LUND
Sunshine
Coast, BC
Discover the Undiscovered
HISTORY OF LUND
For centuries,
the Lund area was seasonally inhabited by the Coast Salish people where they
enjoyed the abundance of berries and shellfish.
Lund was first
settled by Charlie Thulin (too-lin) in
1889 and he named Lund after his hometown in Sweden. He built the first shack on the harbour and
started trading with the Natives. Six
months later, his younger brother, Fred, joined him. Fred was in his late-teens and didn’t speak
English so when Charlie went to pick him up at the Union Steamship dock, he
discovered young Freddie had a shipping tag tied to his arm.
While they were
logging the area, they discovered a demand for accommodations so they built the
Malaspina Hotel on the site where Dave’s Parking is currently located. It later burned down so a new hotel was built
where the current Lund Hotel now stands.
As an interesting note, while they were demolishing the remains of the
Malaspina Hotel, a skeleton was found in the cement pad under the front steps.
In 1929, the local residents wanted to build
a community hall. They formed the Lund
Community Club and beachcombed some logs.
John Arpana on Sevilla Island had a mill and he milled the logs for the
cost of the fueled that powered the mill.
He also kept some of the lumber for building boats.
The people of
Lund started building the community hall in 1929 and it was accomplished
completely by volunteers. It had a
hardwood floating dancefloor, banquet kitchen and lower level. The Thulins donated the property to the
Community Club but unfortunately the property exchange was never registered so
when the Thulins later sold the property, the community hall was sold with
it. Today the old hall still stands
uphill from the Lund Hotel but in a sad state of repair and no longer usable.
Charlie moved to Campbell River and built
the Willow Hotel which also later burned down.
Freddie married Eda who was also from Sweden.