The Bloedel, Stewart & Welch logging company in Menzies Bay was created in 1911 by Julius Bloedel, John Stewart, and Patrick Welch. Julius Bloedel was drawn to BC by the vast forests. The coming relaxation of customs duties on Canadian lumber played a major role.
By 1925, BS&W had purchased and was in the process of logging large tracts of prime timber in the Menzies Bay Area. Logging was done with a steam donkey. The logs were hauled to the bay by train, where the booming was done.
In 1951, Bloedel, Stewart and Welch merged with H.R. MacMillan to form MacMillan Bloedel Limited. The two companies had timber holdings in the same areas. Bloedel, Stewart, and Welch held numerous timber licenses, and H.R. MacMillan was a driving force behind innovative logging methods, with the ambition to exceed. The merger in 1951 created a company that was able to thrive on the global scene.
Menzies Bay was quite an active place in its day. MacMillan and Bloedel, by the 80s, owned many logging operations on Vancouver Island, including Menzies Bay Division. They had camps where over 300 men lived and worked. There was a big camp at Menzies Bay, and at Brewster Lake, there was another very large camp that had many families living in it. Camp life was great. In the early years, a camp was more like a small town. There were homes for families, schools for the children, and a camp store.
There is still some logging going on that uses the bay to boom, but not like in the old days. Now there are great trails and places to picnic. Mohun Creek flows in on the south side of the bay, and Menzies Creek flows in on the north side.
You can walk to the Menzies Creek estuary, where you can cross a small bridge with spawning salmon below, if you go in the fall. Just into the forest from the estuary, you will find one of the prettiest spots in the area, the creek flows deeply through a forest of giant trees, birds are everywhere and the forest hums with insect life, one of my favourite spots to take a walk in.
The ripple rock trail is located at Menzies Bay and is a 2-hour walk (there and back) that takes you to the Seymour Narrows lookout with awesome views of Seymour Narrows and Quadra Island. The trail is 4 km long. You first walk an easy trail down to Menzies Bay and then up a steep section to Wilfred Point. It passes through areas that were logged more than 70 years ago, which now have incredible forests filled with fir trees, alders, cedars, maples, and hemlock. The chances of seeing wildlife like bears or deer are good, and the birdlife here is incredible. Bring your camera.
On the east side of Menzies Creek, the trail takes you through forests of old-growth trees. Some of these trees are over 300 years old. There are good viewpoints of the ocean throughout the trail and a great beach at Nymph Cove. In the spring of 1938, during a prolonged dry spell, one of the worst forest fires in history started in the Campbell River area.
Also known as The Great Fire, The Sayward Fire, and the Campbell River Fire, the Bloedel Fire burned out of control for almost 30 days and destroyed roughly 30,000 hectares of forested land. Enough timber was burned to build more than 200,000 homes, along with thousands of wild animals that perished in the blaze. The area burned was 64 kilometres long and 6.4 kilometres wide and stretched from north of Campbell River at Menzies Bay to Courtenay.
By the 22nd of July, the government shut down all logging operations in the province, and the unemployed were conscription, forced to work at fighting the fire. Over 1700 men were on the ground fighting this fire. The impact of the fire was felt province-wide. It was cooler weather and rain that finally got this blaze under control. After the fire, forest officials could see that natural regeneration was not going to work, so a plan was devised to plant trees in the burned-out area. This was an important moment because it marked a turning point in how we looked at reforestation. Now it’s common practice to replant after logging.