De Courcy Island

De Courcy Island is located beside Valdes Island. De Courcy is 300 acres in size.

Named after Michael De Courcy, Commander of the HMS Pylades, which served the area from 1859 to 1861. First settled in the early 1900's, it was subdivided in the 1960's.

There is a network of hiking trails, gravel roads, barge unloading area, and resident moorage. There is no ferry service, but there is scheduled seaplane service to Vancouver.

In 1966 Pirates Cove Marine Park was establish at the south end of De Courcy. The park is 38 hectares in size. The park features a pebble beach, 4 km of hiking trails, camping and picnic areas, and two dinghy floats. Inside Pirates Cove, there is room for about 75 vessels. There are ring bolts in the rocks for securing stern lines.

Hudson Island

Hudson Island is located beside Thetis Island, and Kuper Island. Hudson is about 30 acres in size.

I am unable to verify the origin of Hudson Island's name, but my theory is it is named for the Hudson Bay Company. Their officers were active in the area and did name Reid Island. Seems logical that they would name an island after the Company at some point.

Hudson has it's own airstrip, shared among 10 property owners.

Many residents reach Hudson by taking the ferry to Thetis Island, and then going to the marina, and completing the trip in their own boat.

James Island

James Island is located beside Sidney Island. James Island is 315 hectares in size.

First settled in the 1870's by farm families. These early settlers named the island after James Douglas, Governor of Vancouver Island, circa 1853. Made the official name by Captain Richards of the HMS Plumper in 1858.

James Island served, in the early 1900's, as a private hunting ground for Victoria sportsmen including then British Columbia Premier Richard McBride, whom served between 1903 and 1915.

In 1913, Canadian Explosives Ltd, later called Canadian Industries Ltd, established a dynamite plant on the island. At its peak, the plant employed 800 people, most of whom lived in a small village on the island. During World War II, the plant produced 900 tonnes of TNT per month for the war effort.

In 1962, the plant closed. In 1979, the plant and the village were disassembled and removed from the island.

Today, there is a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course, six cottages, seaplane ramp, 792.48 metres runway, and commercial-grade dock, that can accommodate large yachts.

Currently owned by a well known US billionaire. Reported in the media to be for sale for $49,900,000 US Dollars.

Mudge Island

Mudge Island was named by Captain Richards of the HMS Plumper after his Lieutenant William Fitzwilliam Mudge. Mudge Island is approximately 0.5 mile wide and 2.5 miles long. It is the most northern member of the DeCourcy Group of Gulf Islands

Mudge lies accross False Narrows from Gabriola Island, and is near the northern end of Valdes Island. Mudge has no ferry service, but is only three minutes from a boat ramp on Gabriola Island, and just 25 minutes from the city of Nanaimo. Deep water moorage is available at "Friends of Coho Cove" on Mudge Island.

Mudge has a year round population of about 60 full time residents. Some are artisans, some commute to work on Gabriola or Vancouver Island, and some run home based businesses. The Summer can boast the population to between 100 and 150. Residents get around on Mudge via dirt roads by either foot or bicycle.

There are no shops on Mudge Island, so residents do their shopping on either Gabriola Island (food, pharmacy, liquor, hardware, etc), or in Nanaimo. School children attend elementary school on Gabriola Island, catching the school bus at Brickyard Hill.

Mudge Island is unique among the smaller islands in that it offers full hydro, telephone and cable TV services. Mudge can be accessed by private watercraft, seaplane, water taxi, or barge for large and heavy supplies.

Parker Island

Parker is located beside Galiano Island. Named after Lieutenant George Ferdinand Hastings Parker, R.N. of H.M.S Ganges, flag ship of Rear Admiral Baynes.

Parker Island is just under 162 hectares in size. It is divided into about 37 lots, with some park areas. Most lots have a drilled well, and shared access to a community dock.

Parker is host to the hydro towers, cables, and transformers that help bring power from Galiano Island to Salt Spring Island. Naturally this makes Parker one of the best of the small islands for access to electricity.

Some of the oceanfronts face back to Galiano, across Montague Harbour. The Trincomali side of the Island faces across to Salt Spring. Some people live there year-round, while others are seasonal residents. Property prices are in the range of $249,000 & up for an undeveloped small acreage.

Piers Island

Piers Island is located south of Salt Spring Island, near Portland Island. Piers is 97 hectares in size, and is named after Henry Piers, a British Royal Navy surgeon on the H.M.S. Satellite, who served on the coast between 1857 and 1860.

Between 1932 and July of 1935, Piers was a special prison camp for the Doukhobor. The inmate population reached a high of 570.

Doukhobor means "Spirit Wrestlers", and is the name of a sect of Russian Christians, whom date back to the 18th Century. They are known for their pacifism, and an austere communal lifestyle.

The first Doukhobors arrived in Canada in 1899, making their way to British Columbia in 1908. Today, there are about 15,000 Doukhobors in British Columbia.

Today, Piers Island has many residential homes on it, and is well named as the island is surrounded by the piers of its residents.

Portland Island

Portland Island was named after the HMS Portland, flagship of Rear Admiral Fairfax Moresby. The island was named by Captain G.H Richards of the HMS Plumper, in 1859. Portland is 534 hectares in size.

Portland Island was presented to Princess Margaret of the UK, in 1958, to commemorate her visit to British Columbia. In 1967, the Princess returned it to the province for it to be created as a marine park. Today the island is also known as Princess Margaret Marine Park.

There are several archaeological sites, that indicate human use of the island for over 3000 years. Refuse heaps of castaway shells, called middens, are left from centuries of harvesting the island's waters. The middens are protected under British Columbia law and may not be disturbed.

British Columbia's first artificial reef lies off the southeast shore of Portland Island, just west of buoy U15. The scuttled freighter G.B. Church serves as a haven for marine life and is an attraction for scuba divers.

Portland Island is surrounded by several islets. Brackman Island is an ecological reserve. While Chads Island and Hood Island are private islands.

Reid Island

Reid Island is named after Captain James Murray Reid, of the Brigantine Vancouver, for 28 years of service to the Hudson Bay Company.

Reid is 225 acres in size, divided into about 36 properties. There are about 10 km of private walking trails on the island. Reid Island is in a weather zone categorized as "Sub-Mediterranean" and is the only such zone in Canada.

Reid Island is also home to the Reid Island Guest Cottage ( E-Mail : kevan@perconline.com ). A stay at the Guest Cottage will give you a good idea of what living on a small Gulf Island would be like. Reid Island will have properties come on the market from time to time. However, there's no public access.

Sidney Island

Sidney Island, first named Sallas Island, circa 1850, by the officers of the Hudson Bay Company was one of the earliest places settled on Canada's Pacific Coast. Sidney Island was on the route from Fort Victoria to the Fraser River gold rush in 1858. Renamed Sidney Island by Captain Richards of the H.M.S. Plumper in 1859.

In 1860, the Hudson Bay Company began offering land for sale for six shillings an acre. For some years following the turn of the century, a brickworks operated in the area now within the marine park, utilizing the island's fine clay.

Some of the huge old growth Douglas Fir timber was logged during the two World Wars, and in its place vigorous stands of second growth have flourished.

In 1910, a group of Victoria businessmen purchased Sidney Island as a hunting, preserve though vegetable farming and sheep raising continued for some decades.

In 1981, after the Sidney Spit Marine Park was created, the remainder of the island was purchased by Sallas Forest Limited Partnership. Today following official approval of a development plan to integrate low-density residential development with forest management and protection of areas of special environmental significance, ownership is being transferred to strata owners organized under a strata corporation.

In February 2002, 35.3 hectares on Sidney Island became a protected area via the use of seven conservation covenants. Fragile areas protected include Garry Oak Trees, coastal bluff ecosystems, four wetlands, scenic peninsula, and an extensive southwest facing shoreline.

The north end of Sidney Island is a marine park called The Sidney Spit. The park extends for about a mile from the end of Sidney Island. It is a finger of fine sand formed from unconsolidated sand and gravel deposited by receding glaciers. The parks contours change constantly, due to wind and tides.

The Park is composed of the Spit, a shallow saltwater lagoon, and 140 hectares of the north end of Sidney Island. There is a scheduled foot passenger ferry to the Spit from the town of Sidney on Vancouver Island. The Spit has thousands of metres of beach, great for swimming and beachcombing. The Park features a 30 site campground, 35 mooring buoys, and docking facilities.

Thetis Island

Thetis Island is about 10.4 sq km in size, and has a population of about 340 people. There is an elementary school serving grades K to 7. This school is in a different school board then the other Gulf Islands. The residents do most of their shopping in Chemainus or Duncan, on Vancouver Island. There are convenience groceries, on Thetis, at the two marinas in Telegraph Harbour.

Thetis enjoys BC Ferry service to and from Chemanius on Vancouver Island. There is also a company, which offers regular floatplane service to Vancouver from Thetis.

The name Thetis is from Greek myth, and was a Neriad, a sea nymph, and daughter of Zeus. Thetis Island was named by Captain Augustus Leopold Kuper, after his ship, the H.M.S. Thetis, a British frigate, which surveyed the area circa 1851. Thetis was first settled in 1873.

Thetis Island and Kuper Island were originally joined by mud flats. In 1905 a passage was dredged to allow boat traffic to pass.

Valdes Island

Valdes is at the Northern end of what is generally considered the Southern Gulf Islands. It lies across Porlier Pass from Galiano Island.

Valdes Island is named after Commander Cayentano Valdez of the Spanish Navy vessel Mexicana, who explored the region in the 1790's.

A third of the island is a Native Persons Reservation, belonging to the Lyackson Tribe. There is a tiny community on the north shore called Starvation Bay. There is no ferry service.

In June 2002, Wakes Cove Provincial Park was created on Valdes Island. The property is within the heavily settled coastal Douglas fir ecosystem and contains a stand of old growth as well as arbutus trees, Garry oaks and endangered plant species. It supplies a sheltered anchorage in the north end of the Southern Gulf Islands and offers hiking trails, picnicking, wildlife viewing and overnight camping for kayakers and other visitors in small boats.

The British Columbia Government purchased the 132 hectare property at Wakes Cove for $4.12 million, with $100,000 coming from the recreational boating community. The new provincial park includes another 73 hectares of Crown foreshore on Valdes Island.

Wallace Island

Wallace Island, next to Galiano Island, was originally named Narrow Island, but was renamed, in 1905, by Captain John Parry, after Captain Wallace Houstoun of the H.M.S. Trincomalee, who first surveyed the area in the 1850's. In 1874, the HMS Panther ran aground on the island, on what is now known as Panther Point.

The first known resident of the island was Jeremiah Chivers, a Scotsman, who retired to the island, after fruitless adventures in the interior gold rushes. He died after 38 years on the island, in 1927, at the age of 92. Twisted fruit trees are the only remnants of the garden and orchard, he planted.

In 1946, David Conover, who claimed to have discovered Marilyn Monroe, used his life savings to buy the island. After several years, he built cabins, that became the resort "Royal Cedar Cottages". It offered a well stocked store, recreation hall, and boat rentals. Some of the buildings are still standing today, and there is still the small pickup truck, and tractor, he used.

In 1966, Mr Conover started to sell off major portions of the island. He kept only 11 acres for his family in Princess Cove, where he lived until his death in 1983. These 11 acres remain the only private land on the island.

In 1990, the Province of British Columbia started to buy up the portions, Mr Conover had sold off. Today, these portions form a marine park. There is moorage and dockage in Conover Cove, and a network of trails throughout the island. Camping is allowed, but never any camp fires.

Mr Conover wrote two books about his adventures on Wallace Island : "Once Upon an Island" and "One Man's Island".

"For weeks now, I have had no inclination to leave the island. If I don't watch out, I'll soon take root like a fir. The prospect, I admit, I find not unpleasant."

David Conover, "One Man's Island", 1971.

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