Ghosts of Read Island

A bootlegger runs amok in a coastal logging camp

Read Island is one of the Discovery Islands that lie between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia. In the 1890's, these Islands were just opening up to emigrants from western Europe as well as eastern Canada and the United States. The logging industry was in it's infancy and frontier coastal life was very much a rough-and-tumble affair.

Legend has it that the southern tip of Read Island had at one time been the stage of a grizzly massacre, and that an entire village had been wiped out by the fierce warriors of the marauding Kwakliuth tribe.

In 1893-94, Read Island and neighboring Savory Island played host to a number of gruesome murders. Including the one at Taylor's logging camp at Whitestone Bay.

Jack Myers was an outlaw. Small but wiry, he had a short temper and was tough as nails. He'd been a member of an outlaw gang in Wyoming and boasted of having killed four men. 1893 found Myers in jail in Port Blackely, Washington for stealing logs, then, while being held in an Everett, Washington jail on forgery charges, he escaped. With a $100 bounty on his head, Jack Myers made his way to Tumbo Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands where he bought an 18 ft. sloop. He set sail for Burrard Inlet and the town of Vancouver, British Columbia, where he aquired ten cases of stolen "Gaelic" whiskey. Using the alias "Ben Kennedy", he set about bootlegging up the inside passage towards the Discovery Islands.

Bruce Coughlan: lead vocals & guitar 
Laurence Knight: bass & vocals 
Nolan Murray: fiddle 
Eric Reed: mandolin & vocals. 

Recorded live at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Steveston, BC on September 11th, 2004 for Tiller’s Folly - A Fine Kettle of Fish CD/DVD. Video 

Produced by Jan Vozenilek of Horizon Multimedia Recorded by Ron Cote in Roadrunner Mobile Studios Mixed by Ron Cote & Eric Reed at NAL Studios, North Vancouver, BC Produced by Laurence Knight

Ghosts of Read Island

Tiller's Folly

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Jack Myers was an outlaw. Small but wiry, he had a short temper and was tough as nails. He'd been a member of an outlaw gang in Wyoming and boasted of having killed four men. 1893 found Myers in jail in Port Blackely, Read more
Jack Myers was an outlaw. Small but wiry, he had a short temper and was tough as nails. He'd been a member of an outlaw gang in Wyoming and boasted of having killed four men. 1893 found Myers in jail in Port Blackely, Washington for stealing logs, then, while being held in an Everett, Washington jail on forgery charges, he escaped. With a $100 bounty on his head, Jack Myers made his way to Tumbo Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands where he bought an 18 ft. sloop. He set sail for Burrard Inlet and the town of Vancouver, British Columbia, where he aquired ten cases of stolen "Gaelic" whiskey. Using the alias "Ben Kennedy", he set about bootlegging up the inside passage towards the Discovery Islands.
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  1. Ghosts of Read Island

Ghosts of Read Island

Oh here is a story of poor Jack O'Connor
And the tale that surrounds his untimely demise
Submitted in fact as just one like example
Of such gruesome history Read Island's comprised

The wind weathered rocks on the coast of Read Island
Guard over the mysteries of her own tragic lore
For it's said to this day that the ghosts of Read Island
Appear in the mist of her desolate shores

Jack Myers was a blaggart, a thief and a braggart
Who sold stolen whiskey from his sloop in the bay
When Tayor camp loggers bought up twenty-six bottles
Little they knew such a price would be paid

After a weekend of two fisted drinking
Jack Myers ran amok with an old forty-four
O'er a wager turned sour, on Monday's wee hours
Poor Jack O'Connor lay dead on the floor

The wind weathered rocks on the coast of Read Island
Guard over the mysteries of her own tragic lore
For it's said to this day that the ghosts of Read Island
Appear in the mist of her desolate shores

A magistrate came, Michael Manson by name
Who, along with Fred Hussey performed the inquest
Those who witnessed the act testified to facts
And a warrant was issued for Jack Myers arrest

A posse was sworn in and with posted reward
They sailed from Nanaimo on the "Joan" and "Estelle"
When at last they found Myers hold up in Bute Inlet
They brought him for trial, his story to tell

The arm of the law is both strong and far-reaching
Though he swore self-defence, at the end of the day
Jack Myers was sentenced to a long life in prison
For killing O'Connor in a blind drunken rage

The wind weathered rocks on the coast of Read Island
Guard over the mysteries of her own tragic lore
For it's said to this day that the ghosts of Read Island
Appear in the mist of her desolate shores

 

Words & Music by Bruce Coughlan (SOCAN)

Stirring Up Ghosts is an initiative begun in 1997 by songwriter Bruce Coughlan in an effort to preserve a measure of Pacific Canadian history, heritage and culture in story & song. His band Tiller's Folly have recorded and performed these songs far and wide, sharing our unique stories in the Bardic tradition which is a timeless part of our Celtic Culture.

 

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