to believe in "necessary evil," or justifying an evil action to bring about good. 

I’m sure this was not Nelson’s intention, but this little essay does demonstrate one of the problems with isolation. Sitting by himself some lonely night in front of his woodstove, and by the light of his kerosene lamp, Nelson took an idea and explored it, but had no one to counter his thoughts or raise the questions that he hadn’t considered. 

Personally, I might have asked Nelson if there is any goodness apart from the character of God. For example, the Bible says that God is love. If pure goodness finds its source in God, evil isn’t necessary to contrast how good he is. But if God creates people with free will, the choice to reject him makes evil a potential element in the world.

 

The Law of Opposites and Comparisons:

If Up is Up There Must Be A Down and Infinite Distance All Around

The Elephant & The Mouse

The elephant: he is a very large animal but if all the animals were elephants how, without any comparison, how would we know if he were large or small?

Now a mouse comes bounding in and stands beside the elephant—it is then we can say: What a large animal the elephant is and what a small animal the mouse is.

Again we see a mountain and we say: What a great mountain that is, because it towers above all the surrounding hills.

Now if the earth were as smooth and as flat as a table-top and moles raised up their mole-hill—and the gardener came along and dumped a wheelbarrow of earth we could say: What a large mound.

So it is with Good and Evil. If there were no evil to contrast the good, how could there be any good?

Same as heat and cold—without heat how could there be cold and without cold how could there be heat?

Thus it is with Righteousness and Sin.

If there were no sin how would we know God to be righteous? All about us we see sin, suffering and sickness, and wonder and ask over and over how can God in his love and mercy tolerate such contradictions—the righteous suffering all manner of pain and sorrow whilst the evil live sumptuously in their wicked and ungodly ways?

Now suppose there were no devil or sin: How would we arrive at righteousness? 

Suppose God had created the heavens and earth without sin to bolster righteousness: what need would there be for death and judgment and reward?

What need would there be for a Saviour? 

I'm not sure where this sign was posted, but here is a mouse from Nelson for you! 

It now hangs in the dining room of Copper Island Camp.

Nelson's Songbook

When the Bamfield Cable Station was decommissioned in 1959, Nelson and Mina picked up a number of furnishings for their new house on Copper Island—for a song. One item was a pump organ that came from the staff music room. When the house burned down, the organ was one of the few things saved from the fire (who knows why, when all his beautiful carvings were lost). The organ took up a good bit of space in the tiny living room of Nelson's new house, and occasionally a visitor would play it for him, since he didn't play himself. Resting on the pipe organ was a songbook that Nelson had carved from wood. 

Recently, Inger was going through boxes in preparation for a move and discovered the songbook, which she has since sent to Nelson II. Before she put it in the mail, she emailed me some photos:

Writing at top: Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. Proverbs 31:10

Writing at bottom: Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. 1 John 4:7

Writing at top: Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the Law happy is he. Proverbs 29:18

Writing at bottom: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: No man cometh to the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Back Cover: Writing at top: May 4 1799  |  John B. Dunkin  |  Donegal  |  March 12 1876

This is a bit of a mystery, as these are not the names or birth dates of Nelson's parents. Since the dates are 77 years apart, it could be that John B. Dunkin was his grandfather and Donegal is an Irish ancestral name—hence the shamrock (clover leaf)—and the older year an emmigration date.

Photo: Nelson Edward Dunkin at age 2 or so (from comparison to another photo).

Writing at bottom: Jan 22 1909  |  Nelson Edward Dunkin  |  Born Near McKinley School  | Olympia

This is the only indication I have found of Nelson's specific birthplace. Since his family moved with the logging camps and often lived in a tent, perhaps it was at a camp near the school that he was born. 

The book is bound with a long metal hinge and has a metal clasp that Nelson probably fashioned. I never heard Nelson sing, but he dearly loved to have someone play and sing to him. I often brought my guitar to the run-down apartment in Maillardville and sang Nelson the old Irish hymn "Be Thou My Vision."

The Steward of Copper Island

“I consider holding the title for God’s Property a very serious business.”

When Nelson Dunkin bought the property on Copper Island in 1958, it wasn't his purpose to further isolate himself and his family. They had been living in Kildonan, a small marine community, where less than 100 people remained of the hundreds that once lived and worked there when the fisheries were open. He viewed the purchase of 105 acres on Copper Island as a way to establish a new coastal community, one based on the Christian values and principles by which he lived.

In a letter to us that I rediscovered recently, Nelson wrote:

So far i have in mind 4 couples with their children for a start here. You two - Neil & Kathy - Don & Patty and Burnd & Sylvia. These are all Born Again Christians and not allergic to work. i think we must be very cautious not to get any deadbeats or Agitators.

Nelson had a deep distrust of government “interference” with Copper Island:

Some years ago, when the Regional Dictatorship was first brought out, i borrowed their manifesto and copied the whole foul thing. Not a square foot of BC was exempt from their mandatory rulings. When the house was burned, my copy was lost. Some character in Vancouver was paid to zone Bamfield and around Barkley Sound: either the man was mentally unbalanced or he had a depraved sense of humour. For example, one section about Bamfield was zoned for “Hog Farm.” Imagine hogs rooting big cedar stumps out and growing fat, and also the expense of shipping grain in to feed them. Another portion for mushroom growing. Very likely he never heard that mushrooms are commercially grown in closed buildings. Copper Island was zoned for Railroads, Airports, Trapping and portable sawmills. Now if Copper Island is still so zoned, would there be any sin if we put up a little sawmill (since we already have the timber)? Surely we would be allowed to stay here with the mill, and if we happen to be religious, should our home religion affect our zoning? And if Christians wish to come visit, without being advertised for or charged, should that have any bearing on zoning? i hope i am not offensive, but that is as i see the situation.

The principle of stewardship is a constant theme in the Bible, from Adam and Eve placed in the garden of Eden to Jesus' parable of the talents. The teaching is that everything we have was entrusted to us by God, and that we are responsible to manage it in a way that represents him well. We treat the stuff of God as he would treat it, as his representatives on earth. In a letter to Neil, Nelson wrote:

It is a terrible responsibility to be title holder to the Lord’s property. To select an heir is a very serious business, and most likely there is not a person walking this earth whom all would approve of.

• They would need a vision and a love for Copper Island and a realization that such a property to buy is almost non-existent.
• They would need a greater desire to serve Christ than some denomination.
• To log off or sell the property should never once enter their mind.
• They would need to exercise extreme caution, these evil days, as to whom they would invite to use the place.
• There should be no advertising by print or radio, but by word of mouth people would come to know where to come to find the Lord.
• Friends could do work and give gifts but never would they be asked to pay for the use of the facilities.
• They would come as friends of Jesus and depart the same way.

Continue in prayer to God to guide us, and soon, for the world is deteriorating by the hour and Christians need a refuge from the evil one.

I find it encouraging that these values are still largely honoured by the people who lead and serve Copper Island Camp today. As much as the future of Copper Island was a constant concern and sometimes an anxiety for Nelson, God has proved himself trustworthy. He protected the property from several interests that did not own these values, and has preserved Nelson's vision during the 35 years that Copper Island Camp has been operating. I am thankful for the faithfulness of God and the people of his choosing.

The camp fire circle, with Nelson's second house in the background. Only the smaller section of the house (to the right) is original; the left side was added on to preserve Nelson's home and provide housing for camp staff.

Dear Nelson...

I recently found the originals of all our letters from Nelson, and with them an envelope—with the name "BADKE" in his large lettering—containing all the letters we had sent to him. Many people saved up Nelson's precious letters to this day, and he in turn treasured the letters he received.

Our letters were often about our plans to go and visit Nelson. He always said to just show up, but we had seen his calendar on the wall and knew how much he anticipated the upcoming visitors that he penciled in.

Dear Nelson, (April 3, 1985)
I'm not sure if you will remember me. I’m the "Jim" who was with the Shantymen one summer at Pachena Bay and visited you a couple of times (I once carved a seal out of soapstone for you). My wife and I visited you near Christmas the year before your beautiful old place burned down. We had flown in with a Shantyman pilot from Campbell River. You gave us a brass candlestick (which we continue to use regularly!).

We would like to come and visit you. The last time we saw you, we had said that we hoped to spend a bit more time with you than the couple of hours we had then, sometime in the future. We would like to come on the Lady Rose probably on April 25th (three weeks from now) and leave the next Tuesday. We will bring food, and Brian Burkholder mentioned to us that you have a couple of cabins now for your visitors. It would be good to see you again, and we can't think of a better way to spend part of the break we have from college.

If for some reason if isn't possible for you to have us stay with you at the time I mentioned, it will probably be too late to send us a letter to tell us. We will just come, hoping things will work out. If nothing else, we could catch the boat again on Its way back and have at least a few hours with you. We're looking forward to seeing you. I think it was the Lord who put you on our minds again. We pray that this time will be encouraging for both you and us.

That was our first longer visit, and it was wonderful. On June 17th, we wrote, "When we were watching your place disappear as we headed for Port Alberni, we were thinking how that while we at your place time stood still, and it was like we were going back on the same day that we had arrived. I’m sure the Lord will direct us to you again." Sarah and I didn't know during our visit that we were expecting, so in that same letter, Sarah broke the news: "We are going to be parents!! Our little bundle from the Lord is supposed to arrive sometime in middle of December. When I think of the little miracle growing inside of me, I wonder how anyone can say there is no God."

So when we made plans to visit again the next summer, it would be an even greater adventure:

Dear Nelson, (July 23, 1986)

Just a quick note to say that, if you will have us, we would like to come and stay with you for a few days in August. We would be arriving I think on Tuesday, Aug. 5 and leaving either on the following Sunday or the 8th. That doesn't give you much notice—sorry about that. We were writing you a longer letter, but then decided it would be better to “mail” ourselves to you instead. If that isn't a good time for you, you could do as you did once before and have Mary call us (I’ve enclosed a dollar), but otherwise we’ll just arrive on the Lady Rose: baby and all. And as usual, we will observe your rates: we'll bring our nose-bag and sleeping bags. We’re looking forward to another good time with you, and especially the opportunity to introduce you to Benjamin James, now 6½ months. P.S. - hope this reaches you before we do! 

Another common topic in our letters to Nelson was his hope to begin a Christian community on the island. We were one of four couples that he invited to come and live there. This was our response to his offer:

Dear Nelson (October 3, 1986) 

As you may have guessed, your invitation to us weighs heavily on our minds. My excuses for not packing up tomorrow and moving to Sunrise Cove are not very weatherproof—because surely the Lord would provide for our needs and Benji would be fine and so on—and yet it seems like such a big step that it makes all our other options seem like standing still. I can imagine how impatient you must feel waiting for young whippersnappers like us to make up our minds—you have been waiting a long time. But please bear with us and please keep praying for us. We will keep you posted.

Nelson received a similar response from another couple at about the same time:

Nov 16, 1986
Dear Nelson, how I would love to give my unreserved “yes” to your offer at this time, indeed your kindness and generosity have deeply impressed me and my heart wants to respond by embracing your generous offer and committing myself to serving our mutual Lord Jesus Christ together with you on this land which God has given you to use for his great purposes. Yet, as our dear friends [one of the other couples] know so well, only with the Lord's own approval would such a commitment be truly honoring to him and beneficial to others in His name. Such divine approval I must wait for before I can give you my firm commitment.

To that other couple's response, Nelson replied:

Feb 5, 1987
Your letter at hand and i fully agree with everything you say about the wisdom of having the title to this property secured by a will; in fact, for months i have prayed both night and day for a solution to the problem. It is a terrible responsibility to be title holder to the Lord’s property.

How patient Nelson was as he waited on God and on his people to fulfill the vision he had for Copper Island! Long nights of sitting by his kerosene lamp, reading our letters, praying for us and wondering what to write back.

Other correspondence was with people he tapped for their expertise on projects he had in mind (or on the go). He once thought of adding a steam engine to his boat so he wouldn't have to rely on diesel fuel. This was part of a reply he received:

Aug 6, 1964
I imagine you’ll be wanting to burn driftwood, in which case a large firebox is required. Do not attempt any welding of the pressure parts of a boiler yourself. We must never have an accident with any of these steamboats or the boom will get lowered. The little steam engines and boilers we build (to order only) take such a long time to build, four sets a year is about the limit, and we could sell more if we could build them faster. But we can’t so we have to turn fellows down right along. It’s too bad. The big trouble is I can’t get anything done for myself, nor have I had my own steam boat out for 6 years as a result. Well, I'll close now wishing you the best.

Finally, here is a postscript that I added to the end of one of my letters. My suggestion is one that you and I wish Nelson had heeded: 

PS. The enclosed pad of paper isn’t just for letter-writing this winter. You have a knack for writing. Why not write down some of the stories that you've told, especially about your own experiences? We, if not most people, would be most interested in reading them!!

 Nelson and Snuggles walking back from the float after saying goodbye until next time.

----------------------------------------------------

Delayed But Coming Up: A photo essay by Margaret Stewart—from the 

Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland—on Mina and her homeland and background.

Sea Creatures of Copper Island

Recently, several news articles have featured videos of the marine life around Vancouver Island, including Barkley Sound. Nelson never had the privilege of diving underwater to see whales, sea lions, sharks and other fish. Yet all creatures that came to the surface were his neighbours and friends.

Probably the most notable example was Matilda, the basking shark. These gentle creatures grow to be six to eight meters or more in length and have a mouth big enough to swallow someone. They swim with their mouth wide open so they can continuously gather and strain plankton. 

Matilda used to visit Nelson at his float. He would talk to her and rub her back, and sometimes even scrub off her barnacles with his deck brush.

Sadly, the complaints of fishermen led to a government-run program to eliminate the basking sharks from Barkley Sound. They are rarely seen anywhere around Vancouver Island now. But back in August, a basking shark showed up near Saltspring Island, as this video shows:

Humpback whales were also greatly depleted by the Vancouver Island whaling industry, including the Sechart Whaling Station just north of Copper Island. Now they are returning in increasing numbers and are often spotted near Nelson's old home. 

In November, photographer Peter Mieras was setting up at his dock in Rainy Bay, just north of Copper Island, when he dropped a camera in the water. Before he could dive down to retrieve it, a pod of sea lions came into the bay, pushing a bait ball (a large school of small fish) in front of them, followed by a humpback. He didn't know until he got the camera back that it was recording the whole thing, as seen in the video below:

Finally, Carl Sorensen of Nanaimo put together a compilation of all his dives in 2024, including in the area around Copper Island. How Nelson would have loved to see what few of us get to see—the underwater world:

A Copper Island Christmas

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I won't need to write much this month, because this photo is worth 10,000 at least. Inger couldn't have sent it at a better time:

"Santa" Nelson with Dave at the apartment in Coquitlam, mid-1990s.

Don and Patty made Nelson's Christmas bright in 1983. They came to Copper Island with Rick on the Lady Rose, bringing a tree and decorations made for the occasion, and a new baby (but no manger). 

Patty remembers, "Nelson always wore his same old clothes during the week, and then Sunday he would wear a nice shirt and pants. We all thought he could use a new shirt or pants for Christmas. He opened his gifts and was very thankful. But before the day ended, to our surprise he opened a cupboard to put them away and it was loaded with a collection of new shirts and pants still in their packages! His comment was that the clothes he had been wearing weren't worn out yet!"

Perhaps Nelson is remembering here the Christmas of 1953 when Harold Peters, Percy Wills and Earl Johnson came on the Messenger III to the Dunkin family floathouse in Kildonan with a Christmas tree tied to the mast and another onboard for their children to decorate:

This is from the Life Magazine article on the Shantymen and the Messenger III, which you can find here.

Christmas might also have brought to mind Nelson and Mina's adventure in the Port Alberni Inlet near the Christmas of 1950, so well documented by R. Bruce Scott in his book, The People of the Southwest Coast of Vancouver Island, in the chapter which was reprinted in Nelson's biography:

Maybe you will want to give the "Christmas Adventure" chapter another read this Christmas! Or, if you don't have a copy of The Island and i (or have a friend for whom it would be a great Christmas gift), you can purchase it here. All proceeds still go toward kids getting to camp this summer.

If Nelson were still with us, I know he would wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Nelson's Memorial Poem

In addition to the funeral held for Nelson in Burnaby on April 1, 1989, Dave and Inger Logelin arranged a memorial for Nelson on Copper Island and invited locals to attend. Madge's family and friends took the Lady Rose from Port Alberni, a few came up from Chemainus and Victoria, and others arrived by boat from around Barkley Sound, including Mary Scholey of Bamfield. 

One of the Copper Island Camp staff members, Charlene Baldwin, wrote a poem that was read at the memorial, and Inger recently sent me a copy:

Honoring the Life and Memory of Nelson Dunkin

The disciple of a Jewish Carpenter

Hewing a home out of an island hillside 

Laying an axe and adz or awl to wood 

Hammering, digging, smoothing, sanding edges 

Carving words—the Word—in truth, for good.

Sinking pilings, floating docks and barges 

Anchoring structures suited to storm and tide 

Building a strong foundation as a shelter 

Embracing the scripture's grace in place of pride.

Tending the family flock as faithful shepherd 

Praising a living God with hymns that ring 

Opening heart and home with warmth and welcome 

Watching the wounded soar on eagles wings.

Providing—blessing—an outpost for Christ's kingdom 

Building believers and servants for all the earth 

The life of one faithful man is a priceless treasure 

His handwork a door, through Jesus, to new birth.

A host of memories fashioned in wood still bless us 

The legacy of a gospel lived and preached 

In the simple life of a man with an eye for eternals 

Giving glory to God for the many still to be reached.

This note accompanied the poem:

In keeping with a long tradition of hospitality and camping, Nelson Dunkin made his property on Copper Island available for a Bible camp targeting native youth from the area in 1987. Dave and Inger Logelin became directors in 1990 and were offered the property to build a camp. The Wilderness Retreat Society, a Canadian non-profit organization directed by a board of missionaries and pastors, including Mary Scholey of Bamfield, was then established to receive Nelson Dunkin's donation. Church work parties have labored with Dave Logelin to build a solid and efficient facility to accomplish the work Nelson intended: preaching the gospel, training ministry, transforming lives and touching nations. 

A verse from Copper Island Camp's song, written by a guest in Nelson's home years before the camp existed, says:

Copper Island is where you go

To seek the Lord so you will know

There is a place where you can be

Happy, joyful, and totally free. 

Nelson's Guest Book

Recently, I received in the mail a package containing a few old letters, along with a treasure—Nelson's guest book, with entries from 1985 to 1993. It contains many names I have known, have heard of or have never seen before. Want to know if you are in there? Email me, and I will tell you!

Nelson received the guest book on May 2, 1985 from the Coastal Missions crew, who would have tied up at Nelson's dock in the original Coastal Messenger on its annual West Coast missionary voyage. Debbie, Tom, Brian and Anne were aboard. In the new guest book, they commented in green ink, "We always look forward to seeing you. This was a very special visit. God bless you!" Debbie wrote the word "look" as:

Debbie decorated the book and wrote the headings "date" and "name" on the left pages, and "comments" on the right. Visitors followed this regimen until about halfway through the book, where they began writing anywhere they liked.

Here are some highlights from entries, with only first names given:

• Bill P (May 85) – a great place here for hermits to gather!

• Gary (May 85) – Ahhh… woodstoves and candles. The thoughts of this world grow strangely dim.

• Wynn (Jun 85) – Back by popular demand.

• Bill I (Jul 85) – If you start charging wharfinger rates, we won’t be able to come as often!

• Family from Friend Island (directly across Copper Island just off the north shore) (Jul 85) – Wonderful! Heard about you for years. Glad to finally meet you.

• Bill of Olympia, WA (Jul 85) – After 55 years I met my school chum. Lots of changes in the world since we attended Olympic High. Enjoying this retreat immensely.

• Berna of Lake Cowichan (Jul 85) – A precious time of rest and relaxation in Jesus’ love. (About 40 years after this entry, we took Berna back to Copper Island to visit for a few days, shortly before she lost her eyesight.)

• Francis, Georgia, Larry and Peg (Aug 85) – Our friendly stopping place between Port Alberni and Bamfield.

• Visits by the RCMP vessel Manyberries

• Steve (Apr 86) – To a friend and brother in Jesus. We all love you, Nelson.

• Coastal Missions Crew (Brian, Anne, Debbie and Tom) (May 86) – Our yearly visit was such a blessing—as always. Thanks for sharing it together! We sure feel at home here, Nelson! Thank you for your love for the Lord and us.

• Ardis (July 86) – Your favorite niece?!?! To my favorite uncle the Hermit, God bless.

• Brian (July 86) – To Grandpa. I hope you have some nice weather this summer.

• Ben (Aug 86) – Thanks so much for your good hospitality. Can’t blame you for the lack of fish!

• Dave and Arlene of Kildonan (Aug 86) – Two more satisfied customers.

• Bernd & Sylvia of Tofino (Sep 86) – At last the Lord has granted us the opportunity to meet this wonderful old gentleman about whom we have heard so many good things… May God bless your desire to see your land used for his glory, dear Nelson.

• Neil, Kathy and Joshua (Mar 87) – Here to get away from it all. Thankful for a warm and cozy home in the midst of a stormy and wet few days.

• Brigitte of Germany (Apr 87) – I think I will never forget you and your way of life.

• Leona (Aug 87) – Grandpa, I am very glad I got to see you again. I love coming down here. Hope you have lots more people to keep you company. I will try to make it down more often. Love, Leona

Rich Parlee wrote a poem as his guest book entry in July 1987:

When I look out across the sea

And see the sunrise glowing

The eagle sitting in the tree

The westerly a-blowing

My thoughts stray way across the Sound

To a cabin on the shore

Where a welcome smile is always found

Where I have come oft times before

Copper Island! Restful haven

Honouring the Saviour’s name

Praise and worship always given!

Some things always stay the same!

After Nelson left Copper Island in 1989, many people still wrote in the guest book, mostly thanking him for making the property available to become a summer camp for children, youth and families. They wrote about their new perspectives and changed lives because of their time there. Inger also recorded a number of visits, and I assume she took the book to show Nelson at some point. 

Mary Scholey, faithful friend and regular visitor of Nelson and Mina for many years, has two precious entries in the guest book, written after Nelson had moved to the Mainland:

March 1990 – Came for a quick check since the big North winds. Everything seems divinely protected and serene—just waiting for another opportunity to serve its Creator and Master. God bless Nelson and Mina for keeping this lovely place for the Lord’s work.

 

March 1993 – After all these years—the peace of God lingers in this lovely place. I praise him for the privilege of weekly visits to Sunrise Cove, first to pray with Mina & Nelson about their dream for the future of this place, then to see the unfolding of this dream—a haven of rest for weary souls, a Bible camp where children and youth can learn of God’s peace in a setting of nature’s peace. Mina has entered into her reward in heaven. We pray a measure of this Copper Island peace will bless Nelson in Coquitlam as he serves God there.

Photo: Bamfield Archive and Museum