Garibaldi Townsite: Life & Times

This is the story Betty Forbes and Ian Barnet would have told had things gone as they planned. They had researched the history of Garibaldi Townsite and taped a series of interviews with residents - some of them

‘old timers’ who had lived in Garibaldi since before the Second World War. In the early ‘80s, Garibaldi Townsite disappeared - suddenly and completely. So there was a special urgency to capture memories of the town. Betty and Ian planned to write a book based on the tapes and their research. But tragically, Ian sustained serious injuries in a car accident, and was unable to continue with the project. With her partner in crime out of the game, Betty lost heart. She filled a purple rubbermaid box with the tapes, photographs, minutes of meetings, reports, maps, and newspaper clippings, and put it all out of her mind. Sort of. The problem was the stories wanted to get out, and Betty felt somehow she was responsible for them. 


So one day she passed on a stack of magnetic tapes to me and asked if I would transcribe them. As I listened to

those voices from the past on a clunky old cassette recorder, I found myself drawn into their world. A few years later, Betty presented me with - the rubbermaid box! Along with the box came the expectation veiled in a seemingly casual comment: “Perhaps you might be interested in writing our story sometime.” Sometime was a long time coming, but eventually, I too, was compelled by the contents of the purple box. My desire is to have been an adequate medium for Betty and Ian’s vision. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of a vanishing world and to try to bring it to life on these pages.