Yet another instance of BD 'stating the bleedin' obvious'. But he says it as sly dig, suggesting that the admin of this site try to hide that fact. BD, do you not know that everyone knows that truism? Stop trying to twist other members innocent statements into something dark and sinister. And as you always say, smiling . . . . Cheers!
The stove does say Optimus 5S on it. If I end up buying it, I will post a photo later. Unfortunately I can't go to the auction but I did see the stove today. I have left a proxy bid of up to $50 Cdn. I might go a bit higher after I think about that. To me the $amount is not about value, it is about history and I can use it as a tool so I need to think about that more. I haven't bought one before so I don't know what it might go for. I may just raise that amount up by $10 or $20 as I am not worrying if I overpay a bit. I believe that there are many more of stoves like this around so if I am not successful I will keep looking. This auction is only about 2 km from where I live. It is a bit ironic that I am going on a trip to York Factory at the same time as this auction. YF was the main storage and supply depot for the HBC for a couple of hundred years and is located on Hudson Bay. It is only accessible by boat or helicopter. I am travelling with some aboriginal people by boat to the site and will spend 4 days there; exciting. Lots of history and likely it stored many stoves and lamps over the years and people traded for them there. I will travel on the Nelson River, onto Hudson Bay and then up the Hayes R. to the Fort.
Hudson's Bay Company history stretches a long way; all the way here to Washington State, for example. Vancouver, Wa. (across the Columbia from Portland, Or) was the site of the HBC fort. Fort Nisqually, in my back yard almost, was an HBC farming outpost operated to supply Fort Vancouver. And, as we like to point out, Vancouver, Wa predates Vancouver BC by decades!
The early fur traders first used this area in the late 1600s and it closed its doors in 1957. It is now a National Historic site.
The fur traders supplied trade goods and brought back furs from as far away as the rockies. Not sure how supplies arrived at your fort, maybe by the Pacific trade route? It is a pretty interesting history right across NA.
Here's a bit about Fort Vancouver: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Vancouver A very interesting bit about the York Factory Express in the article. John McLoughlin, the head man at the fort, figures big in both British and American history of the Pacific Northwest. The extended reach of "John Company" in the history of North America is amazing.
Hi, I live less than 20 miles from the Orkney Islands and can see them clearly from the windows of my house. The Orkneys have very strong links to the Hudson's Bay Co. as an Internet search will clearly show: "In 1799, 416 of the 530 men working for the Hudson’s Bay Company came from the Orkneys, a collection of windswept islands forming a county of Scotland. The numbers employed by the HBC presents an extreme case of over-representation when the Orkneys' population of around 26,000 in the 1800s is considered." http://www.winnipegrealtors.ca/Resources/Article/?sysid=331 The museum in Stromness has many exhibits illustrating the connections over hundreds of years, and of course John Rae, the great Arctic Explorer was an Orcadian: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rae_(explorer) http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/historicalfigures/johnrae/ We live at the same latitude as Hudson's Bay so perhaps that helps.... Best Regards, Kerophile.
