Sitchanalth- Willows Beach

Before becoming known as a wealthy suburb of Victoria and retirement capital of the province, the name Oak Bay was more widely recognized as being just that, a bay. Boat travel in and out of this uniquely sheltered and welcoming body of water has been carried on for many centuries. These are a few more recent images of life on the Bay.

The name Stichanalth refers to the drift wood which becomes buried in the sand- especially at the far end of the beach near where this photo was taken- as well as to the large Songhees village site in the same location.

Most of Oak Bay's shoreline bordered large open Garry Oak meadow lands but the area near the centre of the Bay, just north of today's Glenlyon Norfolk school, was thickly forested.

The small islands and islets which punctuate the bay and the powerful tides which pass by make it an endlessly interesting, if dangerously hazardous, place to travel and explore.

For the last 150 years the area's charms have attracted pleasure seeking Victorians and other visitors from far and wide. Many stayed in the Mt. Baker Hotel, which stood near the marina/boathouse.

The boathouse.

Others stayed at the “Old Charming”, near where Windsor Road meets Beach Drive today.

But such establishments would not have existed if there were not people like Jimmy Chickens, a Songhees man who lived on a tiny island in the middle of the Bay and earned part of his living selling fish to the local hotels. Originally called Kohweechella ("where there are many fish"), today the island is known locally by his name, and more widely as Mary Tod.

A somewhat disturbing yet strangely awesome portrait of some beach-goers in front of the Old Charming Hotel.

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!

 

 

Crease family picnic

The Crease’s were an early colonial family who washed up in Victoria in the 1860s. All of the women in the family were artists and, together, they left a considerable documentary record of their time.

 

An expedition on the Gorge

The young ladies travelled throughout the Province and the world, documenting everything they could. The rocky meadows and shorelines around Victoria were a favourite haunt.

Oak Bay from Gonzales Hill

Oak Bay and Mt.Baker

Victoria from Mt Tolmie

Juan de Fuca Strait from Beacon Hill

Finlayson Point

Olympics