Same ingredients, same method, but a different origin. A discovery at Westwood Lake in February has upended Nanaimo's international culinary claim to fame. (submitted photo)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

custard, cocoa and lies

‘This changes everything:’ investigation reveals Nanaimo Bar’s stolen origins

Apr 1, 2023 | 6:36 AM

NANAIMO — A potentially history-altering discovery has cast doubt on the city’s connection to a popular sweet treat.

A group of walkers around Nanaimo’s Westwood Lake in early February spotted what appeared to be a glass wine bottle, stuck in a submerged tree in the southeast corner of the lake, near the bluff. The bottle was partially exposed above the surface of the water.

Elliott Cole waded out to retrieve the item, bringing it to shore where the group noticed a rolled piece of paper inside the sealed bottle.

“We opened it up, it was a recipe,” Cole exclusively told NanaimoNewsNOW. “We were confused. A few of us bake and we recognized it as instructions to make a Nanaimo bar but it wasn’t called that. They called it a ‘Port Alberni Bar’ for some reason.”

Cole kneels on the banks of Westwood Lake, holding the bottle his group collected during a hike in February 2023. (submitted photo)

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Further investigation required
In the days following the discovery, one of the group took it to a history professor at Vancouver Island University.

Analysis of the paper across a variety of departments at the University revealed the note dated back to the 1850’s, during the early days of fur traders for the Hudson Bay company exploring the Island.

It pre-dates the previously recorded invention of the Nanaimo Bar by over 100 years, and contains nearly identical ingredients and method to prepare the iconic dessert.

Professor Claire Southgate said she and her colleagues now believe the Nanaimo Bar as we know it was perfected in Port Alberni, stolen and re-branded for Nanaimo.

“This changes everything, for sure. When people think Nanaimo, they think of the Nanaimo Bar and to think its origins are fraudulent is extremely unsettling.”

The bottle which contained the recipe, was found partially submerged in a hollowed log in Westwood Lake. (submitted photo)

The new history
Additional research through Southgate and her colleagues now present an updated history of both the bar and the city.

It’s now believed Capt. George Richards, a hydrographer of the British Royal Navy and an early explorer of the area, stole the recipe from a Port Alberni baker and claimed it was a Nanaimo invention.

The idea was to promote the Harbour City as the superior community.

Capt. Richards was also responsible for naming Mount Benson after his friend Alfred Robson Benson, a physician who worked in the area for the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1857-1862.

Together, both men took the recipe back to Nanaimo, where it was renamed ‘Nanaimo Bar’, and used to promote the town as the main trading hub on Vancouver Island for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

The dessert’s simple preparation and easily accessible ingredients made it an instant hit and put Nanaimo on the map, at the expense of their inland cousins.

While it went through some different names, its connection to Nanaimo always remained and by the mid-1950’s Nanaimo Bar stuck as the official name.

A family secret
The shocking new revelation is not as jarring to at least one Nanaimo resident.

Brie Dwaas, 75, remembers being a small child and hearing stories from family about her great-grandfather, a miner and baking enthusiast in the Port Alberni area.

She said in the early 1800’s, he had combined water, nuts, coconut crumb, and custard, and covered the top in chocolate to create the dessert he named a ‘Port Alberni Bar.’

“I spent so much of my life telling anyone who would listen that the Nanaimo Bar recipe was stolen from my family, and nobody would listen. And now there’s finally proof” she told NanaimoNewsNOW from her Nanaimo home.

Brie Dwaas sits on the back deck of her Nanaimo home, enjoying a treat she proudly refers to as a Port Alberni Bar, with her family now credited for the dessert’s true Island origins. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Dwaas said her great-grandfather would make the dessert for his family as it didn’t require any baking. His simple miner shack only had a wood-burning fireplace.

“It was an easy thing to make, and thanks to the Hudson’s Bay Company being so prominent at the time, he was able to easily get the ingredients. Turns out, HBC was only interested in taking advantage of him.”

Dwaas reached out to local historians to try and prove her claim, but couldn’t find anything in the official Nanaimo or Port Alberni archives.

One local historian, Rita Danewz, said she’s heard stories about the stolen dessert, but never had proof.

She said this letter is a “game-changer”, and proves their claim that there was always something fishy about the story.

“It sort of became one of those urban legends which grew among historians over time. I know my colleagues who focus on the Alberni region and I would often get into arguments about it.”

But it was too late for Dwaas’ great-grandfather, as the power of the HBC at the time was too great, and they quickly marketed Nanaimo Bars to all their trading partners across the globe.

The final nail in the coffin came following the Second World War, when the first known recipe for Nanaimo bars appeared in the 1952 Women’s Auxiliary of the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook, labeled as “chocolate square”.

A year later, a similar recipe was published in Vancouver’s Edith Adams’ Cookbook under the name “Nanaimo Bar”, and the rest is history.

The fallout
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said he intends to bring this to the attention of City staff at the next available opportunity.

He plans to ask for a report on how Nanaimo should adjust its relationship with the bar from an official standpoint.

“This certainly doesn’t sit well with me and we’ll be looking to more accurately reflect Nanaimo’s origins to align with this new evidence.”

Krog’s counterpart in Port Alberni, Sharie Minions, said the reputation of her community suffered as a result of this deception and she’s keen to have the record set straight.

Editors Note: April Fools! This article is entirely fictional and any quotes or facts contained are fabricated and for entertainment purposes only.

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