Getting to Know Nanaimo

Fall 2009

Travel Destinations

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: DOWNLOAD

Chances are if you've traveled on Vancouver Island, you've passed through Nanaimo. After all, it's the travel gateway and ferry hub for most of the island's best kayaking destinations. But we're biased at Coast&Kayak Magazine towards Nanaimo as a paddling destination of its own – after all, it is our home base. So for everyone who's passed through Nanaimo but not stopped, here's some water-related trivia to think about – and to keep in mind if you visit.

1. What canoe trip by a Snuneymuxw Chief named Che-wich-i-kan to Fort Victoria led to Nanaimo becoming a major marine center?

Back in 1849 Chief Che-wich-i-kan, better known today as Coal Tyee, traveled to Fort Victoria to get his rifle repaired. While there he mentioned all the black stones being found in his Nanaimo home. The next spring he returned with a canoe filled with coal. Within two years Nanaimo was shipping coal as a key refueling centre for trade on the Pacific coast, and most notably for the Royal Navy. And so Nanaimo was born.

2. It was possible at one time to travel from Nanaimo to nearby Protection Island by horse or mule. How could this be done other than by boat?

Coal mine. Tunnels once blanketed the area, including underneath Nanaimo Harbour to Protection Island. Most tunnels are collapsed or flooded with most evidence gone, though one last coal tipple is protected in Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park just south of Nanaimo.

3. Now a provincial park, Newcastle Island was once mined for limestone. A limestone column is still evident on the shore of the island. How did it get there?

Newcastle Island has a long history of occupation, first as a native village then as a Japanese fishing settlement and saltery. Back in 1872 it was a limestone mine when the Zephyr left with 800 tonnes including two 27-foot pillars. The Zephyr ran aground and sank at Mayne Island. In 1987, 105 years later, the pillars were raised and transported back to where they were originally mined. This is one of many historic remnants dotting the park. Look for the column just across from the Brechin boat ramp.

4. The campsite on Newcastle Island is adjacent to an old pavilion. It was created thanks to which company?

In 1931 the Canadian Steamship Company purchased the island for use as a resort. As many as 1,500 visitors a day were brought to the island for picnics, swimming, dances and tea under the cover of the pavilion. After the Second World War the automobile killed the steamship business, and the island reverted to a park.

5. In Departure Bay is a fish farm. It is BC's oldest fish farm. Who runs it?

The adjacent Pacific Biological Station operates it as a research pen. It was built in 1974. The Biological Station undertakes a significant amount of marine research, with our favorite project conducting research to save the sea horse in the Philippines. Could anything be more noble?

6. In Nanaimo's inner harbour is an odd-shaped wooden building that looks like a fort. What is it?

It is the Hudson Bay Company Bastion, the oldest original freestanding HBC fort in North America. It is likely BC's oldest building. It was built as an office, storage facility and of course an arsenal, complete with cannons ready to fire across the harbor. The bastion is open for visits during the summer, and a cannon still fires each day during the summer at noon. Protection Island still has yet to surrender (give it time).

7. Where is the only paddle-through cave in Vancouver Island's Gulf Islands?

Jesse Island. The island is one of our personal favorites for paddling, excluding the guard dogs (very nasty!). But you can get rid of them – simply buy the island. The asking price: $5.9 million. This gets you the 9-acre island and a home with five bedrooms, eight bathrooms (!) and a two-car garage. Just don't plan on driving very far, as it is a small island after all.

8. In Hammond Bay is an island full of shacks that no one officially owns. What 1930s event made this possible?

The Great Depression. When the money ran out, people turned to Shack Island, then a Crown (non-private) island and as such rent-free, to build shacks. About 20 were built, and still exist and are used today thanks to squatter's rights.

9. Nanaimo was home to one of the last whaling stations built on the BC coast. Where was it located?

Pipers Lagoon in north Nanaimo, also known as Page Lagoon. Pacific Whaling built the station in 1907, and that year beached 97 whales at nearby Shack Island. Not surprising, perhaps, the whales disappeared, and the last one was beached in 1908. In 1912 the station was dismantled and moved to Rose Harbour in the Queen Charlotte Islands.