Saltspring Island
Encyclopedia
Saltspring Island is one of the Gulf Islands
Gulf Islands
The Gulf Islands are the islands in the Strait of Georgia , between Vancouver Island and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada....
in the Strait of Georgia
Strait of Georgia
The Strait of Georgia or the Georgia Strait is a strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is approximately long and varies in width from...
between mainland British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...
. It is the largest, the most populous, and the most frequently visited of the Gulf Islands. The island was initially inhabited by various Salishan
Salishan languages
The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest...
peoples before being settled by pioneers in 1859, at which time it was officially called Admiral Island. It was the first of the Gulf Islands to be settled and the first agricultural settlement
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
on the islands in the Colony of Vancouver Island
Colony of Vancouver Island
The Colony of Vancouver Island , was a crown colony of British North America from 1849 to 1866, after which it was united with British Columbia. The united colony joined the Dominion of Canada through Confederation in 1871...
, as well as the first island in the region to permit settlers to acquire land through pre-emption
Pre-emption right
A pre-emption right is a right to acquire certain property in preference to any other person. It comes from the Latin verb emo, emere, emi, emptum, to buy or purchase, plus the inseparable preposition pre, before. It usually refers to property newly coming into existence...
. The island was retitled to its current name in 1910.
Description
Located between Mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Saltspring Island is the most frequently visited of the Gulf Islands as well as the most populous, with a population of about 10,500 as of 2008. It is also by area the largest of the islands, with an official measurement of 182.7 square kilometres (70.5 sq mi). The largest village on the island is GangesGanges, British Columbia
Ganges, British Columbia is an unincorporated community on Salt Spring Island in the province of British Columbia, Canada.-History:Ganges Harbour, from which Ganges takes its name, was originally called Admiralty Bay but was renamed by Captain Richards in 1859 for the , which was at the Pacific...
. The island is known for its artists. In addition to Canadian dollars, island banks and most island businesses accept Saltspring's own local currency, the Salt Spring Dollar.
The island is part of the Southern Gulf Islands, (Saltspring Island, Galiano Island
Galiano Island
Galiano Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Located on the west side of the Strait of Georgia, it is 27.5 km long, 6 km at its widest point, and 1.6 km across at its narrowest point and is separated...
, Pender Island
Pender Island
Pender Island is one of the Southern Gulf Islands located in the Gulf of Georgia, British Columbia, Canada. Pender Island is approximately in area and is home to about 2,500 permanent residents, as well as a large seasonal population...
, Saturna Island
Saturna Island
Saturna Island is a mountainous island, about 31 km² in size, in the Southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia. It is situated approximately midway between the Lower Mainland of B.C. and Vancouver Island, and is the most easterly of the Gulf Islands. It is surrounded on three sides by...
, Mayne Island
Mayne Island
Mayne Island is a rustic 21-km² island in the southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia. It is situated midway between the Lower Mainland of BC and Vancouver Island, and has a population of around eleven hundred.-History:...
), which are all part of the Capital Regional District, along with the municipalities of Greater Victoria.
History
The island, initially inhabited by Salishan peoples of various tribes, became a refuge from racismRacism in the United States
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since the colonial era and the slave era. Legally sanctioned racism imposed a heavy burden on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latin Americans...
for African Americans who had resided in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Settled in 1858 by ex-slaves from Missouri who travelled to California, and then north to British Columbia at the invitation of Governor James Douglas
James Douglas (Governor)
Sir James Douglas KCB was a company fur-trader and a British colonial governor on Vancouver Island in northwestern North America, particularly in what is now British Columbia. Douglas worked for the North West Company, and later for the Hudson's Bay Company becoming a high-ranking company officer...
, himself a Guyanese
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
mulatto, the island was not only the first of the Gulf Islands to be settled, but also, according to 1988's A Victorian Missionary and Canadian Indian Policy, the first agricultural settlement established anywhere in the Colony of Vancouver Island not owned by the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
or its subsidiary the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company
Pugets Sound Agricultural Company
The Puget Sound Agricultural Company , commonly referred to with variations of the name using Puget Sound or Puget's Sound, was a joint stock company formed around 1840 as a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company . The purpose of the company was ostensibly to promote settlement by British subjects...
.
Saltspring Island was also the first in the Colony of Vancouver Island and British Columbia to allow settlers to acquire land through pre-emption: settlers could occupy and improve the land before purchase, being permitted to buy it at a cost per acre of one dollar after proving they had done so. Before 1871 (when the merged Colony of British Columbia
United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia
The Colony of British Columbia is a crown colony that resulted from the amalgamation of the two former colonies, the Colony of Vancouver Island and the mainland Colony of British Columbia...
joined Canada), all property acquired on Saltspring Island was purchased in this way; between 1871 and 1881, it was still by far the primary method of land acquisition, accounting for 96% of purchases. As a result, the history of early settlers on Saltspring Island is unusually detailed. Demographically, early settlers of the island included not only African Americans, but also (largely) English and European, as well as Irish, Scottish, aboriginal and Hawaiian. The method of land purchase helped to ensure that the land was used for agricultural purposes and that the settlers were by and large families. Ruth Wells Sandwell in Beyond the City Limit indicates that few of the island's early residents were commercial farmers
Commercial agriculture
Commercial Agriculture refers to a process of large-scale production of crops for sale, intended for widespread distribution to wholesalers or retail outlets. In commercial farming crops such as wheat, maize, tea, coffee, sugarcane, cashew, rubber, banana, cotton are harvested and sold into world...
, with most families maintaining subsistence plots
Subsistence agriculture
Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed their families. The typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to eat and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made with an eye...
and supplementing through other activities, including fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
and working for the colony's government. Some families abandoned their land altogether as a result of lack of civic services on the island or other factors, such as the livestock-killing cold of the winter of 1862.
During the 1960s the island once again became a refuge for US citizens, this time for draft dodger
Draft dodger
Draft evasion is a term that refers to an intentional failure to comply with the military conscription policies of the nation to which he or she is subject...
s during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
The island's name
The island was known as "Chuan" or "Chouan" Island in 1854, but it was also called "Saltspring" as early as 1855, in honor of the island's salt springsSpring (hydrosphere)
A spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground...
. In 1859, it was officially named "Admiralty Island" in honor of Rear-Admiral Robert Lambert Baynes
Robert Lambert Baynes
Admiral Sir Robert Lambert Baynes KCB was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Station.-Naval career:...
by surveyor Captain Richards, who named various points of the island in honor of the Rear-Admiral and his flagship, HMS Ganges
HMS Ganges (1821)
HMS Ganges was an 84-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 November 1821 at Bombay Dockyard, constructed from teak...
. Even while named "Admiralty Island", it was referred to popularly as Saltspring, as in James Richardson's report for the Geological Survey of Canada in 1872. According to records of the Geographic Board of Canada, the island was officially retitled Saltspring on March 1, 1910, though the year 1905 is given by unofficial sources. According to the Integrated Land Management Bureau of British Columbia, locals incline equally to Saltspring and Salt Spring for current use. The official chamber of commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
website for the island, which gives a date of 1906 for the renaming, adopts the two word title, stating that the Geographic Board of Canada, in choosing the one word name, "cared nothing for local opinion or Island tradition."
Geography
See also
- Salt Spring Coffee Co.Salt Spring Coffee Co.The Salt Spring Coffee Company is a business that produces roasted coffee beans and operates several cafés. The company was founded in 1996 by Mickey McLeod and his wife Robbyn Scott who operated an organic market garden on the island. They had been roasting coffee beans for their own consumption...
- Salt Spring AirSalt Spring AirSalt Spring Air is the only floatplane company based on Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Canada. It operates scheduled flights, charter air service and tours based in Ganges and specializes in routes between the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island...
- Seair SeaplanesSeair SeaplanesSeair Seaplanes is a scheduled and charter Canadian airline based in Richmond, British Columbia. The airline flies routes between the Vancouver International Water Airport and the Nanaimo Harbour Water Airport, as well as other Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia, primarily with float...
- Long Harbour, British ColumbiaLong Harbour, British ColumbiaLong Harbour is on the east side of Salt Spring Island. It hosts a ferry terminal which connects directly to the Lower Mainland via Tsawwassen, British Columbia as well as some of the other southern Gulf Islands. There are several small islets and islands in the 4 km inlet, including Clamshell...
- Ruckle Provincial ParkRuckle Provincial ParkRuckle Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It also the largest provincial campground on the Gulf Islands and is located on Saltspring Island southeast of Fulford Harbour. Partly protected by the park is an historic sheep farm founded by the Ruckle family.-External...
External links
- Saltspring Island Chamber of Commerce
- Saltspring Island based seaplane company
- Saltspring Island photography by John Cameron
- Islands Trust, Salt Spring Island
- Saltspring Island photographs by Ken Fersht
- Spherical VR Panoramas of Salt Spring Island by Bruno Gonzalez