Five Easy Pieces on the Strait of Georgia – Reflections on the Historical Geography of the North Salish Sea
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FIVE EASY PIECES ON THE STRAIT OF GEORGIA – REFLECTIONS ON THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE NORTH SALISH SEA by HOWARD MACDONALD STEWART B.A., Simon Fraser University, 1975 M.Sc., York University, 1980 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2014 © Howard Macdonald Stewart, 2014 Abstract This study presents five parallel, interwoven histories of evolving relations between humans and the rest of nature around the Strait of Georgia or North Salish Sea between the 1850s and the 1980s. Together they comprise a complex but coherent portrait of Canada’s most heavily populated coastal zone. Home to about 10% of Canada’s contemporary population, the region defined by this inland sea has been greatly influenced by its relations with the Strait, which is itself the focus of a number of escalating struggles between stakeholders. This study was motivated by a conviction that understanding this region and the sea at the centre of it, the struggles and their stakeholders, requires understanding of at least these five key elements of the Strait’s modern history. Drawing on a range of archival and secondary sources, the study depicts the Strait in relation to human movement, the Strait as a locus for colonial dispossession of indigenous people, the Strait as a multi-faceted resource mine, the Strait as a valuable waste dump and the Strait as a place for recreation / re-creation. Each of these five dimensions of the Strait’s history was most prominent at a different point in the overall period considered and constantly changing relations among the five narratives are an important focus of the analysis. The evolving roles of governance, science, cultural representation and conservationism / environmentalism are considered throughout. The only common element linking the five narratives, apart from the Strait itself, is a pervasive, well- founded fear of loss – fear of a dangerous sea or fear of losing access to the marine highway, fear of losing the Strait as indigenous patrimony or as a colonial entitlement, fear of losing its rich terrestrial and marine resources, fear of losing waste dumping privileges, fear of losing the Strait as recreational space. The study concludes with a brief consideration of the five narratives in the 21st century, their contemporary interactions and their links with the histories considered in this study. ii Preface This dissertation is original, unpublished and independent work by the author, Howard Macdonald Stewart. iii Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ ii Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................................ iv List of Tables............................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................ vii List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................................... viii Lists of Abbreviations and Acronyms ......................................................................................................... xv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. xvii 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 What is this Strait of Georgia? ................................................................................................................ 10 A short modern history of the Strait ........................................................................................................ 14 Influences and actors on the Strait .......................................................................................................... 20 Pervasive fears of ‘losing their Strait’ ..................................................................................................... 28 2. The Sea as Barrier, the Sea as Highway .............................................................................................. 37 Colonisation by a seafaring people, 1849-1880s .................................................................................... 37 Accelerating technological change, 1880s – WWI ................................................................................. 47 Boats, trains and automobiles in the interwar years ................................................................................ 67 The Strait in the era of the automobile, 1945 – 1980s ............................................................................ 76 The inland sea as barrier and highway .................................................................................................... 88 3. Empty Land or Stolen Land? The Colonial Strait ................................................................................. 95 Establishing imperial control of the Strait, 1849 - 1880s ...................................................................... 102 Consolidating colonial dispossession, 1880s – 1914 ............................................................................ 118 Stagnation, not disappearance, during the interwar years ..................................................................... 134 The beginnings of decolonization after WWII ...................................................................................... 146 New indigenous people in the Strait’s new world ................................................................................. 152 4. Resource Mining by the Sea - Mining and Forestry .......................................................................... 161 The resource mine, 1849-1980s ............................................................................................................ 161 Early mining by the shore ..................................................................................................................... 163 Mining on the Strait after 1914 ............................................................................................................. 169 Mining the forests of the Strait .............................................................................................................. 171 Sustained by forestry in the interwar years ........................................................................................... 179 Forestry boom and bust after 1945 ........................................................................................................ 184 From center stage to senescence ........................................................................................................... 191 iv 5. Mining the Strait’s Fish ...................................................................................................................... 196 The settler’s early salmon fishery ......................................................................................................... 197 Salmon fishing at the centre of the resource rush, 1880s - WWI .......................................................... 198 Changing geography of salmon fishing in the interwar years ............................................................... 205 Salmon on the Strait after 1945 - great plans, challenges & aquaculture.............................................. 211 Oysters .................................................................................................................................................. 229 From “teeming with life” to “coping with challenges” ......................................................................... 234 6. The Perfect Toilet – The Strait as Waste Dump .................................................................................. 241 A valued place to spill waste by WWI .................................................................................................. 241 Expansion of waste dumping in the interwar years ............................................................................... 244 The emergence of serious opposition after 1945................................................................................... 248 Once a waste dump, always a waste dump ........................................................................................... 287 7. Re-creation on the Restorative Strait .................................................................................................. 295 Beginnings of settler recreation on the Strait: 1849-WWI .................................................................... 296 Re-creation in difficult times: the interwar years .................................................................................. 304 The flowering of recreation on the sea after WWII .............................................................................