Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Sarah Simpson has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.

This week around the Cowichan Lake area

10 YEARS AGO

“Forty years since brush with death” was the big headline on the second page of the Lake Cowichan Gazette of March 2, 2016. It would have been the front page story, had a photo of the page 2 hero not taken up the entire cover of the paper.

“Although 40 years have passed, Gail Flynn still can’t help but tremble at the thought of how close three children came to death and the danger she put herself in to rescue them. It was March 4, 1976, when winters were colder in the Cowichan Lake district. Flynn and her husband, Dennis, lived at a Crown Zellerbach Canada logging camp on the shore of Kissinger Lake near Nitinat.

“There was a thin layer of ice and snow over the lake that day, and while Dennis was at work in the camp office, Flynn was home with their seven-month-old son. She had just put the baby down for a nap when the first hint of trouble appeared.

“‘I heard kids — little kids — playing and so I looked out and saw them there and sent them home because there was no adult with them,’ she said.

“The children were Laurence Riggs, Loretta Eriks and Laine Thornington, and none was older than four. A small white dog with black ears and mottled patches on its back was with them, and belonged to the Eriks family.

“‘The next thing I heard was a dog barking. And it was a very insistent bark. So I went and looked out and could see a hole in the ice.’

“Flynn bolted from her house and raced down, past the anxiously barking dog, to the lake. By the time she reached the raft, Laurence was pulling himself up out of the water.

“Loretta was floating face down in the water beside the raft, and Lynn managed to reach her and pull her in.

“‘She wasn’t [conscious] but a good pat on the back, and she started to cough and was fine.’

“That left one more child….Flynn dove in. She caught sight of Laine and swam for her…Flynn pulled her up onto the raft and performed CPR and revived Laine.”

To make a long story short, all’s well that ends well, and the children were very, very lucky to have a hero like Flynn.

25 YEARS AGO

“Earthquake reminder of the Big One” was the big front page story on the Lake Cowichan Gazette of March 7, 2001.

“‘Did you feel that earthquake?’ Chris Rolls asked as she returned to her classroom at Honeymoon Bay School. Surprisingly, the earthquake that shook the Cowichan Valley last Wednesday wasn’t felt in this classroom, where students were calmly involved in the Reading Buddies program.

“Updesh Cheema, vice-principal at Honeymoon Bay School, didn’t feel the earthquake in her classroom either.

Rolls definitely felt it, though. ‘At first I thought it might be a logging truck, but I soon realized it was an earthquake,’ she said.

“Rolls had the students in her class go through their earthquake drill, starting with hiding under their desks and counting to 60 twice. The students then got up and moved toward the exit door, lined up in single file with the older students in the front and back of the line.”

On the same front page, “Two cougar[s] seen around Youbou, one shot” was another big story.

“One of two cougars seen in and around Youbou over the past three weeks was shot Saturday by some local cougar hunters.

“Conservation officer Ken Broadland said the cougar, which was a little over a year old, was not a candidate for relocation and had to be shot. ‘It was the right thing that happened,’ said Broadland. ‘If we had attended, it would have been the same outcome.’

“The first cougar sighting was on Feb. 15, when one was seen approaching some students from Yount School. The animal apparently got within 10 feet of the children before an adult shouted and scared the animal off.

“Then, on March 1, security at the Youbou sawmill called the conservation office to say that they had a cougar cornered near one of the mill buildings. Conservation officers took some cougar dogs to the mill site and tried to catch the cougar, but without success.”

40 YEARS AGO

“Only four cases of measles here” was a headline on the bottom of the Lake News’s front page on March 5, 1986.

“So far, measles has not been a problem in Lake Cowichan, but there have been outbreaks around Duncan, Nanaimo and Parksville, reports the Central Vancouver Island Health Unit. The disease is waning in these areas. Port Alberni is now reporting cases.

Only four cases have been reported in Lake Cowichan, says Pat Hocker, public health nurse at the Kaatza Health Unit.

“‘We are watching the area very carefully. There is no problem yet, and we are not doing a mass immunization, but we are advising parents to check the children’s immunization records,’ said Hocker.”

And finally, in the same Lake News edition, “Community Services given $90,000” was a headline.

“A grant of $90,000 for Lake Cowichan’s Community Services has been approved by the Employment Development Branch of the Ministry of Manpower and Immigration, says Tony White, director of Community Services, said he received word yesterday of the grant under Section 38.

“Part of the money could help move the Bell Tower School to the Kaatza Museum site.”