Exploring Newcastle Island

The dispersed bands of the Snuneymuxw nation would congregate each
winter to camp along the shorelines of what we now call Departure Bay.
The large island just several paddle strokes away teemed with
resources; cedar planks and bark, small game, wild birds, roots and
berries, and, (to the east), a low-tide sandspit with an abundance of
shellfish. When the Europeans began arriving in the middle of the 19th
Century, they attempted to name their settlement after the indigenous
peoples they encountered here but the English tongue stumbled on
Snuneymuxw and created a new word: Nanaimo. The new arrivals considered
the island across the narrow channel from their fledgling city and
began capitalizing on the resources as well. While the Snuneymuxw
people utilized the island for winter sustenance, the new arrivals
imagined they could carry the island away by the schoonerfull. The
history of Newcastle Island, off the city of Nanaimo, is a study of
modern man exploiting and reshaping the natural environment as well as
a demonstration of the environment's partial ability to heal. Newcastle
Island is now a Provincial Marine Park, and a hike along the miles of
beaches and trails is highly recommended.

Newcastle Island Marine Park maintains public floats in Mark Bay, (near
49.10.80N and123.55.76W) and many vessels elect to anchor out.
Anchorage is available north of a line drawn between yellow spar buoys
1/10 mile SE of Good Point (on adjacent Protection Island) and 2/10
mile SW of Bate Point on Newcastle. Boaters berthed on the Nanaimo side
of the channel can reach Newcastle via foot-ferry departing from Maffeo
Sutton Park, located between the City of Nanaimo docks and the Nanaimo
Yacht Club. The ferry dock is immediately adjacent to the public
floats.

Going ashore at Newcastle, from either the ferry dock or the public
moorage, a visitor encounters broad, grassy meadow and a cluster of
buildings. The Canadian Pacific Steamship Company extensively developed
this corner of Newcastle in the early 1930's. A long, barn-like dance
hall, called the Pavilion, featured live music as well as food and
beverage service, and was the center of social activities here.
Canadian Pacific Steamships did a steady and profitable trade
transporting dancers and picnickers from Vancouver, with posters from
the era advertising the passage as a 2 1/2 hour voyage. Interest in the
Newcastle Island Coastal Steamship Resort dwindled as Canadians became
preoccupied with WWII, and in the 1940's Canadian Pacific deeded all of
Newcastle Island to the City of Nanaimo for $1. The Pavilion seen today
is not the original building, but rather a replica constructed in the
mid-1980's. Reasonable "fast fare" is available in one end of the
building, and a museum recounting the history of Newcastle Island
occupies the other. We noticed a brisk commerce in ice cream cones and
soft drinks on a warm August day.

The Pavilion and the adjacent clearings for picnics, camping, and
sporting events may record much of the recent history of Newcastle
Island, but there are older tales told deep in the forests and along
the rocky shorelines of Newcastle. One could spend several seasons
getting to know and understand this island, but Jan and I set out to
discover what we could absorb in an afternoon. After inspecting the old
resort area, we walked along the SE shoreline and considered the
shallows between Newcastle Island and Protection Island, immediately
east. The Hudson Bay Company built a blockhouse to protect the village
of Nanaimo, and would fire six-pound shot onto Protection Island to
"exercise" the cannon there. Protection Island is no longer suitable
for artillery practice, as it has a number of private homes and a
popular watering hole, The Dinghy Dock Pub.
Those succumbing to a temptation to walk across the dried flats to
reach the pub at a low tide must be mindful of the tide tables- or
looking for a good excuse to spend perhaps twelve hours at the bar.

Campers with preference for a rustic version the pastime will enjoy
Newcastle Island. There are some designated tent areas behind the
Pavilion, but all gear and provisions must be hauled to the island by
private boat or the Nanaimo foot ferry.

We consulted a map of the island and selected a path just to the East
of the campground, the Kanaka Bay Trail. As we strolled into the dense
forest of the island interior, we noticed some old stumps along the
way. The stumps were of larger diameter than much of the standing
timber, and suggested that areas of Newcastle Island were probably
deforested sometime in the last 150 years. Farther along the trail, we
reached a low area where a ring of dead, white, trunks surrounded a
pond to the left of the trail. Beaver have been working here, (we
learned the beaver dammed the area in the mid-1980's). The presence of
the fur-bearing mammal reminds us that a market for tall hats and
flowing coats inspired much of the 18th and 19th Century European
exploration of this region.

The Europeans may have arrived looking for furs, but at Newcastle
Island they stayed for the coal. Rich seams of coal run throughout the
region. Miners brought from England and Wales would scratch deep into
the earth, in a damp, dark world illuminated only by the dogfish oil
lamps worn on their mining hats. The burning dogfish oil stank
horribly, and competed with the miners' dust scarred lungs for faint
whiffs of oxygen. Ventilation was critical. At a northern junction of
the Kanaka Bay trail there stands a rusted, circular structure that
marks a "ventilation shaft" for the mine works below. The small door
has been welded shut, but is said that at one time adventurous visitors
to Newcastle could climb down a 400-foot ladder and follow a tunnel
that eventually emerged somewhere near downtown Nanaimo. Some of the
old mine shafts were exceptionally long, and extended for miles under
the Strait or Georgia. Mining records indicate that in some instances
miners from Newcastle following a coal seam under the Strait would
encounter tunneling miners advancing along the same seam from the lower
mainland.

British coal miners were not the only laborers imported to extract the
resources of Newcastle Island. Many anthropologists theorize about
contacts between the First Nations of the Pacific NW and seagoing
peoples from Hawaii or Polynesia, but Hudson Bay Company's 19th Century
transport of "Kanaka" laborers from the Hawaiian Islands is accepted
history, not a plausible theory. Kanaka Bay commemorates the presence
of these workers, uprooted from a tropical island and transported to
the cool, damp, climate of Newcastle Island. It is said that the body
of one specific Kanaka, Peter Kakua, (convicted of a series of gruesome
murders) is buried along the shoreline here in an unmarked grave. Signs
posted on Kanaka Beach read "No Woodcutting, No Fires." Perhaps it
would be prudent to prohibit digging as well. In 1927, an underwater
telephone cable came ashore at Kanaka Bay and crossed Newcastle Island
to ultimately connect Vancouver Island with the mainland. We would find
additional evidence of the telephone connection at a later point in our
afternoon hike.

At Kanaka Bay, we ventured west into the interior of the island. After
several minutes we reached an earthen dam, constructed some time in the
19th Century to create a large freshwater impound, (Mallard Lake). The
Canadian Pacific Steamship Company stocked the lake with beaver and
muskrat to permit the addition of "Wildlife Observation" to the list of
attractions at Newcastle Island, and descendents of the original
animals live on Newcastle to this day.

"Blonde" raccoons are among the more unique fauna that can be observed
on Newcastle Island, and while we did not see raccoons of any sort
during our visit it is said that the raccoons are a particular nuisance
around the campground. Some of the raccoons on Newcastle are normally
pigmented, but the blonde individuals share a genetic mutation that
prevents the production of dark body hair.

Our trail followed the south shore of Mallard Lake, ultimately
intersecting trails on the western shoreline of Newcastle Island. A
diversion of the trail to the north, past Shaft Point, parallels
Saltery Beach. Although the beach now appears in a natural, undeveloped
state, not so very long ago a sad tale unfolded here. Before the Second
World War, Japanese Canadians engaged in a lucrative herring fishery.
The herring fishermen erected a shipyard along this beach for the
construction and repair of fishing vessels, and they built a salt
packing plant to preserve the catch. When Canada entered the Second
World War, the Japanese were removed to "relocation camps" far from the
Pacific Coast and the Canadian government seized the piers at Saltery
Beach. During the war years, the shipyard was used to repair Canadian
Navy vessels. When the war was over, the government sold all the
removable equipment from the shipyard, and then burned the herring
fishermen's buildings and docks.

We turned south to follow the trail along the western edge of Newcastle
Island, enjoying views of the Nanaimo waterfront across the channel. We
skirted the edge of Midden Bay, named for a native shell and refuse
pile that was located here. One of the earliest coal mines on Newcastle
Island (1853) was located at Midden Bay.

Not too far south of Midden Bay, we spotted a concrete ring to the
right of the trail, with metal spikes protruding from the perimeter
toward the hollow center of the ring. This concrete form was once a
foundation for the tall poles that carried that 1927 telephone line
from Newcastle Island to Nanaimo. The poles were tall enough to carry
the wires 120-feet above the water and provide adequate clearance for
those few sailing ships still plying Newcastle Channel in the late
1920's.

South of the phone crossing, we encountered evidence of yet another
resource that had been extracted from Newcastle Island; sandstone. A
sandstone quarry operated here as recently as 1955. Stone was
originally exported for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San
Francisco, followed by a long list of other prominent government and
private structures in the U.S. and Canada. Newcastle Island sandstone
is uniquely weather resistant, and exhibited other virtues prized by
architects. Walking through the helter skelter piles of squared stone
at the quarry site today is like wandering among giant building blocks
scattered by a careless, 40-foot child. One can estimate the volume of
stone removed here by noting the steep edge where the mining stopped
and the broad, unnaturally flat ground between the quarried cliff and
the island shoreline.

South of the sandstone quarry, the trail follows the shoreline around
Bate Point, (named for the first mayor of Nanaimo), and returns to the
moorage area of Mark Bay. Remnants of another industry, a pulpstone
quarry, can be found near the public floats. Pulpstones were precisely
cut, absolutely round stone cylinders used by paper mills to grind
pulp. Imperfect, rejected pulpstones lay about in an area cleared away
for public viewing, and circular depressions in the island rock and
other indications of pulpstone cutting can be found well back into the
surrounding underbrush. A reconstruction of the stone-cutting machinery
has been erected, and can be generally described as a wooden frame
designed to support a cylindrical "hole saw". The saw would be turned
by a small steam or diesel engine, and pressed ever deeper into the
rock by means of a cranking wheel.

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.

wrote:
Exploring Newcastle Island

The dispersed bands of the Snuneymuxw nation would congregate each
winter to camp along the shorelines of what we now call Departure Bay.
The large island just several paddle strokes away teemed with
resources; cedar planks and bark, small game, wild birds, roots and
berries, and, (to the east), a low-tide sandspit with an abundance of
shellfish. When the Europeans began arriving in the middle of the 19th
Century, they attempted to name their settlement after the indigenous
peoples they encountered here but the English tongue stumbled on
Snuneymuxw and created a new word: Nanaimo. The new arrivals considered
the island across the narrow channel from their fledgling city and
began capitalizing on the resources as well. While the Snuneymuxw
people utilized the island for winter sustenance, the new arrivals
imagined they could carry the island away by the schoonerfull. The
history of Newcastle Island, off the city of Nanaimo, is a study of
modern man exploiting and reshaping the natural environment as well as
a demonstration of the environment's partial ability to heal. Newcastle
Island is now a Provincial Marine Park, and a hike along the miles of
beaches and trails is highly recommended.

Newcastle Island Marine Park maintains public floats in Mark Bay, (near
49.10.80N and123.55.76W) and many vessels elect to anchor out.
Anchorage is available north of a line drawn between yellow spar buoys
1/10 mile SE of Good Point (on adjacent Protection Island) and 2/10
mile SW of Bate Point on Newcastle. Boaters berthed on the Nanaimo side
of the channel can reach Newcastle via foot-ferry departing from Maffeo
Sutton Park, located between the City of Nanaimo docks and the Nanaimo
Yacht Club. The ferry dock is immediately adjacent to the public
floats.

Going ashore at Newcastle, from either the ferry dock or the public
moorage, a visitor encounters broad, grassy meadow and a cluster of
buildings. The Canadian Pacific Steamship Company extensively developed
this corner of Newcastle in the early 1930's. A long, barn-like dance
hall, called the Pavilion, featured live music as well as food and
beverage service, and was the center of social activities here.
Canadian Pacific Steamships did a steady and profitable trade
transporting dancers and picnickers from Vancouver, with posters from
the era advertising the passage as a 2 1/2 hour voyage. Interest in the
Newcastle Island Coastal Steamship Resort dwindled as Canadians became
preoccupied with WWII, and in the 1940's Canadian Pacific deeded all of
Newcastle Island to the City of Nanaimo for $1. The Pavilion seen today
is not the original building, but rather a replica constructed in the
mid-1980's. Reasonable "fast fare" is available in one end of the
building, and a museum recounting the history of Newcastle Island
occupies the other. We noticed a brisk commerce in ice cream cones and
soft drinks on a warm August day.

The Pavilion and the adjacent clearings for picnics, camping, and
sporting events may record much of the recent history of Newcastle
Island, but there are older tales told deep in the forests and along
the rocky shorelines of Newcastle. One could spend several seasons
getting to know and understand this island, but Jan and I set out to
discover what we could absorb in an afternoon. After inspecting the old
resort area, we walked along the SE shoreline and considered the
shallows between Newcastle Island and Protection Island, immediately
east. The Hudson Bay Company built a blockhouse to protect the village
of Nanaimo, and would fire six-pound shot onto Protection Island to
"exercise" the cannon there. Protection Island is no longer suitable
for artillery practice, as it has a number of private homes and a
popular watering hole, The Dinghy Dock Pub.
Those succumbing to a temptation to walk across the dried flats to
reach the pub at a low tide must be mindful of the tide tables- or
looking for a good excuse to spend perhaps twelve hours at the bar.

Campers with preference for a rustic version the pastime will enjoy
Newcastle Island. There are some designated tent areas behind the
Pavilion, but all gear and provisions must be hauled to the island by
private boat or the Nanaimo foot ferry.

We consulted a map of the island and selected a path just to the East
of the campground, the Kanaka Bay Trail. As we strolled into the dense
forest of the island interior, we noticed some old stumps along the
way. The stumps were of larger diameter than much of the standing
timber, and suggested that areas of Newcastle Island were probably
deforested sometime in the last 150 years. Farther along the trail, we
reached a low area where a ring of dead, white, trunks surrounded a
pond to the left of the trail. Beaver have been working here, (we
learned the beaver dammed the area in the mid-1980's). The presence of
the fur-bearing mammal reminds us that a market for tall hats and
flowing coats inspired much of the 18th and 19th Century European
exploration of this region.

The Europeans may have arrived looking for furs, but at Newcastle
Island they stayed for the coal. Rich seams of coal run throughout the
region. Miners brought from England and Wales would scratch deep into
the earth, in a damp, dark world illuminated only by the dogfish oil
lamps worn on their mining hats. The burning dogfish oil stank
horribly, and competed with the miners' dust scarred lungs for faint
whiffs of oxygen. Ventilation was critical. At a northern junction of
the Kanaka Bay trail there stands a rusted, circular structure that
marks a "ventilation shaft" for the mine works below. The small door
has been welded shut, but is said that at one time adventurous visitors
to Newcastle could climb down a 400-foot ladder and follow a tunnel
that eventually emerged somewhere near downtown Nanaimo. Some of the
old mine shafts were exceptionally long, and extended for miles under
the Strait or Georgia. Mining records indicate that in some instances
miners from Newcastle following a coal seam under the Strait would
encounter tunneling miners advancing along the same seam from the lower
mainland.

British coal miners were not the only laborers imported to extract the
resources of Newcastle Island. Many anthropologists theorize about
contacts between the First Nations of the Pacific NW and seagoing
peoples from Hawaii or Polynesia, but Hudson Bay Company's 19th Century
transport of "Kanaka" laborers from the Hawaiian Islands is accepted
history, not a plausible theory. Kanaka Bay commemorates the presence
of these workers, uprooted from a tropical island and transported to
the cool, damp, climate of Newcastle Island. It is said that the body
of one specific Kanaka, Peter Kakua, (convicted of a series of gruesome
murders) is buried along the shoreline here in an unmarked grave. Signs
posted on Kanaka Beach read "No Woodcutting, No Fires." Perhaps it
would be prudent to prohibit digging as well. In 1927, an underwater
telephone cable came ashore at Kanaka Bay and crossed Newcastle Island
to ultimately connect Vancouver Island with the mainland. We would find
additional evidence of the telephone connection at a later point in our
afternoon hike.

At Kanaka Bay, we ventured west into the interior of the island. After
several minutes we reached an earthen dam, constructed some time in the
19th Century to create a large freshwater impound, (Mallard Lake). The
Canadian Pacific Steamship Company stocked the lake with beaver and
muskrat to permit the addition of "Wildlife Observation" to the list of
attractions at Newcastle Island, and descendents of the original
animals live on Newcastle to this day.

"Blonde" raccoons are among the more unique fauna that can be observed
on Newcastle Island, and while we did not see raccoons of any sort
during our visit it is said that the raccoons are a particular nuisance
around the campground. Some of the raccoons on Newcastle are normally
pigmented, but the blonde individuals share a genetic mutation that
prevents the production of dark body hair.

Our trail followed the south shore of Mallard Lake, ultimately
intersecting trails on the western shoreline of Newcastle Island. A
diversion of the trail to the north, past Shaft Point, parallels
Saltery Beach. Although the beach now appears in a natural, undeveloped
state, not so very long ago a sad tale unfolded here. Before the Second
World War, Japanese Canadians engaged in a lucrative herring fishery.
The herring fishermen erected a shipyard along this beach for the
construction and repair of fishing vessels, and they built a salt
packing plant to preserve the catch. When Canada entered the Second
World War, the Japanese were removed to "relocation camps" far from the
Pacific Coast and the Canadian government seized the piers at Saltery
Beach. During the war years, the shipyard was used to repair Canadian
Navy vessels. When the war was over, the government sold all the
removable equipment from the shipyard, and then burned the herring
fishermen's buildings and docks.

We turned south to follow the trail along the western edge of Newcastle
Island, enjoying views of the Nanaimo waterfront across the channel. We
skirted the edge of Midden Bay, named for a native shell and refuse
pile that was located here. One of the earliest coal mines on Newcastle
Island (1853) was located at Midden Bay.

Not too far south of Midden Bay, we spotted a concrete ring to the
right of the trail, with metal spikes protruding from the perimeter
toward the hollow center of the ring. This concrete form was once a
foundation for the tall poles that carried that 1927 telephone line
from Newcastle Island to Nanaimo. The poles were tall enough to carry
the wires 120-feet above the water and provide adequate clearance for
those few sailing ships still plying Newcastle Channel in the late
1920's.

South of the phone crossing, we encountered evidence of yet another
resource that had been extracted from Newcastle Island; sandstone. A
sandstone quarry operated here as recently as 1955. Stone was
originally exported for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San
Francisco, followed by a long list of other prominent government and
private structures in the U.S. and Canada. Newcastle Island sandstone
is uniquely weather resistant, and exhibited other virtues prized by
architects. Walking through the helter skelter piles of squared stone
at the quarry site today is like wandering among giant building blocks
scattered by a careless, 40-foot child. One can estimate the volume of
stone removed here by noting the steep edge where the mining stopped
and the broad, unnaturally flat ground between the quarried cliff and
the island shoreline.

South of the sandstone quarry, the trail follows the shoreline around
Bate Point, (named for the first mayor of Nanaimo), and returns to the
moorage area of Mark Bay. Remnants of another industry, a pulpstone
quarry, can be found near the public floats. Pulpstones were precisely
cut, absolutely round stone cylinders used by paper mills to grind
pulp. Imperfect, rejected pulpstones lay about in an area cleared away
for public viewing, and circular depressions in the island rock and
other indications of pulpstone cutting can be found well back into the
surrounding underbrush. A reconstruction of the stone-cutting machinery
has been erected, and can be generally described as a wooden frame
designed to support a cylindrical "hole saw". The saw would be turned
by a small steam or diesel engine, and pressed ever deeper into the
rock by means of a cranking wheel.

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.



Thank you, Chuckster.

BTW, how much coal did you carry there?

Hey Chuck, glad to hear you were around the area. Nanaimo is my base
port, and my home, although I usually stay away from the harbour during the
summer months and sail out of Ladysmith, fifteen miles or so South. Less
traffic, less idioitos.
This year my boat (1955 35' wood sailboat) is out of the water
undergoing major restoration, sharing a shop with a 1925 40' tugboat, also
being restored.
Enjoy your B.C. cruising. I've lived and worked on water here all my
life and I still love every day of it.

Don
wrote in message
oups.com...
Exploring Newcastle Island

The dispersed bands of the Snuneymuxw nation would congregate each
winter to camp along the shorelines of what we now call Departure Bay.
The large island just several paddle strokes away teemed with
resources; cedar planks and bark, small game, wild birds, roots and
berries, and, (to the east), a low-tide sandspit with an abundance of
shellfish. When the Europeans began arriving in the middle of the 19th
Century, they attempted to name their settlement after the indigenous
peoples they encountered here but the English tongue stumbled on
Snuneymuxw and created a new word: Nanaimo. The new arrivals considered
the island across the narrow channel from their fledgling city and
began capitalizing on the resources as well. While the Snuneymuxw
people utilized the island for winter sustenance, the new arrivals
imagined they could carry the island away by the schoonerfull. The
history of Newcastle Island, off the city of Nanaimo, is a study of
modern man exploiting and reshaping the natural environment as well as
a demonstration of the environment's partial ability to heal. Newcastle
Island is now a Provincial Marine Park, and a hike along the miles of
beaches and trails is highly recommended.

Newcastle Island Marine Park maintains public floats in Mark Bay, (near
49.10.80N and123.55.76W) and many vessels elect to anchor out.
Anchorage is available north of a line drawn between yellow spar buoys
1/10 mile SE of Good Point (on adjacent Protection Island) and 2/10
mile SW of Bate Point on Newcastle. Boaters berthed on the Nanaimo side
of the channel can reach Newcastle via foot-ferry departing from Maffeo
Sutton Park, located between the City of Nanaimo docks and the Nanaimo
Yacht Club. The ferry dock is immediately adjacent to the public
floats.

Going ashore at Newcastle, from either the ferry dock or the public
moorage, a visitor encounters broad, grassy meadow and a cluster of
buildings. The Canadian Pacific Steamship Company extensively developed
this corner of Newcastle in the early 1930's. A long, barn-like dance
hall, called the Pavilion, featured live music as well as food and
beverage service, and was the center of social activities here.
Canadian Pacific Steamships did a steady and profitable trade
transporting dancers and picnickers from Vancouver, with posters from
the era advertising the passage as a 2 1/2 hour voyage. Interest in the
Newcastle Island Coastal Steamship Resort dwindled as Canadians became
preoccupied with WWII, and in the 1940's Canadian Pacific deeded all of
Newcastle Island to the City of Nanaimo for $1. The Pavilion seen today
is not the original building, but rather a replica constructed in the
mid-1980's. Reasonable "fast fare" is available in one end of the
building, and a museum recounting the history of Newcastle Island
occupies the other. We noticed a brisk commerce in ice cream cones and
soft drinks on a warm August day.

The Pavilion and the adjacent clearings for picnics, camping, and
sporting events may record much of the recent history of Newcastle
Island, but there are older tales told deep in the forests and along
the rocky shorelines of Newcastle. One could spend several seasons
getting to know and understand this island, but Jan and I set out to
discover what we could absorb in an afternoon. After inspecting the old
resort area, we walked along the SE shoreline and considered the
shallows between Newcastle Island and Protection Island, immediately
east. The Hudson Bay Company built a blockhouse to protect the village
of Nanaimo, and would fire six-pound shot onto Protection Island to
"exercise" the cannon there. Protection Island is no longer suitable
for artillery practice, as it has a number of private homes and a
popular watering hole, The Dinghy Dock Pub.
Those succumbing to a temptation to walk across the dried flats to
reach the pub at a low tide must be mindful of the tide tables- or
looking for a good excuse to spend perhaps twelve hours at the bar.

Campers with preference for a rustic version the pastime will enjoy
Newcastle Island. There are some designated tent areas behind the
Pavilion, but all gear and provisions must be hauled to the island by
private boat or the Nanaimo foot ferry.

We consulted a map of the island and selected a path just to the East
of the campground, the Kanaka Bay Trail. As we strolled into the dense
forest of the island interior, we noticed some old stumps along the
way. The stumps were of larger diameter than much of the standing
timber, and suggested that areas of Newcastle Island were probably
deforested sometime in the last 150 years. Farther along the trail, we
reached a low area where a ring of dead, white, trunks surrounded a
pond to the left of the trail. Beaver have been working here, (we
learned the beaver dammed the area in the mid-1980's). The presence of
the fur-bearing mammal reminds us that a market for tall hats and
flowing coats inspired much of the 18th and 19th Century European
exploration of this region.

The Europeans may have arrived looking for furs, but at Newcastle
Island they stayed for the coal. Rich seams of coal run throughout the
region. Miners brought from England and Wales would scratch deep into
the earth, in a damp, dark world illuminated only by the dogfish oil
lamps worn on their mining hats. The burning dogfish oil stank
horribly, and competed with the miners' dust scarred lungs for faint
whiffs of oxygen. Ventilation was critical. At a northern junction of
the Kanaka Bay trail there stands a rusted, circular structure that
marks a "ventilation shaft" for the mine works below. The small door
has been welded shut, but is said that at one time adventurous visitors
to Newcastle could climb down a 400-foot ladder and follow a tunnel
that eventually emerged somewhere near downtown Nanaimo. Some of the
old mine shafts were exceptionally long, and extended for miles under
the Strait or Georgia. Mining records indicate that in some instances
miners from Newcastle following a coal seam under the Strait would
encounter tunneling miners advancing along the same seam from the lower
mainland.

British coal miners were not the only laborers imported to extract the
resources of Newcastle Island. Many anthropologists theorize about
contacts between the First Nations of the Pacific NW and seagoing
peoples from Hawaii or Polynesia, but Hudson Bay Company's 19th Century
transport of "Kanaka" laborers from the Hawaiian Islands is accepted
history, not a plausible theory. Kanaka Bay commemorates the presence
of these workers, uprooted from a tropical island and transported to
the cool, damp, climate of Newcastle Island. It is said that the body
of one specific Kanaka, Peter Kakua, (convicted of a series of gruesome
murders) is buried along the shoreline here in an unmarked grave. Signs
posted on Kanaka Beach read "No Woodcutting, No Fires." Perhaps it
would be prudent to prohibit digging as well. In 1927, an underwater
telephone cable came ashore at Kanaka Bay and crossed Newcastle Island
to ultimately connect Vancouver Island with the mainland. We would find
additional evidence of the telephone connection at a later point in our
afternoon hike.

At Kanaka Bay, we ventured west into the interior of the island. After
several minutes we reached an earthen dam, constructed some time in the
19th Century to create a large freshwater impound, (Mallard Lake). The
Canadian Pacific Steamship Company stocked the lake with beaver and
muskrat to permit the addition of "Wildlife Observation" to the list of
attractions at Newcastle Island, and descendents of the original
animals live on Newcastle to this day.

"Blonde" raccoons are among the more unique fauna that can be observed
on Newcastle Island, and while we did not see raccoons of any sort
during our visit it is said that the raccoons are a particular nuisance
around the campground. Some of the raccoons on Newcastle are normally
pigmented, but the blonde individuals share a genetic mutation that
prevents the production of dark body hair.

Our trail followed the south shore of Mallard Lake, ultimately
intersecting trails on the western shoreline of Newcastle Island. A
diversion of the trail to the north, past Shaft Point, parallels
Saltery Beach. Although the beach now appears in a natural, undeveloped
state, not so very long ago a sad tale unfolded here. Before the Second
World War, Japanese Canadians engaged in a lucrative herring fishery.
The herring fishermen erected a shipyard along this beach for the
construction and repair of fishing vessels, and they built a salt
packing plant to preserve the catch. When Canada entered the Second
World War, the Japanese were removed to "relocation camps" far from the
Pacific Coast and the Canadian government seized the piers at Saltery
Beach. During the war years, the shipyard was used to repair Canadian
Navy vessels. When the war was over, the government sold all the
removable equipment from the shipyard, and then burned the herring
fishermen's buildings and docks.

We turned south to follow the trail along the western edge of Newcastle
Island, enjoying views of the Nanaimo waterfront across the channel. We
skirted the edge of Midden Bay, named for a native shell and refuse
pile that was located here. One of the earliest coal mines on Newcastle
Island (1853) was located at Midden Bay.

Not too far south of Midden Bay, we spotted a concrete ring to the
right of the trail, with metal spikes protruding from the perimeter
toward the hollow center of the ring. This concrete form was once a
foundation for the tall poles that carried that 1927 telephone line
from Newcastle Island to Nanaimo. The poles were tall enough to carry
the wires 120-feet above the water and provide adequate clearance for
those few sailing ships still plying Newcastle Channel in the late
1920's.

South of the phone crossing, we encountered evidence of yet another
resource that had been extracted from Newcastle Island; sandstone. A
sandstone quarry operated here as recently as 1955. Stone was
originally exported for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San
Francisco, followed by a long list of other prominent government and
private structures in the U.S. and Canada. Newcastle Island sandstone
is uniquely weather resistant, and exhibited other virtues prized by
architects. Walking through the helter skelter piles of squared stone
at the quarry site today is like wandering among giant building blocks
scattered by a careless, 40-foot child. One can estimate the volume of
stone removed here by noting the steep edge where the mining stopped
and the broad, unnaturally flat ground between the quarried cliff and
the island shoreline.

South of the sandstone quarry, the trail follows the shoreline around
Bate Point, (named for the first mayor of Nanaimo), and returns to the
moorage area of Mark Bay. Remnants of another industry, a pulpstone
quarry, can be found near the public floats. Pulpstones were precisely
cut, absolutely round stone cylinders used by paper mills to grind
pulp. Imperfect, rejected pulpstones lay about in an area cleared away
for public viewing, and circular depressions in the island rock and
other indications of pulpstone cutting can be found well back into the
surrounding underbrush. A reconstruction of the stone-cutting machinery
has been erected, and can be generally described as a wooden frame
designed to support a cylindrical "hole saw". The saw would be turned
by a small steam or diesel engine, and pressed ever deeper into the
rock by means of a cranking wheel.

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.

Old Boat Goat wrote:
Hey Chuck, glad to hear you were around the area. Nanaimo is my base
port, and my home, although I usually stay away from the harbour during the
summer months and sail out of Ladysmith, fifteen miles or so South. Less
traffic, less idioitos.
This year my boat (1955 35' wood sailboat) is out of the water
undergoing major restoration, sharing a shop with a 1925 40' tugboat, also
being restored.
Enjoy your B.C. cruising. I've lived and worked on water here all my
life and I still love every day of it.

Don


We were in Ladysmith as well.

I'll post an account of our experiences in Ladysmith Harbour soon. We
found the govt. floats pretty crowded this year as there were more
fishing boats in port than in some previous summers, so we moored over
at Page Point Inn. As you undoubtedly know, the restaurant there is
something special. :-)

Right now our boat is laying over in Comox until I get the next issue
of the magazine put together, then we'll travel back north VIA Clipper
and the Malahat and make the return leg of our vacation cruise.

Chuck, you are a very talented person, I really enjoy reading your posts.
Thanks again

Edward
wrote in message
oups.com...
Exploring Newcastle Island

The dispersed bands of the Snuneymuxw nation would congregate each
winter to camp along the shorelines of what we now call Departure Bay.
The large island just several paddle strokes away teemed with
resources; cedar planks and bark, small game, wild birds, roots and
berries, and, (to the east), a low-tide sandspit with an abundance of
shellfish. When the Europeans began arriving in the middle of the 19th
Century, they attempted to name their settlement after the indigenous
peoples they encountered here but the English tongue stumbled on
Snuneymuxw and created a new word: Nanaimo. The new arrivals considered
the island across the narrow channel from their fledgling city and
began capitalizing on the resources as well. While the Snuneymuxw
people utilized the island for winter sustenance, the new arrivals
imagined they could carry the island away by the schoonerfull. The
history of Newcastle Island, off the city of Nanaimo, is a study of
modern man exploiting and reshaping the natural environment as well as
a demonstration of the environment's partial ability to heal. Newcastle
Island is now a Provincial Marine Park, and a hike along the miles of
beaches and trails is highly recommended.

Newcastle Island Marine Park maintains public floats in Mark Bay, (near
49.10.80N and123.55.76W) and many vessels elect to anchor out.
Anchorage is available north of a line drawn between yellow spar buoys
1/10 mile SE of Good Point (on adjacent Protection Island) and 2/10
mile SW of Bate Point on Newcastle. Boaters berthed on the Nanaimo side
of the channel can reach Newcastle via foot-ferry departing from Maffeo
Sutton Park, located between the City of Nanaimo docks and the Nanaimo
Yacht Club. The ferry dock is immediately adjacent to the public
floats.

Going ashore at Newcastle, from either the ferry dock or the public
moorage, a visitor encounters broad, grassy meadow and a cluster of
buildings. The Canadian Pacific Steamship Company extensively developed
this corner of Newcastle in the early 1930's. A long, barn-like dance
hall, called the Pavilion, featured live music as well as food and
beverage service, and was the center of social activities here.
Canadian Pacific Steamships did a steady and profitable trade
transporting dancers and picnickers from Vancouver, with posters from
the era advertising the passage as a 2 1/2 hour voyage. Interest in the
Newcastle Island Coastal Steamship Resort dwindled as Canadians became
preoccupied with WWII, and in the 1940's Canadian Pacific deeded all of
Newcastle Island to the City of Nanaimo for $1. The Pavilion seen today
is not the original building, but rather a replica constructed in the
mid-1980's. Reasonable "fast fare" is available in one end of the
building, and a museum recounting the history of Newcastle Island
occupies the other. We noticed a brisk commerce in ice cream cones and
soft drinks on a warm August day.

The Pavilion and the adjacent clearings for picnics, camping, and
sporting events may record much of the recent history of Newcastle
Island, but there are older tales told deep in the forests and along
the rocky shorelines of Newcastle. One could spend several seasons
getting to know and understand this island, but Jan and I set out to
discover what we could absorb in an afternoon. After inspecting the old
resort area, we walked along the SE shoreline and considered the
shallows between Newcastle Island and Protection Island, immediately
east. The Hudson Bay Company built a blockhouse to protect the village
of Nanaimo, and would fire six-pound shot onto Protection Island to
"exercise" the cannon there. Protection Island is no longer suitable
for artillery practice, as it has a number of private homes and a
popular watering hole, The Dinghy Dock Pub.
Those succumbing to a temptation to walk across the dried flats to
reach the pub at a low tide must be mindful of the tide tables- or
looking for a good excuse to spend perhaps twelve hours at the bar.

Campers with preference for a rustic version the pastime will enjoy
Newcastle Island. There are some designated tent areas behind the
Pavilion, but all gear and provisions must be hauled to the island by
private boat or the Nanaimo foot ferry.

We consulted a map of the island and selected a path just to the East
of the campground, the Kanaka Bay Trail. As we strolled into the dense
forest of the island interior, we noticed some old stumps along the
way. The stumps were of larger diameter than much of the standing
timber, and suggested that areas of Newcastle Island were probably
deforested sometime in the last 150 years. Farther along the trail, we
reached a low area where a ring of dead, white, trunks surrounded a
pond to the left of the trail. Beaver have been working here, (we
learned the beaver dammed the area in the mid-1980's). The presence of
the fur-bearing mammal reminds us that a market for tall hats and
flowing coats inspired much of the 18th and 19th Century European
exploration of this region.

The Europeans may have arrived looking for furs, but at Newcastle
Island they stayed for the coal. Rich seams of coal run throughout the
region. Miners brought from England and Wales would scratch deep into
the earth, in a damp, dark world illuminated only by the dogfish oil
lamps worn on their mining hats. The burning dogfish oil stank
horribly, and competed with the miners' dust scarred lungs for faint
whiffs of oxygen. Ventilation was critical. At a northern junction of
the Kanaka Bay trail there stands a rusted, circular structure that
marks a "ventilation shaft" for the mine works below. The small door
has been welded shut, but is said that at one time adventurous visitors
to Newcastle could climb down a 400-foot ladder and follow a tunnel
that eventually emerged somewhere near downtown Nanaimo. Some of the
old mine shafts were exceptionally long, and extended for miles under
the Strait or Georgia. Mining records indicate that in some instances
miners from Newcastle following a coal seam under the Strait would
encounter tunneling miners advancing along the same seam from the lower
mainland.

British coal miners were not the only laborers imported to extract the
resources of Newcastle Island. Many anthropologists theorize about
contacts between the First Nations of the Pacific NW and seagoing
peoples from Hawaii or Polynesia, but Hudson Bay Company's 19th Century
transport of "Kanaka" laborers from the Hawaiian Islands is accepted
history, not a plausible theory. Kanaka Bay commemorates the presence
of these workers, uprooted from a tropical island and transported to
the cool, damp, climate of Newcastle Island. It is said that the body
of one specific Kanaka, Peter Kakua, (convicted of a series of gruesome
murders) is buried along the shoreline here in an unmarked grave. Signs
posted on Kanaka Beach read "No Woodcutting, No Fires." Perhaps it
would be prudent to prohibit digging as well. In 1927, an underwater
telephone cable came ashore at Kanaka Bay and crossed Newcastle Island
to ultimately connect Vancouver Island with the mainland. We would find
additional evidence of the telephone connection at a later point in our
afternoon hike.

At Kanaka Bay, we ventured west into the interior of the island. After
several minutes we reached an earthen dam, constructed some time in the
19th Century to create a large freshwater impound, (Mallard Lake). The
Canadian Pacific Steamship Company stocked the lake with beaver and
muskrat to permit the addition of "Wildlife Observation" to the list of
attractions at Newcastle Island, and descendents of the original
animals live on Newcastle to this day.

"Blonde" raccoons are among the more unique fauna that can be observed
on Newcastle Island, and while we did not see raccoons of any sort
during our visit it is said that the raccoons are a particular nuisance
around the campground. Some of the raccoons on Newcastle are normally
pigmented, but the blonde individuals share a genetic mutation that
prevents the production of dark body hair.

Our trail followed the south shore of Mallard Lake, ultimately
intersecting trails on the western shoreline of Newcastle Island. A
diversion of the trail to the north, past Shaft Point, parallels
Saltery Beach. Although the beach now appears in a natural, undeveloped
state, not so very long ago a sad tale unfolded here. Before the Second
World War, Japanese Canadians engaged in a lucrative herring fishery.
The herring fishermen erected a shipyard along this beach for the
construction and repair of fishing vessels, and they built a salt
packing plant to preserve the catch. When Canada entered the Second
World War, the Japanese were removed to "relocation camps" far from the
Pacific Coast and the Canadian government seized the piers at Saltery
Beach. During the war years, the shipyard was used to repair Canadian
Navy vessels. When the war was over, the government sold all the
removable equipment from the shipyard, and then burned the herring
fishermen's buildings and docks.

We turned south to follow the trail along the western edge of Newcastle
Island, enjoying views of the Nanaimo waterfront across the channel. We
skirted the edge of Midden Bay, named for a native shell and refuse
pile that was located here. One of the earliest coal mines on Newcastle
Island (1853) was located at Midden Bay.

Not too far south of Midden Bay, we spotted a concrete ring to the
right of the trail, with metal spikes protruding from the perimeter
toward the hollow center of the ring. This concrete form was once a
foundation for the tall poles that carried that 1927 telephone line
from Newcastle Island to Nanaimo. The poles were tall enough to carry
the wires 120-feet above the water and provide adequate clearance for
those few sailing ships still plying Newcastle Channel in the late
1920's.

South of the phone crossing, we encountered evidence of yet another
resource that had been extracted from Newcastle Island; sandstone. A
sandstone quarry operated here as recently as 1955. Stone was
originally exported for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San
Francisco, followed by a long list of other prominent government and
private structures in the U.S. and Canada. Newcastle Island sandstone
is uniquely weather resistant, and exhibited other virtues prized by
architects. Walking through the helter skelter piles of squared stone
at the quarry site today is like wandering among giant building blocks
scattered by a careless, 40-foot child. One can estimate the volume of
stone removed here by noting the steep edge where the mining stopped
and the broad, unnaturally flat ground between the quarried cliff and
the island shoreline.

South of the sandstone quarry, the trail follows the shoreline around
Bate Point, (named for the first mayor of Nanaimo), and returns to the
moorage area of Mark Bay. Remnants of another industry, a pulpstone
quarry, can be found near the public floats. Pulpstones were precisely
cut, absolutely round stone cylinders used by paper mills to grind
pulp. Imperfect, rejected pulpstones lay about in an area cleared away
for public viewing, and circular depressions in the island rock and
other indications of pulpstone cutting can be found well back into the
surrounding underbrush. A reconstruction of the stone-cutting machinery
has been erected, and can be generally described as a wooden frame
designed to support a cylindrical "hole saw". The saw would be turned
by a small steam or diesel engine, and pressed ever deeper into the
rock by means of a cranking wheel.

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.

On 12 Aug 2005 23:01:52 -0700, wrote:

~~ snip ~~

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.

Great write up as usual.

By the way, I received the copy of July/August of "Nor'westing" and
enjoyed every page. Please pass along my compliments to Catherine
Dook for a very funny, and quite nostalgic to me anyway, story in
"Dock of the Bay".

Later,

Tom

ed wrote:
Chuck, you are a very talented person, I really enjoy reading your posts.
Thanks again

Edward
wrote in message
oups.com...
Exploring Newcastle Island

The dispersed bands of the Snuneymuxw nation would congregate each
winter to camp along the shorelines of what we now call Departure Bay.
The large island just several paddle strokes away teemed with
resources; cedar planks and bark, small game, wild birds, roots and
berries, and, (to the east), a low-tide sandspit with an abundance of
shellfish. When the Europeans began arriving in the middle of the 19th
Century, they attempted to name their settlement after the indigenous
peoples they encountered here but the English tongue stumbled on
Snuneymuxw and created a new word: Nanaimo. The new arrivals considered
the island across the narrow channel from their fledgling city and
began capitalizing on the resources as well. While the Snuneymuxw
people utilized the island for winter sustenance, the new arrivals
imagined they could carry the island away by the schoonerfull. The
history of Newcastle Island, off the city of Nanaimo, is a study of
modern man exploiting and reshaping the natural environment as well as
a demonstration of the environment's partial ability to heal. Newcastle
Island is now a Provincial Marine Park, and a hike along the miles of
beaches and trails is highly recommended.

Newcastle Island Marine Park maintains public floats in Mark Bay, (near
49.10.80N and123.55.76W) and many vessels elect to anchor out.
Anchorage is available north of a line drawn between yellow spar buoys
1/10 mile SE of Good Point (on adjacent Protection Island) and 2/10
mile SW of Bate Point on Newcastle. Boaters berthed on the Nanaimo side
of the channel can reach Newcastle via foot-ferry departing from Maffeo
Sutton Park, located between the City of Nanaimo docks and the Nanaimo
Yacht Club. The ferry dock is immediately adjacent to the public
floats.

Going ashore at Newcastle, from either the ferry dock or the public
moorage, a visitor encounters broad, grassy meadow and a cluster of
buildings. The Canadian Pacific Steamship Company extensively developed
this corner of Newcastle in the early 1930's. A long, barn-like dance
hall, called the Pavilion, featured live music as well as food and
beverage service, and was the center of social activities here.
Canadian Pacific Steamships did a steady and profitable trade
transporting dancers and picnickers from Vancouver, with posters from
the era advertising the passage as a 2 1/2 hour voyage. Interest in the
Newcastle Island Coastal Steamship Resort dwindled as Canadians became
preoccupied with WWII, and in the 1940's Canadian Pacific deeded all of
Newcastle Island to the City of Nanaimo for $1. The Pavilion seen today
is not the original building, but rather a replica constructed in the
mid-1980's. Reasonable "fast fare" is available in one end of the
building, and a museum recounting the history of Newcastle Island
occupies the other. We noticed a brisk commerce in ice cream cones and
soft drinks on a warm August day.

The Pavilion and the adjacent clearings for picnics, camping, and
sporting events may record much of the recent history of Newcastle
Island, but there are older tales told deep in the forests and along
the rocky shorelines of Newcastle. One could spend several seasons
getting to know and understand this island, but Jan and I set out to
discover what we could absorb in an afternoon. After inspecting the old
resort area, we walked along the SE shoreline and considered the
shallows between Newcastle Island and Protection Island, immediately
east. The Hudson Bay Company built a blockhouse to protect the village
of Nanaimo, and would fire six-pound shot onto Protection Island to
"exercise" the cannon there. Protection Island is no longer suitable
for artillery practice, as it has a number of private homes and a
popular watering hole, The Dinghy Dock Pub.
Those succumbing to a temptation to walk across the dried flats to
reach the pub at a low tide must be mindful of the tide tables- or
looking for a good excuse to spend perhaps twelve hours at the bar.

Campers with preference for a rustic version the pastime will enjoy
Newcastle Island. There are some designated tent areas behind the
Pavilion, but all gear and provisions must be hauled to the island by
private boat or the Nanaimo foot ferry.

We consulted a map of the island and selected a path just to the East
of the campground, the Kanaka Bay Trail. As we strolled into the dense
forest of the island interior, we noticed some old stumps along the
way. The stumps were of larger diameter than much of the standing
timber, and suggested that areas of Newcastle Island were probably
deforested sometime in the last 150 years. Farther along the trail, we
reached a low area where a ring of dead, white, trunks surrounded a
pond to the left of the trail. Beaver have been working here, (we
learned the beaver dammed the area in the mid-1980's). The presence of
the fur-bearing mammal reminds us that a market for tall hats and
flowing coats inspired much of the 18th and 19th Century European
exploration of this region.

The Europeans may have arrived looking for furs, but at Newcastle
Island they stayed for the coal. Rich seams of coal run throughout the
region. Miners brought from England and Wales would scratch deep into
the earth, in a damp, dark world illuminated only by the dogfish oil
lamps worn on their mining hats. The burning dogfish oil stank
horribly, and competed with the miners' dust scarred lungs for faint
whiffs of oxygen. Ventilation was critical. At a northern junction of
the Kanaka Bay trail there stands a rusted, circular structure that
marks a "ventilation shaft" for the mine works below. The small door
has been welded shut, but is said that at one time adventurous visitors
to Newcastle could climb down a 400-foot ladder and follow a tunnel
that eventually emerged somewhere near downtown Nanaimo. Some of the
old mine shafts were exceptionally long, and extended for miles under
the Strait or Georgia. Mining records indicate that in some instances
miners from Newcastle following a coal seam under the Strait would
encounter tunneling miners advancing along the same seam from the lower
mainland.

British coal miners were not the only laborers imported to extract the
resources of Newcastle Island. Many anthropologists theorize about
contacts between the First Nations of the Pacific NW and seagoing
peoples from Hawaii or Polynesia, but Hudson Bay Company's 19th Century
transport of "Kanaka" laborers from the Hawaiian Islands is accepted
history, not a plausible theory. Kanaka Bay commemorates the presence
of these workers, uprooted from a tropical island and transported to
the cool, damp, climate of Newcastle Island. It is said that the body
of one specific Kanaka, Peter Kakua, (convicted of a series of gruesome
murders) is buried along the shoreline here in an unmarked grave. Signs
posted on Kanaka Beach read "No Woodcutting, No Fires." Perhaps it
would be prudent to prohibit digging as well. In 1927, an underwater
telephone cable came ashore at Kanaka Bay and crossed Newcastle Island
to ultimately connect Vancouver Island with the mainland. We would find
additional evidence of the telephone connection at a later point in our
afternoon hike.

At Kanaka Bay, we ventured west into the interior of the island. After
several minutes we reached an earthen dam, constructed some time in the
19th Century to create a large freshwater impound, (Mallard Lake). The
Canadian Pacific Steamship Company stocked the lake with beaver and
muskrat to permit the addition of "Wildlife Observation" to the list of
attractions at Newcastle Island, and descendents of the original
animals live on Newcastle to this day.

"Blonde" raccoons are among the more unique fauna that can be observed
on Newcastle Island, and while we did not see raccoons of any sort
during our visit it is said that the raccoons are a particular nuisance
around the campground. Some of the raccoons on Newcastle are normally
pigmented, but the blonde individuals share a genetic mutation that
prevents the production of dark body hair.

Our trail followed the south shore of Mallard Lake, ultimately
intersecting trails on the western shoreline of Newcastle Island. A
diversion of the trail to the north, past Shaft Point, parallels
Saltery Beach. Although the beach now appears in a natural, undeveloped
state, not so very long ago a sad tale unfolded here. Before the Second
World War, Japanese Canadians engaged in a lucrative herring fishery.
The herring fishermen erected a shipyard along this beach for the
construction and repair of fishing vessels, and they built a salt
packing plant to preserve the catch. When Canada entered the Second
World War, the Japanese were removed to "relocation camps" far from the
Pacific Coast and the Canadian government seized the piers at Saltery
Beach. During the war years, the shipyard was used to repair Canadian
Navy vessels. When the war was over, the government sold all the
removable equipment from the shipyard, and then burned the herring
fishermen's buildings and docks.

We turned south to follow the trail along the western edge of Newcastle
Island, enjoying views of the Nanaimo waterfront across the channel. We
skirted the edge of Midden Bay, named for a native shell and refuse
pile that was located here. One of the earliest coal mines on Newcastle
Island (1853) was located at Midden Bay.

Not too far south of Midden Bay, we spotted a concrete ring to the
right of the trail, with metal spikes protruding from the perimeter
toward the hollow center of the ring. This concrete form was once a
foundation for the tall poles that carried that 1927 telephone line
from Newcastle Island to Nanaimo. The poles were tall enough to carry
the wires 120-feet above the water and provide adequate clearance for
those few sailing ships still plying Newcastle Channel in the late
1920's.

South of the phone crossing, we encountered evidence of yet another
resource that had been extracted from Newcastle Island; sandstone. A
sandstone quarry operated here as recently as 1955. Stone was
originally exported for the construction of the U.S. Mint in San
Francisco, followed by a long list of other prominent government and
private structures in the U.S. and Canada. Newcastle Island sandstone
is uniquely weather resistant, and exhibited other virtues prized by
architects. Walking through the helter skelter piles of squared stone
at the quarry site today is like wandering among giant building blocks
scattered by a careless, 40-foot child. One can estimate the volume of
stone removed here by noting the steep edge where the mining stopped
and the broad, unnaturally flat ground between the quarried cliff and
the island shoreline.

South of the sandstone quarry, the trail follows the shoreline around
Bate Point, (named for the first mayor of Nanaimo), and returns to the
moorage area of Mark Bay. Remnants of another industry, a pulpstone
quarry, can be found near the public floats. Pulpstones were precisely
cut, absolutely round stone cylinders used by paper mills to grind
pulp. Imperfect, rejected pulpstones lay about in an area cleared away
for public viewing, and circular depressions in the island rock and
other indications of pulpstone cutting can be found well back into the
surrounding underbrush. A reconstruction of the stone-cutting machinery
has been erected, and can be generally described as a wooden frame
designed to support a cylindrical "hole saw". The saw would be turned
by a small steam or diesel engine, and pressed ever deeper into the
rock by means of a cranking wheel.

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.


And thank you for the compliment.

Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:
On 12 Aug 2005 23:01:52 -0700, wrote:

~~ snip ~~

Nanaimo was a reprovisioning stop on our 2005 itinerary, so we were
moored at the Port of Nanaimo docks just a short walk from the grocery
store. We caught the last foot ferry back to town, very pleased with
the afternoon's adventure and determined to spend additional days in
years to come enjoying the rich scenery and contemplating the
interesting history of Newcastle Island.

Great write up as usual.

By the way, I received the copy of July/August of "Nor'westing" and
enjoyed every page. Please pass along my compliments to Catherine
Dook for a very funny, and quite nostalgic to me anyway, story in
"Dock of the Bay".

Later,

Tom

Isn't she great?

We put into Cowichan Bay one year, tracked down her boat (wasn't hard,
small place and everybody knew her) and rapped on the gunwale of her
liveaboard sailboat completely unnanounced. It was raining to beat
Cain, and she invited us in for hot coffee. I can tell you for a fact
she talks just exactly like she writes and is non-stop funny. All the
people she writes about in her column each month actually exist! The
legally blind guy who still skippers his boat, etc etc etc.