The Little Green Valley: The Kleindale Story

Oliver Dubois told me about the time he got in a fight with another guy and all the men came out to see the fun. He said he knocked the guy out cold, but he didn’t fall down because there were so many Kleins standing around. He went on to name all of them and he said even Klein Klein was there. He was trying to make the point that at one time there were a lotof Kleins in Kleindale.

Located on BC’s Sunshine Coast, Kleindale is famous for its extreme weather, for its llamas, and for the notorious Kleins who settled it, including Crazy Mary who was acquitted for murder by showing the judge her legs; Grampa Klein who shot his brother for no apparent reason; and Aunt Mabel who looked a lot like Uncle John with a skirt on. The large Klein family moved to the area in 1912 and set-up logging and sawmill operations, supplying the massive timbers that built the first landmark Lumberman’s Arch in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Although no one is exactly sure where Kleindale begins and ends, it’s considered to be the area along Highway 101 from the foot of Misery Mile up to the local high school, and down Garden Bay Road to Percival’s Black Angus Farm.

Told by natural-born storyteller and Klein descendant Ray Phillips, this exclusive history recounts the lives of Kleindale’s founders and a few eccentric residents, such as David Gibb, the illegitimate son of a Scottish Lord turned cougar hunter; Ronald Heid, the six-foot-seven friendly giant; and a pesky deer named Bambi, who swam the Agamemnon Channel to get back to her reluctant adoptive family.

The book abounds with fascinating photographs, entertaining historical anecdotes–both comic and tragic–and will be enjoyed by those with an interest in local BC history and the making of a unique community nestled in this beautiful little green valley.