I was fortunate to have lived near Prospect Lake for some 40-odd years, during which time my wife and I got to know Basil ‘Barney’ Oldfield and his many and varied innovations. The star of his show was the car written up in your June 17 edition, but that was a fraction of his output. There was a series of old car-to-tractor conversions, made for local farmers, but the most impressive things he built were the off-road logging trucks made for Butler Brothers logging operations
in the 1950s, then run by the late Claude Butler. READ MORE: Unique Spirit of Tomorrow drives to inspire at Central Saanich rural museum There were three of these behemoths, each one larger than the one before. They were frequently written up in the print media of the day, and I remember one rumbling by in a 24th of May Parade when in my teens. These monster creations seem forgotten today, and I wonder what became of them. Might one be lurking, rusting and left
behind on an overgrown logging road somewhere on the Island? I remember one occasion when Barney was showing us his proposed hilltop building site, saying, “This way there’s a view of the sea, and over this way you see those woods, while this way there’s Little Saanich Mountain”, keeping us pirouetting as he spoke. That was his coy foreshadowing of what he had up his sleeve. The finished house was yet another marvel of innovation; coaxial sewage, power, and water services as a central core,
rollers on a circular track taking the weight, and, if memory serves, rubber-tired wheels driving the rotation. I often wonder if the nearby Astrophysical Observatory’s revolving dome had some part in the inspiration. I’m so glad that at least the Spirit of Tomorrow has found safe lodging, but wouldn’t one of those giant trucks be a find? Tony Hubner Saanich resident
Saanich, Basil Oldfield, Barney Oldfield, Prospect Lake, logging trucks, Butler Brothers, Claude Butler, Spirit of Tomorrow, off-road logging trucks, 24th of May Parade, Astrophysical Observatory, revolving house, Saanich rural museum
So like… those logging trucks are just gone? Wild.
I swear I saw something like this in Prospect Lake when I was a kid. Thought it was an abandoned military thing though, not logging. The article makes it sound super cool but also kinda sad.
Wait are these the ones that were converted from cars to tractors? Or are we talking like full-on buses? My brain can’t decide. Also the revolving dome thing feels like a stretch but maybe that’s how folks used to build everything.
This is why I hate when local history just disappears. If it’s “lurking rusting” on a logging road somewhere, somebody needs to go find it before it’s totally destroyed. Butler Brothers sounds familiar like from the 1800s?? And I don’t get the sewage/power/water core part, that’s not typical for trucks so maybe the author mixed up projects.