Ruskin, British Columbia facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ruskin
Rural community
Ruskin Location in British Columbia
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia

Ruskin is a quiet, tree-filled community located about 35 miles (56 km) east of Vancouver. It sits on the north side of the Fraser River. The community was named around 1900 after John Ruskin, a famous English writer and thinker.

Ruskin is one of the old communities within the larger area of Maple Ridge. To its west, Ruskin shares a border with Whonnock along Whonnock Creek. To the east, it borders the town of Mission. The Fraser River forms its southern edge, and the northern border is where Whonnock Creek crosses into Mission. Ruskin also touches the Stave River where it flows into the Fraser River.

Even though there are official borders, people who live in Ruskin often feel like their community is bigger. This close-knit area stretches across the border between Maple Ridge and Mission. People living on the west side of the lower Stave River, even if they are in Mission, often think of their neighborhood as part of Ruskin.

How Ruskin Started

People from Europe began to settle in the Ruskin area after the transcontinental railroad was finished in 1885. The Whonnock First Nation had lived on the land along the Fraser River for a long time. This land was between the Stave River and Whonnock Creek. It was later opened for new settlers.

The whole area around the Stave River, including what is now Whonnock and Ruskin, was first called "Stave River." Over time, settlers gave different names to their specific neighborhoods. For Ruskin, its name became official when a post office opened there on January 1, 1898.

The Lumber Industry in Ruskin

The lumber industry was very important to Ruskin's early days.

Ruskin Mills: The Canadian Co-operative Society

In 1895, a group called the Canadian Co-operative Society formed in Mission, BC. They named a sawmill and the settlement around it "Ruskin Mills." This was at the mouth of the Stave River.

Some leaders of the Society liked the ideas of John Ruskin. They often talked about creating a community based on his social thoughts.

At first, the Canadian Co-operative Society did very well. By 1897, it had 54 members. Most of them lived near the mill. They built homes, barns, and a boarding house. Besides the sawmill, they also had a logging business, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a shoemaker's shop. They even ran a dairy farm and grew vegetables. In the spring of 1897, about thirty children, mostly from the members' families, attended the first school in Ruskin.

However, 1898 was the last year for the co-operative in Ruskin. Logs were usually pulled by horses or oxen to the Stave River and floated down to the mill. But a very dry summer meant the Stave River dried up. Logs could not reach the mill. The Society ran out of money and had to give its property to E.H. Heaps & Co. This company had supplied the mill machinery on credit.

Most members left Ruskin. Only a few stayed to work at the mill for a short time.

Heaps & Co. Sawmill

Heaps & Co. took over the small Ruskin mill and made it much more modern. They expanded and improved the mill. Instead of horses or oxen, they used steam engines and railways for logging. Heaps built a logging railway line that went northwest towards Dewdney Trunk Road.

Near the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) tracks, on the Fraser River shore, was the Heaps office building. This building also held the general store and post office. It even had living spaces for senior staff and their families.

The Heaps mill in Ruskin burned down in the winter of 1904-1905. It was rebuilt, but then it burned down again in 1910. The company could not raise enough money to rebuild it a third time. There were plans for a new, bigger mill, but Heaps's logging and lumber businesses in Ruskin failed after a building boom in Vancouver ended in 1913.

Stoltze Manufacturing Co.

As Heaps's business ended, a shingle mill started operating on the Stave River. This was less than half a mile upstream from the old Heaps mill. It was just across the border in Mission. Stoltze Manufacturing Co. was an American company. Their shingle mill at Stave River opened in 1912.

Stoltze did well from the start because their main market was in the United States, not the struggling local market. The company owned land with trees. They also got a steady supply of cedar when another company won a contract for timber at Stave Lake in 1914. In the 1920s, Stoltze was the biggest shingle mill in British Columbia.

Stoltze's success relied a lot on Japanese workers in the forests and at the mill. The Great Depression in the 1930s hit the mill hard. It closed during the Second World War.

Japanese Community in Ruskin

After the First World War, Japanese families started farming in Ruskin. They mostly grew raspberries and strawberries. By the 1930s, about thirty Japanese families owned land in Ruskin. Around 75% of Ruskin's population was Japanese. Photos of school classes from that time show that only a few students at the Ruskin elementary school were of European background.

The Japanese settlers had their own community hall on 280th Street. There were also Japanese logging businesses and a couple of small Japanese sawmills in the area. All of this changed with the forced removal and Japanese-Canadian internment in 1942. After the Japanese community left, there was no longer much farming in Ruskin.

Shops and Businesses

Most of Ruskin's mills and businesses were always in the southeast part of the community. This area is close to where the Stave River meets the Fraser River. It is also near the railway tracks and, since 1930, the Lougheed Highway.

The Canadian Co-operative Society had a general store. Later, Heaps had one in their building, along with the post office. This shop stayed in that building even after Heaps stopped its operations. In 1924, the Cash Grocery store moved to a new building north of the railway tracks. It served the community for over fifty years. This building was torn down to make the Lougheed Highway wider. Today, a small shop, often combined with a gas station, serves the area.

The Ruskin railway station, built in 1910, stood here for many years. It was taken down in 1961 when not enough passengers used the trains anymore.

Ruskin School

After Heaps took over the old Ruskin Mills, the school moved to 96th Avenue at the bottom of 284th Street. The school stayed there until it closed in 1998. After that, students from Ruskin went to Whonnock Elementary School.

Ruskin Community Hall

For community events, Ruskin residents used the schoolhouse or sometimes the Heaps building. In 1916, a new two-room school building was built. The residents moved the old schoolhouse across the street and made it their community hall.

That first hall burned down in 1922. The date shown on the front of the hall today is 1922, marking when it burned. The current building opened in 1924. The Ruskin Community Hall Association, formed in 1930, owns and runs the hall.

Ruskin Dam and Stave Falls

The Ruskin Dam is in the District of Mission. It was finished in 1930 to create electricity from water power. The dam is at the narrowest part of what used to be the Stave River canyon. The lake behind the dam is called Hayward Lake, named after one of the company's engineers. It is about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long. A small village for the dam's employees is also sometimes called Ruskin Dam.

Further up the Stave River is the Stave Dam. It was built over Stave Falls, which was once a natural waterfall. Now, Stave Falls is the name of the community that stretches from the dam west along Dewdney Trunk Road. The waterfall itself is now dry, below the Blind Slough Dam. The Stave Falls Powerhouse, which generates electricity, is right below the main dam. It is now a museum and visitor center.

In 1899, the Stave Lake Power Company was formed. They got permission to use the water from Stave Falls to make electricity. It took more than ten years for this to happen. In December 1911, their new company, the Western Canada Power Company, finally started producing power from the Stave Dam plant.

An electric railway, called the Stave Falls Branch, was built in 1910 by the British Columbia Electric Railway Company. It connected the CPR line at Ruskin to the dam construction site. All the activity around the Stave Falls dam convinced the CPR to build a railway station at Ruskin that same year. This was one of the many ways Ruskin residents benefited from the dam project.

The old railway track path can still be seen through the community. The part along Hayward Lake is now a walking trail. Some of its old bridges are still standing in ruins. The trail is part of a 10 km (6.2 mi) loop around the lake. This loop returns to Ruskin Dam on the east side of the lake. Prisoners from correctional centers in Mission helped build this trail.