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.

Originally recorded and released in 1997 on Tiller's debut album "The View From Here"

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

“Around 2001, our seven-year-old son came home from Surrey’s Bear Creek Elementary School and stated, “We are going to Chandos Auditorium to hear Tiller’s Folly tonight!”. They had performed that day at BCE: our son was so impressed that he was determined to have us hear them live. We did and enjoyed them! It opened many doors for Tiller’s Folly and their music to be part of our lives! Thank you for your music and making BC history come alive through your stories.”

Donna Hanson - Show Committee chair with Soundscape A Cappella Chorus