File: 57 Version 10.5 Gabriola coastal placenames If you enjoyed Captain John T. Walbran’s Gabriola & nearby islets British Columbia Coast Names, first published in 1909, you will love the new ACORN ISLAND (BA) update, The Encyclopedia of Raincoast In the Flat Tops. Formerly Southeast Island and Place Names, by Andrew Scott, 2009. This Goodalls Island. is an excellent, entertaining, and informative ARBUTUS POINT reference book. In spite of its 650+ pages Name for Malaspina Point in an 1853 Admiralty however, some of the smaller islands and plan of Nanaimo Harbour based, in part, on islets have been omitted. Hudson’s Bay Company surveys. The following is a cumulative list of coastal ATREVIDA WHARF placenames that have been published in Old name for the ferry wharf in Descanso Bay (1932–57) after the name of the first ferry boat SHALE at one time or another. Details to run regularly between Gabriola and Nanaimo. available in the new encyclopedia (S), or in The wharf ran across the bay, not into the bay as the book by Aula Bell and Neil Aitken, the present wharf does. Gabriola Island Place Names, published in 1996 (BA), or in Walbran (W) are not BANYAN POINT Name for Law Point in use in the 1920s and included. 1930s. Changed in 1944. w Snunéymux names are also not included— BARE ISLAND this requires the help of someone who Former name for Carlos Island. knows the language. See however. BATH ISLAND (BA) Islands listed without a name in the Islands In the Flat Tops. Probably so named because of Trust Associated Islands Atlas are given the large potholes in the sandstone on the island. their atlas designation (GB nn). Bath Island was possibly named by Royal Vancouver Yacht Club member R.W. Purves in The possessives ’s and s’ often present the early 1930s. Also one of the Twin Islands. problems as the use of punctuation in names was forbidden on naval charts, which is w h y BELLS LANDING (BA) ‘Vancouver’s Island’ became ‘Vancouver BERRY POINT (BA) Island’. In this list, I have mostly omitted Also Lighthouse Point. punctuation for what in common usage is an BIG WHARF ’s or an s’, but I have otherwise sometimes See Green Wharf. dropped the “s” altogether for reasons I sometimes have difficulty remembering. BILL S REEF Shipyard Rock between Vance and Tugboat Look here for road names. Islands. Name in use in the 1920s and 1930s. Look here for names of creeks and wetlands. BRANT REEF (BA) Look here for other placenames on Gabriola. BREAKWATER ISLAND (BA) This file also links to a few contemporary Formerly Long Island. history notes on coastal Gabriola. BRICKYARD BEACH Frequently used name locally for the site of the old brickyard on Gabriola at the western 1 Nick Doe Coastal Placenames entrance to False Narrows. It closed in 1950. probably more numerous in a stormier past. The park there was created when a large pile of Making this road involved lots of tree-cutting, culls was bulldozed flat in 1974. and the import of lots of gravel. BROWNS BAY (BA) CORDERO POINT (S) Now Leboeuf Bay. COX BAY (BA) BURIAL ISLAND Bay with no official name but known at various Indian Reserve #6 in Degnen Bay. The reserve times as Hoggan Bay, Cox Bay, Paradise Bay, is off-limits to visitors. Peacock Bay, and more recently by high-end developers, Sitka Cove. CALA DESCANSO ISLAND See Descanso Island. Name sometimes used in COX POINT the 1860s by pre-emptors. Often spelled “Calla See Howes Point. Descanso” in old documents. DARLING POINT CALA DEL DESCANSO At the end of Seagirt Road. Once owned by the Pilot Bay. Walbran was wrong. Darling family. Also Preachers Point. CARLOS ISLAND (S) DEGNEN BAY (S BA) In the Flat Tops. Formerly Bare Island. DEGNENS COVE CEMETERY BEACH Early name for the bay. East end of False Narrows. An older name may DESCANSO BAY (S BA) be Graveyard Beach. Formerly Knight Bay. CENTRE WHARF DESCANSO BAY PARK See Green Wharf. Regional District of Nanaimo name for a bay CHANNEL ROCK that is actually over two kilometres to the west. Southeast of Tugboat Island. Name in use in the DESCANSO ISLAND 1920s and 1930s. The names Descanso Island and Cala Descanso CLAM BEACH Island [Cala del Descanso, Puerto Descanso] Southwest side of Vance Island. Name in use in were adaptations from the Spanish Charts of the 1920s and 1930s. 1792 indicating Pilot Bay. They were sometimes used for all of Gabriola Island by the CLARK BAY (BA). Known locally as Sandy Hudson’s Bay Company before it acquired its Bay in the 1940s, and earlier in the century present name in the late 1850s. when there was a wharf there as Patricia Bay. DRAGONS BAY COHO POINT See Peterson Bay. Local name for the north point of Gaviola Island. A good fishing spot. The name was DRIFT POINT changed to Rowboat Point in 1944. Northeast entrance to Taylor Bay across from Malaspina Point. A local resident’s name. CONTORTA BAY Name for the small bay on Berry Point Road, EAGLE ISLAND west of Berry Point but east of Clark Bay. It is Name for Saturnina Island in use in the 1920s marked by two sharp bends in the road. and 1930s. Changed in 1944. Although most of the krummholz along this EASTHOM BAY (BA) short stretch of northwest-facing shore is Douglas fir, there still are a few shore pines EASTHOM POINT (Pinus contorta var.contorta), which were 2 Nick Doe Coastal Placenames A name for the former Whitbread Point, south Sometimes called Lighthouse Island although side of Descanso Bay. this is a former name of Snake Island. Margaret Morrissey Tilley recalled in a memoir that she EGERIA ROCK (BA) and her parents lived on Entrance Island prior to The inscription is FOE 11.1621, a reference to 1918. They tended the lighthouse and raised the times of the tides on the day of a full or new turkeys. By an odd coincidence the Spanish moon. name for near-by Orlebar (Berry) Point was END INLET Punta de Casa Tilly. My own name for the small inlet on the EVANS ROAD BEACH north side of Cox Bay, originally separated Evans Road is one of those roads that doesn’t from it by a berm now developed into a actually exist. There is a public trail though causeway. End Inlet is so-called because it down to the beach. Who Evans was, is not marks the end of a large dextral strike-slip known. fault that crosses the island from Cox Bay to FALSE NARROWS (BA) Leboeuf Ba y , the discovery of which was Named by Captain George H. Richards, HMS reported by geologist Dan Mackie in 2002. Plumper, 1859. A sandstone outcrop there shows remarkable evidence of severe shear-zone deformation. ENTRANCE ISLAND (BA) 3 Nick Doe Coastal Placenames Chart of the Flat Top Islands & Vicinity enlarged from Admiralty Chart No. 3618 with R.V.Y.C. local names and notes. Signed R.W. Purves Hon. Hydrog. and initialed RWP 4/30 but thought to date from early 1920s. Given to Alison Law ca. 1976 and donated to the Gabriola Museum Archives (1998.014) by the estate of Christian (Law) Reid in 1998. N a m e s on the chart, with modern ones in parentheses, are: Schooner Reef (no name); Salmon Rock (no name); Indian Island (Lily Is.); Squalicum Cove (no name); Flea Island (Vance Is.); Clam Beach (no name); Hen Island (Gaviola Is.); Cohoe Point (Rowboat Pt.); Commodore Pass (Passage); South East Island (Acorn Is.); Brant Reef; Star Boat Cove (no name); Banyan Point (Law Pt.); Bill’s Reef (Shipyard Rf.); Shelter Island (Tugboat Is.); Passage Island (Sear Is.); Woodwards Point (no name); Channel Rock (no name); South Channel (no name); South East Entrance (no name); North East Channel (no name); Eagle Island (Saturnina Is.); Bath Island; Breakwater Island; Rogers Reef; Thrasher Rock; Cardero Point; Josef Point; Wake’s Cove; Dingman’s Cove (Degnen Bay); Gulf of Georgia (Strait of); South Gabriola P.O.; Gabriola Pass (Passage); Gabriola Island, Anchorage (Silva Bay) . 4 Nick Doe Coastal Placenames FALSE NARROWS CLAM BEDS GAVIOLA ISLAND (S BA) Area at the southeast entrance of False Narrows Formerly Hen Island. in the Pylades Channel. Below high tide but GOODALLS ISLAND (BA) nevertheless marked on the Regional District of Former name for Acorn Island. Nanaimo Legal Base Map. Used by the Snunéymuxw for thousands of years and now GOVERNMENT WHARF leased to them. Early name for Green Wharf built in 1878. FARMERS LANDING Also sometimes used for the public wharf in Early wharf in Descanso Bay. It later became Degnen Bay built ca. 1931. the Atrevida Wharf. GRAVEYARD BEACH FERRY TERMINAL INLET A name (older?) sometimes used for Cemetery The small inlet in Descanso Bay immediately Beach. alongside the present ferry terminal. GREENGAGE BEACH FLAT TOP ISLANDS East-facing beach on Gabriola, south of the east Named as such by Captain George H. Richards, end of Sear Island, north of the islet. Named for HMS Plumper, 1859. the trees of an abandoned orchard originally planted by John Silva. FLEA ISLAND Name for Vance Island in use in the 1920s and GREENS LANDING (BA) 1930s. Changed in 1944. GREEN WHARF (BA) FOSTERS BAY The origin of the name of the first wharf on the Bounded on the north side by Malaspina Point island is not known for certain (no, no—it used and on the south side by Schooner Point. After to be painted red) but historian Jenni Gehlbach John Foster and family who lived at the head of suggests it dates back to the early 20th-century the bay.