Haig-Brown House

09/09/2026

We’re looking forward to welcoming everyone back to the grounds for this year’s Haig-Brown Festival. See you by the river!

09/08/2026

Our regular visitor has discovered that the best apples are sometimes just out of reach.

Standing remarkably well on her hind legs, this black bear stretches into the old apple tree to pull the fruit within reach. We recognize her by the distinctive white triangle on her chest—a marking that lets us know when the same bear has returned to the garden.

As summer edges toward fall, the apples are ripening, and she seems to know exactly where to find them.

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09/07/2026

Heritage Monday | Saltwater Summer

In 1948, Roderick Haig-Brown’s Saltwater Summer was selected by the Governor General’s Awards Board of the Canadian Authors Association as the best Canadian book for junior readers.

Set on the British Columbia coast, the novel follows young Don Morgan through a summer of commercial salmon fishing.

The original award certificate still hangs here at Haig-Brown House, as you go down the stairs into the study.

A well-worn 1948 William Morrow edition of Saltwater Summer also remains in the collection at Haig-Brown House.

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09/06/2026

Just 6 days until the Haig-Brown Festival!

Spend the afternoon by the river on Saturday, September 12, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm at the beautiful Haig-Brown House.

Celebrate the legacy of Roderick and Ann Haig-Brown, whose contributions to conservation, literature, and community continue to shape Campbell River today. Set against the peaceful riverside grounds of their historic home, the festival brings together live music, local artists, environmental organizations, guided walks, and hands-on activities for all ages.

This year’s festival features an artisan market, guided botanical walks with local plant expert Chuck De Sorcy, fly casting and fly tying demonstrations, readings from the works of Roderick Haig-Brown with Neil Cameron, an environmental stewardship recognition ceremony, children’s crafts, and live music throughout the day.

Lots to do, see, learn and experience at the Festival.

09/04/2026

Coming up at the Haig-Brown Festival — Yvonne Maximchuk shares stories from a life lived on the BC coast.

📚 Stories from the Broughton Archipelago

Author, artist and mariner Yvonne Maximchuk joins us at the Haig-Brown Festival for an afternoon of stories drawn from a life lived on the BC coast.

Yvonne will read from her debut mystery novel, Murder Rides a Gale Force Wind, and share a sneak peek from her work-in-progress, An Intertidal Life—an adventurous memoir about how running away to sea with her “holiday man” changed the course of her life as an urban artist and single mom.

For decades, Yvonne has made her home on Gilford Island in the Broughton Archipelago, exploring its islands and inlets from her sixteen-foot speedboat SeaRose. That landscape, and the people and communities within it, have inspired both her writing and art.

Join Yvonne for a reading in Roderick Haig-Brown’s study from 1:30–2:30 pm, and visit her books and art table on the festival grounds throughout the day.

🌿 Haig-Brown Festival
📅 Saturday, September 12
🕚 11:00 am–3:00 pm
📍 Haig-Brown House
🎟️ Free admission

Bring a question or two and settle in for stories of coastal life—in fact and fiction.

09/03/2026

A drizzly September morning outside, but warm and cozy around the breakfast table at Haig-Brown House.

The breakfast menu is beginning to shift with the season, making the most of the bounty from this year’s harvest. This morning: blackberry muffins, Joe’s figs transformed into a hearty compote with peaches and Craisins, and another compote of blackberries and Bartlett pears.

A taste of late summer giving way to fall — shared over breakfast with lovely company from Canada and Germany.

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09/02/2026

This one paused beneath the branches for a good rub against the trunk — a behaviour bears use to scratch, shed fur and leave their scent behind. Some come for the apples. Some stay for the back scratch. 🍎🐻

09/01/2026

A first anniversary on the Campbell River. 🎣

Megan and Saxon were married a year ago at Tigh-Na-Mara, and this weekend they came to Haig-Brown House to celebrate their first anniversary — a stay given to them as a gift by Megan’s parents.

After breakfast, there was really only one place to go. Megan — fly-fishing curious and sporting her dad’s waders — and Saxon headed through the garden and orchard and down to the river to cast a line.

Within minutes, Saxon had a pink salmon on. The salmon ultimately won that particular encounter, taking Saxon’s favourite fly with it — such is fishing.

There was another first to celebrate, too. Saxon had the chance to fish the Campbell with his father-in-law, who landed his first pink salmon on a fly rod — a pretty wonderful memory to add to an anniversary weekend.

Before they left, Megan and Saxon were given a copy of Valerie Haig-Brown’s Deep Currents, a fitting anniversary gift from a house shaped by another enduring partnership — that of Roderick and Ann Haig-Brown.

Happy first anniversary, Megan and Saxon. It was lovely having you here, and may there be many more rivers, adventures and good stories ahead.

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08/31/2026

Heritage Monday | The Judge

Writer. Angler. Conservationist. And judge.

It’s easy to picture Roderick Haig-Brown on the Campbell River with a fishing rod in hand, or at his desk writing. But for more than three decades, another part of his life was spent administering justice in the community he called home.

Haig-Brown served first as a magistrate and later as a Provincial Court judge — a role that brought him face to face with a very different side of life on northern Vancouver Island.

Today’s photograph comes from the Museum at Campbell River archives and is catalogued as Judge Roderick Haig-Brown with police officers, Campbell River. Haig-Brown sits at the centre, pen in hand, surrounded by members of the local police.

The photographer is not identified in the information accompanying the online image — another small mystery in the photographic record of Campbell River.

One photograph, and another side of the remarkably varied life of Roderick Haig-Brown.

📷 Museum at Campbell River Archives — photographer unknown