"History isn’t a myth-making discipline, it’s a myth-busting discipline ..."

Sir Richard Evans FBA

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Whonnock Mill

The calendar for 2015 shows on its cover the water tower of the “Whonnock mill.” 
The history of a mill at that site started in 1929 with the incorporation of the Whonnock Lumber Mill Ltd. by Zentaro Shin and two partners. The mill they built would work on second-growth timber and also produce railway ties and poles.
The mill closed down a year or so later and in 1932 the ownership changed to Tidewater Lumber Company.
Tidewater rebuilt and enlarged the mill – probably to accommodate first-growth timber – and started operations again early in 1934 with Zentaro Shin as manager of the mill.
Peter Bain purchased the mill in 1936. His company held substantial lumber rights in Whonnock above Dewdney Trunk Road (“X” limits).  
In 1947 Bain Lumber Mills Ltd. sold the Whonnock mill to Yorkston Lumber Co. who in 1963 incorporated the mill as Whonnock Lumber Co. Ltd. In 1966 the owners, Frank Brooks and Adrian Yorkston started a process to transfer of the mill to its employees.
The plant was closed and demolished in 1994.