July 27 Ocean Falls...a ghost town on the BC Coast

From a distance Ocean Falls appears to be a large town at the head of Cousins Inlet. There is a large dam behind it with very impressive spillways as a backdrop. In front of the spillways, you see the docks, plus a hugh mill and to the left of the mill are tall, modern buildings. It is only after you land and walk uptown that you realize most of the buildings are empty, and the north coast wind is whistling through their open or broken windows.

Until it closed in 1973, the Crown Zellerbach mill was the second largest on the coast and Ocean Falls was a busy community of more than 5,000. When Crown Z gave up the mill, the province, unwilling to lost the jobs tried to run it. In 1980 it too gave up. The mill's machinery was removed, and in 1986 bulldozers came to level the town. The town's residents stood in front of the bulldozers and backed them down, though not until many of the houses and buildings had been destroyed.

Downtown was largely spared. Imposing buildings are chained shut and signs warn trespassers...we poked our way around and found signs of days gone by...the flutter of curtains in a broken window, rusting laundry appliances, an abandoned elevator stripped of it's fancy interior, asbestos insulation hanging from ceilings, plumbing fixtures removed and then abandoned.

We met the unofficial town historian, Norman Brown or "Nearly Normal Norman Brown" as he is called. He is bearded, scraggled but patrols town on his bicycle sharing stores. In the old co-op building he has a collection of historical artifacts collected from the abandoned buildings...old signs, furniture, chess sets, box games, old cash registers, manual typewriters, a school bus, lamps, glassware, etc...an antique dealer's treasure hidden away.

We walked up above the dam to see the lake and discovered the remains of the housing districts now destroyed and gone to ruin.

There are less than 100 residents now but they are hearty souls working to capitalize on the beauty of the setting and quality of life. Once a week they have a BC ferry come through and a barge brings in groceries periodically. We walked 2 miles down the road to their " Wal Mart" as Gary called it. In a private residence of less than 800 sq feet they have filled every nook and cranny with odds and ends of grocery stuff and household necessities. Prices were reasonable but there was not much there. There is contract logging underway nearby so they have reopened the previous small hospital as a dormitory with cafeteria for the workers. There's a cafe in the back room of the town church, aptly names the "Holy Grill". One nice lodge has been renovated and is run on a seasonal basis.

This is definitely a ghost town that would like to come back to life if they could only find a new industry to drive it. We are enjoying our visit here and have found this to be a "must see" on our recommendations for anyone venturing up here.