Valley Voices is a production of the Langley Heritage Society on CIVL 101.7 FM (based at the University of the Fraser Valley). Former CBC Radio broadcaster Mark Forsythe interviews people connected with Fraser Valley history and heritage, and draws on the Oral Histories collection at the Langley Centennial Museum. (If you have difficulty playing a sound file, try opening with Google Music Player. CIVL Radio sound files of the show are HERE.) The show has been on hiatus during the pandemic, but links to broadcasts from 2018 – 2020 are below.
The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF) awarded Langley Heritage Society’s Mark Forsythe the 2019 Best News and Media Award.
March 2020: Meet Chief Dan George’s great-grandson, Sam George, an Aboriginal Support Worker in the Langley School District who connect youth with their heritage. And Robert Reyerse gives us a tour of the Harrison Sasquatch Museum. Listen HERE.
February 2020: Valley Voices meets Pat Calihou who is a York Boat or bateaux at the Fort Langley National Historic Site, and we get a sneak preview of an historic sports fashion exhibit from Ivan Sayers at Langley Centennial Museum. Go to HERE then right click on the February 5th broadcast. Download and listen.
January 2020: We find out about well-witching in the Fraser Valley with LHS president Fred Pepin, and hear what cookbooks say about local history from University of the Fraser Valley librarian Mary-Anne MacDougall who manages the Newman Western Canadian Cookbook Collection. Listen HERE.
December 2019: Jean Barman on her new book, Invisible Generations: Living Between Indigenous and White in the Fraser Valley. Also, curator Kobi Christian previews the new Langley Collects exhibit at the Langley Centennial Museum. Listen HERE.
November 2019: Wendy Wickwire, historian and author of At The Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging. Teit was an ethnographer and advocate for Indigenous rights who lived at Spences Bridge more than a century ago. Also on the show, Michael Chang on Canada’s Forgotten War — the Korean War. Today a monument commemorates the sacrifices of Canadians almost 70 years ago. Listen HERE.
September 2019: Valley Voices journeys to historic Clayburn, B.C.’s first company town built in 1905. Bricks baked from clay that was mined at nearby Sumas Mountain were shipped around the world. Also, an excerpt from Langley Heritage Society’s “Wheels of Time” — a short play presented by Creative Compass Society at the 1915 CNR Station in Fort Langley. Listen HERE:
August 2019: Architect Tom Annandale tours us through one of his favourite projects, the historic Stave Falls Powerhouse. And Gerry Landsman is a model railroader extraordinaire, volunteering at the heritage CN Station for 25 years.He also knows about Bob Swanson, the man who invented the train horns that we hear every day. Listen HERE.
July 2019: Discover the Bad Rock Tours into Sto:lo traditional territory conducted by Naxaxalhts’i (aka Sonny McHalsie). And Kelly Pearce from the Hope Mountain Centre describes the revitalization of the Hudson Bay Company’s Heritage Trail that once linked fur traders between the coast and interior. Listen HERE.
June 2019: We hop aboard the historic BC Electric tram at Cloverdale’s Fraser Valley Heritage Rail Society and visit the remarkable collection at the BC Farm Museum. Listen HERE.
May 2019: Valley Voices journeys into the Fraser Canyon, to Lytton, where two unique museums are waiting to be discovered. Also on May’s show: dig into Coquitlam’s history with Ralph Drew. The historian and author covers the ice age, indigenous occupation and settler arrival via the Fraser River. Listen HERE.
April 2019: Surrey Historical Society has launched a series of “Memory Socials”. Valley Voices hears from president Michael Gibbs about what they’re learning — including the story of a former slave family that lived in Cloverdale. Also, Fort Langley National Historic Site has created a special place for kids to have fun — and learn some history. Nancy Hildebrand tells us more. Listen HERE.
March 2019: Uncovering family history with Maple Ridge genealogist Brenda Smith, and historian Chad Reimer discusses his new book, “Before We Lost The Lake” — a profile of what was once Sumas Lake. Listen HERE. (Open with Music Player for Google Drive)
February 2019: Valley Voices goes to Milner, for a local history lesson from historian Ellen Worrell. And Warren Sommer gives us a preview of his Fort Langley Cemetery Tour. Valley Voices is heard Wednesday mornings at 11 am on CIVL Radio 101.7 FM at the University of the Fraser Valley, or via this link, HERE.
January 2019: Abbotsford’s Ian Brown profiles gold rush and railway pioneers buried in the Yale cemetery and discusses his book Hallowed Ground: Stories of the Yale Pioneer Cemetery. Also, suggested books about B.C. history. Listen HERE. (Open with Music Player for Google Drive.)
December 2018: We visit the award winning Voices of the Valley permanent exhibition at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford and talk with curator Kris Foulds. Also meet Paul Brodie of Fort Langley who builds and races replicas of a classic 100 year old motorcycle. Listen HERE.
November 2018: Military historian Paul Ferguson discusses how we remember the two World Wars, and recounts an air training disaster that claimed 11 lives on a Fraser Valley mountaintop. Also, from the Langley Centennial Museum archives: Mildred McDonald & Hugh Davis were children when WW II broke out, but never forgot its impact. Listen HERE.
October 2018: Part 2 about the mostly forgotten Fraser Canyon War of 1858 with Daniel Marshall, and Chilliwack photographer Carsten Arnold is documenting heritage houses and barns in his community through photography and story telling. HERE
September 2018: More on Canada’s Hundred Days with Warren Sommer, and historian/author Daniel Marshall on his book about the Fraser Canyon War of 1858 — as described in his new book, Claiming The Land. HERE
August 2018: WW I and Canada’s Hundred Days Campaign with historian & Canucks in Khaki author, Warren Sommer. Also: Shannon Bettles, Collections Officer with the National Historic Site in Fort Langley, and the Hidden History Tour with NHS Interpreter Aman Johal. HERE
July 2018: Michael Kluckner on his new graphic novel about WW I ambulance driver, novelist, amateur botanist and British imperialist, Julia Henshaw. Langley Memorial Hosptital turns 70. Former nurse Doris Riedweg remembers. HERE
June 2018: Summer travels. We visit Kilby Historic Site with Jo-Anne Leon; the Fort Langley CN Station, featuring Diane Simpson and the Agassiz Museum & Visitor Centre with Bev Kennedy. HERE
May 2018: The Flood of ’48; historian and High Water author Jane Watt, with voices from the Langley Centennial Museum Oral Histories collection — Connie Winter, Mabel Holding and Ken Robinson. HERE
April 2018: From the archives with Warren Sommer; we hear the voice of Nursing Sister Jessie Middleton. Also historian and curator Sharn Sandhra on the history of the National Historic Site, Gurdwara Sikh Temple in Abbotsford. HERE
March 2018: Historian Warren Sommer dips into the Langley Centennial Museum archives for an interview with Langley pioneer Toody Wilson and noted B.C. historian Jean Barman describes how to dig into local history. HERE