The Regional District of Mount Waddington has approved including the Hornsby Steam Crawler in the Regional Heritage Registry.
A community heritage registry is an official list of historic places, which have been identified by the local government as having heritage value or heritage character. For some sites, addition to a local government community heritage register is the first critical step toward the sought-after national historic site designation.
As part of adding a historical site to the heritage registry, each site must have a statement of significance (SOS). The SOS is a required document for placing heritage sites on the BC Registry of Historic Places and the Canadian Register of Historic Places.
Located in Coal Harbour, the Hornsby Steam Crawler was used by the forest industry in the Port Alice and Holberg areas before falling into disrepair at Apple Bay.
The machine is the only surviving example of the Roberts-Hornsby “chain track” steam crawler in North America. It was a pre-World War One forerunner to the army tank.
In 2013, after nearly a decade of difficulties concerning the final fate of the artifact due to its condition and known significance, the Regional District of Mount Waddington moved the Hornsby Steam Crawler to a piece of public land in Coal Harbour.
