Tod Maffin introduces Mirror Falls, a small Vancouver Island community that existed as a placeholder name in provincial software for decades before appearing on public maps. The town's name was kept secret by bureaucrats in the 1980s, and the embarrassed government funded this podcast series to document its hidden history.
Chapters
Mirrors are fascinating things. In the right hands, a mirror can hide something that's always been there or reveal something you never knew existed. For years, one small community at the north end of Vancouver Island did both. Mirror Falls sits at the north end of the island, quite inland, where the road narrows, the cell signal fades, the arbutus trees start leaning toward the light like they know something you don't. About 400 people live there now, depending on the season and who's hooking up with whom. Long before it had a name anyone wrote down, the place was part of the territory of the local First Nation. When settlers arrived in the late 1800s, they didn't displace the nation as much as move in awkwardly beside it. It's a forestry town. At least it was, but we'll get around to that. As for why you haven't heard of the town until now, that comes down to bureaucracy. See, in the early '80s, the province was testing new planning software. They needed a fake community name to stand in for small coastal settlement with shared governance. Someone typed in Mirror Falls as a temporary example, assuming it would be replaced later. And for decades, every draft map, policy template, and internal memo quietly used Mirror Falls as the default fill-in. Zoning scenarios, emergency planning exercises, climate models— the problem was obvious to everyone inside government. If Mirror Falls ever appeared in public, half the province's hypothetical scenarios could suddenly become public. Nobody wanted to explain why Mirror Falls was simultaneously scheduled for 3 ferries, 6 wildfires, and a population boom of 400 1,000 by 2035. So the unofficial rule became simple: never publish the placeholder. Bureaucrats stopped saying it out loud just to be safe. People in the town just called it the town. Locals didn't really mind. It was their little secret, literally, a quiet gem hidden under a Google Maps link reading unincorporated area approximately. Well, last month the software was finally retired, the placeholder deleted, and Mirror Falls finally got its name on the map. The provincial government, feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing, set up a grant to tell the stories of this town. I applied for it and got it. And so I hope you enjoy the next few episodes telling the stories of the people of Mirror Falls, BC. It's a great little town full of good intentions complicated histories, and at least one story you don't ask about unless you enjoy long silences. In fact, the first thing you might be asking is, "Well, tell me about the falls." Well, there are no falls. And it's Doug Henderson's fault. That's next time, when Mirror Falls Season 1 begins.
I'm happy again. Life is a blessing if I think of you. Ain't a thing that I've been missing. I'm here on my own, just singing this song.
Mirror Falls, a new podcast from Tod Maffin, coming later this year.
