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Coast Salish Indians
Thousands of years ago, an estimated 5,000 Sechelts lived on the Sunshine Coast, where they fished, hunted deer and harvested shellfish. It appears they came from Asia, crossing the Bering Sea on a land bridge formed when the great glaciers melted.
Early history tells us that the Sechelt Indians of the Coast Salish band had a winter camp in Garden Bay and the Nanoose Indians from Vancouver Island fished the shores just south of Pender Harbour.
After smallpox devastated the Sechelts and their lifestyle changed through the efforts of Christian missionaries, Sechelt became their year-round home. The Sechelt Indian Residential School opened in 1904 and was operated by the Canadian government and Catholic Church until it closed in 1975. There, aboriginal children were forced to abandon their language, religion and much of their culture.
Today there are few Salish in Pender Harbour, and aboriginal peoples represent only 5% of the Sunshine Coast population. The Sechelts are the first Indian band in Canada to be granted self-government (1985).
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English and Spanish Explorers
Both the English and Spanish explored the area around the same time, which is why we have names like Malaspina (Spanish) and Pender (English). There remains some dispute among historians, but all agree that Captain George Vancouver arrived at, and named, Vancouver Bay on June 17, 1792.
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Pioneers
Irvine's Landing Post Office opened Aug. 1, 1897, named after Charles Irvine who settled in the area with his family and was postmaster in 1903-04. This post office closed in 1966, replaced by the Madeira Park Post Office, but the area is still known as Irvine’s Landing.
In the late 1800’s “Portuguese Joe” Gonsalves, a young sailor and fisherman from the Portuguese Island of Madeira (off the coast of Africa), came to Canada as a stowaway. He grew up in Vancouver, married an Squamish Indian woman and raised his family as a homesteader at Stanley Park's Brockton Point. In 1904, his daughter Matilda and the Russian sailor Theodore Dames were married. Later that year, Portuguese Joe and Matilda's husband bought half of John and George West's property in Irvine’s Landing.
The family arrived with Joe Perry, a sailor friend from the Azores, to help with their enterprise. They developed Wests' old supply post to include a hotel and saloon while Gonsalves continued to fish his seiner, Hermosa, with Perry as deckhand.
Gonsalves and Dames expanded their business to include a deep-sea dock, barbershop, general store, post office, and Pender Harbour's first public telephone. It was the business and social hub of Pender Harbour, as locals rowed their little boats over to pick up supplies and meet the steamers that arrived twice a week.
Fire eventually destroyed the wooden buildings, and Garden Bay became the community's business centre. The BC Archives lists the death of Joseph Gonsalves, 82, in 1939 in Vancouver. Theodore Dames died in Irvine's Landing March 2, 1935, at 68.
Portugese Joe has many descendants living in Pender Harbour, and the Madeira Park Elementary School and Community Hall sit on property that he donated to the community. Today, his likeness (carved in cedar by local sculptor Jack Crabb) overlooks the harbour from Seafarer's Park and Pender Harbour is still called "Venice of the North," which probably has as much to with its network of bays and coves (and the fact that everyone traveled by boat) as its Latin pioneer.
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Steamer Stop
As the population grew, Pender Harbour became a prominent, if not booming, community of the west coast. Everyone lived on the waterfront and, although a few trails existed, roads were not a part of the infrastructure for many years.
In 1902, the Union Steamship Line added Pender Harbour to its schedule, serviced by the Cutch. This was a dramatic change for Pender Harbour residents who, with no roads, were effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
The steamers pulled into Irvine's Landing with food, mail, miscellaneous supplies, visitors and young men heading for logging jobs in the area. Occasionally a group of "Swamp Angels" (prostitutes) would visit Pender Harbour via one or another Union Steamship.
In the 1930's, the line's 101-ft. Comox was stationed in Porpoise Bay to run sightseeing tours through the Skookumchuck Narrows, a feat that today intimidates most skippers of much smaller and more seaworthy craft. At the same time, the Lady Cecilia ran sightseeing tours through the “wonder fjord of the world," Jervis Inlet.
The lucrative freight and passenger service business was shared by a couple of other companies, the largest being Gulf Lines Ltd. which began servicing Pender Harbour in 1946 with the Gulf Wing, Gulf Stream and Gulf Mariner.
Faced with increased wage, fuel and repair costs plus competition from road traffic, the Union Steamships dropped Pender Harbour in 1950. Gulf Lines gave up about a year later.
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The Sunshine Coast’s First Hospital
With a fleet of mismatched boats and a dedicated group of skipper-priests, the Columbia Coast Mission provided sporadic religious services to isolated coastal communities, including Pender Harbour.
One of these skipper-priests, Rev. John Antle, was determined to see a permanent medical facility to serve the area. He successfully petitioned the church, government and local supporters until St. Mary's Hospital opened in Garden Bay on August 16, 1930, on property donated by R. Brynildsen Sr. Nearby, the mission built the "Aged Folks Guest Houses" which were available to residents.
By 1953, the mission could no longer afford to operate St. Mary's, so it was turned over to a board of local directors.
Many locals were born in the hospital, later married in its chapel and, after that, perhaps partied at the Sundowner Cabaret after the service of St. Mary’s Hospital was relocated to Sechelt. Every second year, the Mission Boat Rendezvous celebrates and remembers the history of the mission boats, their skippers and the first hospital on the Sunshine Coast.
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Historical Organizations
Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society
604-883-0539
The Living Heritage Society works towards preservation of our local history, specifically in the marine area. They host the annual April Tools wooden boat challenge, hold boat-building courses and manage the Bert McKay collection of historical marine and commercial fishing artifacts.
Skookumchuk Heritage Society
Beverly Saunders, 604-740-6324
Operates the Egmont Heritage Centre, open in summer months, 11 am - 4 pm.
2008 Board of Directors - Billy Griffith, Kathy Gray, Geoff Craig, Jessica Casey, Beverly Saunders, Maureen Parrott, Christina Johnson, Marten Mees, Janet Dickin.
Offsite History Links
BC Archives & Royal BC Museum - BC Geographical Names
Pender Harbour Living Heritage Society
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