Painfully shy, benignly good-natured, and embarrassed by facial disfigurement dating back to a childhood injury in England, Fred Tibbs was one of Tofino's best-known eccentrics.

He settled at Long Bay (Long Beach) in 1908, and later moved to his Dream Isle, off Tofino, where he clear-cut the island and erected a three-story wooden castle.

Most famously, Tibbs left only one tree in the centre of the island, an enormous spruce that he topped at 100 feet. Every morning Fred Tibbs would climb to the platform with his cornet and serenade Tofino with tunes.

Here's an excerpt from Raincoast Chronicles 23 (Harbour $24.95), a collection of stories and history culled from forty years worth of West Coast titles from Harbour Publishing.

Edited by Peter Robson, this 'best of' compendium could easily compete for the title of The Least Boring Book Ever Published in B.C.

978-1-55017-681-0