History can get a little fuzzy when dealing with the northwest section of Port Coquitlam, which shares a common border with Coquitlam.
It looks as if a precocious pre-schooler carved the boundary between the two municipalities with a dull crayon, the line running south along Oxford Street, west on Lincoln Avenue, across the Coquitlam River and south on Westwood Street to basically follow the river south to the Fraser. You may, therefore, find our story jumps back and forth a bit between the two cities.
This area has been surrounded with much new development over the last 30 years or so but is still an idyllic neighbourhood blessed with rivers, creeks - and history.
Nick and Doris Stevenson had just spent the afternoon at the Mission Fair and were returning by Pacific Stage bus to Burnaby in 1944 when they happened to stop in Port Coquitlam to dine at Pop Ticehurst's Good Eats Cafe on Dewdney Trunk Road. Enchanted by the area, they purchased property along Hastings Street, starting out with a simple shack that they used in the summers until they built a house in 1949. In those days, their only neighbours were the Beattie family and as many as five creeks flowed through their land. Seeing a family of deer through the bush near Patricia Avenue on her daily walks was a treat for Doris. The area was not yet developed and the salmon would migrate up the creeks right by their house.
Audrey Ricalton remembers walking south along a trail by the Huntingdon Rubber Mill to get to the post office when it was located in the Cement Block on Dewdney Trunk Road. Helping out with the mail was Amy Castonguay and Chris Marshall.
Other families on the north side included the Jorgensens, Chilcotts and Dacres. There was a small golf course, run by Harold Reid, where Fox Park is now and golfers from all over the Lower Mainland came to play.
Lazy River Court, located on the Coquitlam River, was one of a number of trailer parks located throughout the northern Tri-City area in the 1950s and later.
Pipeline Road, aptly named, originally was a wagon trail route to the Coquitlam Dam. It became part of the Dewdney Trunk Road that veered eastward out of Port Moody, turned north by Harry's Market in later years and crossed the CP Rail tracks at what we now call Westwood. B and K Feeds, owned by Bernie Harding, had a store on Pipeline Road with a rail spur behind where the CPR would bring a boxcar occasionally. Bernie also ran a small riding club in the late 1940s, with a stable in back.
Further south was Wild's store, run by Lou Wild, on the Coquitlam side of Westwood, which was the route Lougheed Highway followed until the diversion was built to the west of Scott Creek in the mid 1970s. For many years, a rail spur ran north from the CPR mainline and serviced the Deeks McBride Gravel operation at Lafarge Lake and logging operations further up the heavily-timbered hills. Remnants of this spur's right-of-way can still be found behind the old Brass Rail Pub and Coquitlam Chrysler next door.
Looking around the new Coquitlam Town Centre and surrounding developments in 2011, it's hard to imagine a steam locomotive with a load of logs thundering down from the hills through the wilderness. The faint echoes of steam whistles and bells have long-since disappeared from the hills - or have they?
Sometimes, your imagination can play tricks on you. After all, things can get a little fuzzy out here on the west side.
Your History is a column in which, once a month, representatives of the Tri-Cities' three heritage groups writes about local history. Bryan Ness is a member of the Port Coquitlam Heritage and Cultural Society.
