FIRS Ltd.

1922 - Mrs. Jane Hamilton Pullen on the frozen Fraser River at Whonnock.

Maple Ridge Museum and Archives 

On the north shore behind Mrs. Pullen is a sawmill. Note the log ramp. This mill is probably FIRS Ltd., a sawmill listed in Wrigley’s B.C. Directory from 1919 to 1923. After the First War, Japanese settlers started clearing the higher levels of Thornhill for farming. What now is 263rd Street was once a skid way were teams of horses pulled logs cut by the Japanese to a landing on the riverbank. That is where FIRS Ltd. stood.  

It is not known who the owners of this mill were. The company was apparently not incorporated in spite of that “Ltd.” The mill’s manager was Charles Francis Wilcox, born in Haney. Were the owners Japanese? 

The next sawmill in Whonnock shown in the directory of 1926 was WHONNOCK LOGGING, incorporated a few years later as WHONNOCK LUMBER MILL LTD. by Zentaro Shin and partners. A succession of other mill owners followed over time at this location up to the present day.