Museum & Visitor Centres


The Jingle Pot Substation	Qualicum Beach Museum & Power House	Stave Falls Visitor's Center
Address: 2801 Jingle Pot Rd, Nanaimo BC Phone:250-753-1647	Address: 587 Beach Road, Qualicum Beach, BC Phone: 250-752-5533 Website: qbmuseum.net	Address: 31338 Dewdney Trunk Road, Stave Falls, BC Phone: 604-462-1222 Website: bchydro.com/community/recreation_areas/stave_falls_visitor_centre.html

Displaying Our History

Maintaining our company’s history is an important part of BC Hydro’s culture. The company has a proud past in this province, and many employees worked tirelessly to install power lines and cables around B.C. to ensure that its residents would have safe and reliable sources of power. As time has passed, a number of former and current Hydro sites have served as museums and visitor centres to educate people about the company’s past work and operations in the province, including the Jingle Pot Substation, Stave Falls Visitor’s Centre, and Qualicum Beach “Power House”. All three of these facilities help to preserve company artefacts and memorabilia from the past.

The “Power House” in Qualicum Beach was the first museum dedicated to BC Hydro and their predecessors. It began in 1994, when retiree and former BC Hydro C.E.O. Norm Olsen presented the Qualicum Beach Museum Society with a cheque for $20,000 from BC Hydro’s Corporate Donations department, along with a few pieces of his own personal memorabilia at the official opening of the Power House Museum.

It still houses a Vivian diesel generator similar to the one that generated power to the community of Qualicum, along with other electricity-oriented artifacts gathered from across Vancouver Island. Many of the artefacts were on loan from BC Hydro’s Victoria office, with the assistance of retired district manager Pat McGuire.

Most of the artefacts once displayed at the Power House are now at Stave Falls. The only remaining hydro artefacts at the site are ones unique to Qualicum Beach, and were donated by previous Hydro employees in the area. Some of the most treasured artefacts are carvings by former line supervisor Ed McMillan, depicting a line crew setting a pole using pike poles. Each carving consists of the actual men who worked with Ed, and they are each named as part of the display.

The Jingle Pot Substation, near Nanaimo, is now also a museum of BC Hydro memorabilia. When the Jingle Pot Substation was opened by the Power Pioneers, it was to be used as their headquarters and a meeting facility for Hydro personnel. Over the years, Power Pioneers and staff have been actively collecting memorabilia from a number of locations, thanks to the organizational skills of Mike Morris, a retired line supervisor from Nanaimo.