Community Walking Tour – No 1 Town & Historic Chinatown

Explore the rich history of Cumberland’s Chinese Canadian and Japanese Canadian Communities!

Cumberland’s Historic Chinatown: Begin your journey at Wong Gong (Jumbo’s) cabin, the last standing structure from Cumberland’s historic Chinatown. Walk through the main streets of Hai Gai and Shan Gai, where, from 1888 to 1968, a vibrant community of 1500 flourished with shops, churches, factories, clubhouses, bakeries, theatres, and family-run farms. You will learn about the lives of the ordinary and extraordinary people who came to work in some of the most dangerous mines in the British Empire.

No.1 Town: Next, you will visit the site where ornamental cherry trees were planted to remember the thirty-one families who lived here before their forced removal in 1942. No.1 Town was one of several bustling Japanese Canadian communities in the Comox Valley. Japanese immigration started with work in the Dunsmuir coal mines. Despite facing racism, unsafe working conditions and poor pay, these families thrived, building community one baseball game at a time. This tour ties into the exhibition “Stolen Bases”, an exploration of Japanese Canadian community building in Cumberland, currently on view at the Cumberland Museum and Archives.

Dawn Copeman

Dawn is an avid forest explorer, community historian and ‘naturalist in residence’ for the Cumberland Community Forest Society and the Cumberland Museum & Archives with a passion for the wild side of the forest including the incredible world of slime molds. Dawn has recently been championing to have the red belted conk as the village’s official fungus.

“I am a writer, photographer, historian and artist interested in all things Cumberland. Wandering the local forest trails daily I gather wild edibles to photograph and paint. Recently downsized from working in the Broadcast Industry, my day job involves volunteering as a researcher and conducting tours of Cumberland Chinatown, No.1 Japanese town and the old mine sites for the Cumberland Museum and Archives.”