It didn't occur to me to take a picture of it while on Christmas holidays, but the lot that once housed Field Sawmill in Courtenay is now empty. I just came across two photos I took of it, one in 2003 (Flickr mirror), and another taken this July (Flickr mirror). The mill was a fixture, almost a landmark, in Courtenay, my hometown, right next to the 17th Street Bridge. My dad worked there, before he worked for the union representing the workers there, and every day the bus drove past it on the way to and from school (in Comox, where I attended French Immersion). I don't know what they're going to build there now, but it's a prime spot for residential development, being right on the bank of the Courtenay River.
I posted the photo here on my site back before the photo-sharing service days, of the sawmill in full operation, 3 years ago today. (I'm rediscovering a lot about my weblog—and myself—because of the On This Day module I wrote for the site.) This might prompt a trip to the library to see if there are any other photos and memories of the old mill since Google doesn't turn up a lot—except a list of mill closures from 2005 to 2006, a watercolor painting (bottom) and another.
