Tag Archives: Moses Ireland

History, Rivers & Oceans

Open House at the Whaletown Dock; Renovations Needed

There were 45 people on the Whaletown dock when Cortes Currents left half way through the Open House on Monday, September 16. Some were listening to Andy Ellingsen, a Director of Harbour Authority Cortes Island (HACI), talk about the current condition of the wharf and what needs to be done. Others gathered in small groups, eating the free pizza, sharing memories or their perspectives on the matter. HACI has owned the 110-year-old structure since 2009 and now it is in need of extensive repairs. 

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History, Indigenous Nations History

June 6-8, 1911: A point in time look at Cortes Island

Unlike most local histories, which often celebrate the accomplishments of prominent settlers, Canadian census records give us a quick peek into communities as a whole. 

The 1911 census is especially interesting for Cortes Island because, for the first time, all of the island’s 135 ‘settler’ entries are grouped together. Similarly, there is a segment for the 60 Klahoose First Nation residents in Squirrel Cove. There was also a second First Nation with a reserve on Cortes, but any relevant Tla’amin entries appear to be included with those from their main village to the south in what is now qathet Regional District. 

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Forests, History

Early Logging on Cortes Island and Vicinity: Local History with Lynne Jordan

Lynne Jordan has contributed to historical booklets available at the Cortes Island Museum and is currently researching the history of early logging activity in Whaletown.

In the course of an extensive 3-part interview, Lynne draws on original documents, archives, and oral histories to paint a picture of early settler loggers on Cortes — their equipment, their floating camps, the economy in which some prospered and some failed.

The logging community was always a really mixed bag… Much of the logging was done by hand. Some of it using horses.

Logging was not a good way to get rich.

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History

Birth of Whaletown as a community abt. 1885-1914

Whaletown may get its name from an old whaling station, but Europeans really did not settle in the area for another 15 years or so. In today’s program Lynne Jordan, former President of the Cortes Island Museum, traces the modern community back to a logger named Moses Ireland.

First Nations people were using Whaletown Bay before that and a fish trap is believed to have once stretched across the entrance of the lagoon.

The whalers came for 18 months, in 1869 and 70.

“It wasn’t very many years after the whaling station left, in the mid 1880s,  that Moses Ireland moved into the area as a logger and set up camp where the whale station had been,” explained Jordan.

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History, Transportation

The Union Steamships arrive in Whaletown

When the Union Steamship company started operations, in 1889, there was a single ship servicing Burrard Inlet. Three years later they expanded their market to include the canneries, logging camps and small communities springing up along the coast. The first reference to a ship stopping in Whaletown is found in an 1899 edition of the VANCOUVER PROVINCE. 

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