Tag Archives: Read Island History

History

At the Cortes Island Museum: Fossils Left by the Last Glacial Age

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The story of fossils left during the last glacial period is currently on display at the Cortes Island Museum. They are Buchia mussels, Belemnites, and Ammonites—creatures that lived in the Chilcotin region at the same time as the dinosaurs. The rocks containing their fossils were relatively undisturbed for nearly 130 million years. Then, during the last glaciation period, fragments broke off and were carried to Cortes, Read, Sonora, and other Discovery Islands.

In this morning’s interview, Christian Gronau, a retired geologist and Cortes Island resident, tells their story.

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Animals, History, Indigenous Nations History

A Breed Apart: What was the Coast Salish woolly dog, and can we bring it back?

Editor’s note:  Salish Woolly dogs are believed to have been common throughout Coast Salish territories, so were most likely kept by the ancestors of the Homalco, Klahoose and Tla’amin First Nations. The oldest remains of this breed date back 4,000 years and were found in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea. Sheep wool is believed to have replaced dog wool in Indigenous communities after 1862.

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

If you had been wandering the Coast Salish territories of British Columbia some 4,000 years ago, rambling dense woodland and visiting village longhouses, you would likely have spotted a number of small, white, flocculent pooches.

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History

Glacier-borne fossils in the Discovery Islands

Over the past 20 years, Christian Gronau has documented a great many fossiliferous rocks in our area. 

Fossil #144 was recently installed at the Cortes Island Museum, but the German-born and trained palaeontologist said, “Palaeontology became a question for me when I was settled here. I looked around, of course was interested in the local geology, and realized that Cortes is just a big pile of granite with very little exceptions to that rule and started wondering what I was going to do with my interest in fossils.”

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