Camosun/Victoria Arm/the Gorge has been inhabited and travelled by people for thousands of years. Before the arrival of Europeans the area was controlled by the "Kosampson". Many parts of the waterway have historical and mythological associations.

The "gorge" with the reversing rapids, now known as Tillicum Narrows, is the site of the original Camosun or "Camossung". Legend has it that HALS transformed a young girl to stone here in order to maintain the flow of water and the unique ecosystem of the Arm. In 1960 a deranged neighbour dynamited the rock so that people could pass by in larger boats, but the rapids still occur.

The beautiful and sheltered waters soon attracted the newcomers for fishing, hunting, logging, and pleasure.

Craigflower schoolhouse was built around 1850 on a previous Kosampson village site.

The manor house.

Off to school- beats a bus.

The last class at Craigflower School, 1910.

Early bridge over the rapids.

A later version.

People still fish on the Gorge. Not long ago i saw an elderly man pull in a meal worthy cut-throat trout off of the Selkirk Trestle bridge.

Victorians used to go kind of crazy with their boats on the Gorge every Spring.

Every 24th of May there were races and general celebrations in honour of the coming summer (and Queen Victoria's birthday).

The waters echoed with fireworks, splashing, thumping paddles, yelling and laughter.

It is still a nice place to go for an afternoon paddle.

The Canadian government is waking up to the fact that having people living in lighthouses can still actually be a useful and worthwhile asset in todays rapidly automating workplace. For more about that check this out:

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Keep+lighthouse+keepers+Senate+urges/4012349/story.html

As someone who enjoys being out on the water and who has had more than one occasion to be thankful for the assistance of a lighthouse keeper, i hereby dedicate this blog entry to those honourable, solitary, guardians of the night who have worked along the shores of Victoria for a century and a half.

A couple of weeks ago i went over to Fort Rodd Hill park which is free and generally empty this time of year. The size of the gun turrets there are impressive, and the beaches and natural areas are amazing, but what caught my imagination most was Fisgard lighthouse.

The stairwell in the tower is pretty cool, and the main part of the building now houses a well displayed museum.

The lighthouse was built in 1860 to guide gold miners and naval boats into Esquimalt harbour. It's the oldest on the Pacific Coast of Canada.

It wasn't a foolproof system, as the Capatin of the HMS Bacchante discovered in 1862.

Next came Race Rocks, on a small islet off Metchosin.

Thomas Argyle was a lighthouse keeper at Race Rocks for many years in the late 1800s. He, like lots of other keepers in his time, probably suffered some effects of mercury poisoning which was used in the old lighting mechanism.

There used to be a small lightouse on a rock called Berens Island in Victoria's Outer Harbour. It has long since vanished.

It doesn't get much more picture perfect than Henry Georgeson, who spent most of his adult life at the Georgina Point lighthouse on Mayne Island.

This is a lighthouse off of Nanaimo

Sandheads light, off the mouth of the Fraser River.

Communication was a little more difficult back then.

The lighthouse on Discovery Island off of Oak Bay is now automated, and the grounds are part of a provincial park. Back in the early nineties, when it was still staffed, a lighthouse keeper at this station pulled me and my brother out of a whirlpool that we had drifted into with a dead engine. True story.

And for the finale, perhaps the most picturesque lighthouse on the face of this earth, Trial Island.

If you can get out there, the lighthouse keeper is really nice and will most likely show you around .

Everything immaculate

She may even take you up the tower.

It's a pretty idyllic place to live.

And there's interesting tribal art to stare at all day too!