It begins with a summary about why local history is valid and ends with a look towards the future.
And in between, Coquitlam Then and Now's 19 chapters are filled with magical tales that explore the city's past and identity.
There are stories about the Kwikwetlem First Nation, Essondale (now Riverview Hospital) and its gardens at Colony Farm, the glory days of Fraser Mills and the effects of the Depression and wars.
But there is also background about Coquitlam's gains in the fields of sports, education and immigration.
Coquitlam Then and Now was launched Tuesday with much fanfare at the Coquitlam Public Library (CPL), which spearheaded the history project.
Intended primarily for middle school students, the book was researched, written, edited and proof-read by a 13-member committee funded to a $14,800 New Horizons for Seniors grant awarded by the federal government.
CPL deputy director Silvana Harwood found out about the funding source while at a library conference "and I remember looking at their booth and thinking, 'Oh, that sounds like a good idea,'" she recalled. Still, "little did I know how much work the project would be."
For nine months last year, the committee scoured archives and the internet, interviewed relatives of past Riverview and Fraser Mills workers, listened to recordings, digitally scanned old photos and pulled information from the last history book penned about Coquitlam, a small hard-cover volume written in 1958 by H.A.J. Monk and J. Stewart; content was also gleaned from the 1990 book Coquitlam: 100 Years, a transcript of pioneers' stories.
As well, as part of its project, the committee videotaped about 15 subjects for posterity. Those on film include: John Kirkup, whose father, Jack, was a First World War hero who was the first police officer at Essondale; former Port Coquitlam city councillor Ron Talbot, whose father, Arthur, also a WWI vet, was the chief steward at Essondale for 43 years; longtime Coquitlam resident Edith Olson (who recently died); and Coquitlam sand and gravel supplier Jim Allard, whose father, James, bought his first gravel pit in 1964 on Pipeline Road.
John Perry, a retired lawyer and history teacher at Centennial and Riverside secondary schools who wrote the 1950s and '60s chapters, said the tough part of the project was making sure the footnotes, references, bibliography, photo credits and indexing were correct. "A lot of these types of local history books don't do that. We wanted to add credibility to ours," he said.
Harwood said copyright laws were also difficult to navigate as the committee had to secure permission from the owner of each photograph to reproduce the image in the book.
Sometimes, the hunt for the owner was like finding a needle in a haystack, she said; in other instances, it was just an email or phone call away. "And sometimes, I would be looking for one thing and find something totally different. I would call that serendipity," said Harwood, who has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Victoria.
The expenses for the self-published book were put towards the purchase of a camera, French translation and printing. But Harwood acknowledged hundreds of hours were donated over and above the cause.
Paula Cropp, who works for city of Coquitlam, volunteered to design the book after hours while Annie Bourret went above what she was paid for to translate. "It turned into a real labour of love for all of us," Harwood said, adding, "We had so much help, and people willingly gave us so much information."
Although only 300 books were printed in the first run, two sets of 30 will be at the Poirier library branch for middle school teachers to borrow for social studies classes, Harwood said.
