Chapter 1: The Godfather
September 21, 2008
William Bain-Overlander, seen fifth from the left, is without question Barkerville’s founding father for the game of hockey.
Everyone knows what drove William James Alwyn Bain to the British Columbian interior during the fall months of 1860; but it is what made him stay in Barkerville that turned him into a legend. Though ice hockey itself has no prime owner, there is no question that William Bain-Overlander is the founding father of hockey in Barkerville, and, of course, his beloved Goldpanners.
Born December 18th, 1837, in Ottawa, Bain had inherited his father James’s speed-skating talents, honing them on the frozen Rideau Canal close to his home on Hollings Street. As a young child, Bain would spend hours perfecting his stride all the while dreaming of becoming the best speed skater the world has ever seen. Then, in the early part of the winter of 1850, Bain and a childhood friend saw a strange sight on the great canal that forever changed his life. “A couple of young men, both strangers to me, armed with curved sticks of more regularity in contour than the averaged improvised shinny club, were indulging in a good-natured contest for the possession of a dark, dish shaped object on the ice.” From that moment on, Bain dedicated his life to understanding, perfecting and succeeding at this great new game called hockey.
Armed with a B.A. in engineering from Dalhousie University, Bain was lured west by an itch for adventure and zeal for gold. The journey across the expansive frontier of Rupert’s Land took well over two months, but for Bain it only took one dip of the pan into William’s Creek for all that to be rewarded; and from there he became one of Canada’s most colorful swashbucklers and great hockey pioneers. Barkerville was alive and the streets were paved with gold, both literally and figuratively. Bain had made his first millions from prospecting, and then used all that money to expand his empire into what he truly cherished the most – hockey.
