Saltspring Island

Saltspring Island
—  Island  —
Saltspring island.
The Southern Gulf Islands, including Saltspring.
Country Canada
Province British Columbia
Regional District Capital
Government
 • MP Elizabeth May (Green)
 • MLA Murray Coell(BC Liberal Party)
Area
 • Land 182.7 km2 (70.5 sq mi)
Population (2008)
 • Total 10,500
 • Density 57.5/km2 (148.9/sq mi)
Time zone PST (UTC−8)
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC−7)

Saltspring Island (also known as Salt Spring Island) is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia, Canada and Vancouver Island. It is the largest, the most populous, and the most frequently visited of the Gulf Islands. The island was initially inhabited by various Salishan 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 on the islands in the Colony of Vancouver Island, as well as the first island in the region to permit settlers to acquire land through pre-emption. The island was retitled to its current name in 1910.

Contents

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.[1] It is also by area the largest of the islands,[2] with an official measurement of 182.7 square kilometres (70.5 sq mi).[3] The largest village on the island is Ganges. The island is known for its artists.[4][5] In addition to Canadian dollars, island banks and most island businesses accept Saltspring's own local currency, the Salt Spring Dollar.[6][7]

The island is part of the Southern Gulf Islands, (Saltspring Island, Galiano Island, Pender Island, Saturna Island, Mayne Island), 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 racism for African Americans who had resided in California.[8] 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, himself a Guyanese 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 or its subsidiary the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company.[9][10]

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.[11] Before 1871 (when the merged 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.[11] As a result, the history of early settlers on Saltspring Island is unusually detailed.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14] Ruth Wells Sandwell in Beyond the City Limit indicates that few of the island's early residents were commercial farmers, with most families maintaining subsistence plots and supplementing through other activities, including fishing, logging and working for the colony's government.[15] 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.[16]

During the 1960s the island once again became a refuge for US citizens, this time for draft dodgers during the Vietnam War.[4]

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 springs.[17] In 1859, it was officially named "Admiralty Island" in honor of Rear-Admiral Robert Lambert Baynes by surveyor Captain Richards, who named various points of the island in honor of the Rear-Admiral and his flagship, HMS Ganges.[17] 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.[9][18] According to records of the Geographic Board of Canada, the island was officially retitled Saltspring on March 1, 1910,[17] though the year 1905 is given by unofficial sources.[9] According to the Integrated Land Management Bureau of British Columbia, locals incline equally to Saltspring and Salt Spring for current use.[17] The official chamber of commerce 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."[6]

Climate

Climate data for Saltspring Island
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 14
(57)		 16
(61)		 19.5
(67.1)		 26
(79)		 32
(90)		 31.5
(88.7)		 31.5
(88.7)		 36.5
(97.7)		 32
(90)		 25.5
(77.9)		 16.5
(61.7)		 15
(59)		 36.5
(97.7)
Average high °C (°F) 5.5
(41.9)		 7.3
(45.1)		 10.3
(50.5)		 13.5
(56.3)		 16.9
(62.4)		 19.5
(67.1)		 22.1
(71.8)		 22.3
(72.1)		 18.6
(65.5)		 13
(55)		 7.9
(46.2)		 5.3
(41.5)		 13.5
(56.3)
Average low °C (°F) −0.4
(31.3)		 0
(32)		 1.3
(34.3)		 3.1
(37.6)		 5.9
(42.6)		 8.5
(47.3)		 10.3
(50.5)		 10.3
(50.5)		 7.6
(45.7)		 4.4
(39.9)		 1.5
(34.7)		 −0.2
(31.6)		 4.4
(39.9)
Record low °C (°F) −14
(7)		 −13
(9)		 −10.5
(13.1)		 −3
(27)		 −1.5
(29.3)		 2.5
(36.5)		 3.5
(38.3)		 3
(37)		 −0.5
(31.1)		 −5
(23)		 −16
(3)		 −17.5
(0.5)		 −17.5
(0.5)
Precipitation mm (inches) 150.9
(5.941)		 125.1
(4.925)		 99.9
(3.933)		 67.3
(2.65)		 48.9
(1.925)		 37.5
(1.476)		 22.9
(0.902)		 27.6
(1.087)		 35
(1.38)		 88.5
(3.484)		 176.5
(6.949)		 148
(5.83)		 1,028.2
(40.48)
Source: Environment Canada[19]

Geography

Fulford Harbour, Salt spring Island, from Musgrave Road.Photography by Bruno Gonzalez Panorama

Minor Islands near Saltspring

See also

References

  1. ^ Zimmerman, Karla; James Bainbridge, Celeste Brash, Natalie Folster, Scott Kennedy, Graham Neale (2008). Canada (10 ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 731. ISBN 1741045711. 
  2. ^ Jepson, Tim (2004). The Rough Guide to Vancouver (2 ed.). Rough Guides. p. 239. ISBN 184353245X. 
  3. ^ "2001 Census: Population counts, land area, population density and population rank". Statistics Canada. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/standard/popdwell/Table-CD-DPL.cfm?T=2&PR=59&CD=5917&CSD=5917027&SR=1. Retrieved 2009-03-09. 
  4. ^ a b Hill, Kathleen Thompson; Gerald N. Hill (2005). Victoria and Vancouver Island: A Personal Tour of an Almost Perfect Eden (5 ed.). Globe Pequot. p. 242. ISBN 0762738758. 
  5. ^ Thompson, Wayne C.; Jacqueline Grekin (2003). Canada. (5 ed.). Hunter Publishing, Inc.. p. 633. ISBN 2894644760. 
  6. ^ a b "Visitors: About Salt Spring Island". Salt Spring Island Chamber of Commerce. http://www.saltspringtourism.com/visitors/about_saltspring_island.asp. Retrieved 2009-03-09. 
  7. ^ Official Salt Spring Currency Website
  8. ^ Schulte-Peevers, Andrea (2005). Canada (9 ed.). Lonely Planet. p. 729. ISBN 1740597737. "Originally settled by the Salish First Nation over a thousand years ago, it became a place where African Americans fled to escape racial tensions in the USA" 
  9. ^ a b c Hill and Hill, 241.
  10. ^ Nock, David A.; Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion (1988). A Victorian Missionary and Canadian Indian Policy: Cultural Synthesis vs. Cultural Replacement. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. pp. 159–160. ISBN 0889201536. 
  11. ^ a b Sandwell, Ruth Wells (1999). Beyond the City Limits: Rural History in British Columbia. UBC Press. p. 85. ISBN 077480694X. 
  12. ^ Sandwell, Ruth Wells (2005). Contesting Rural Space: Land Policy and Practices of Resettlement on Saltspring Island, 1859-1891. McGill-Queen's Press -MQUP. p. 3. ISBN 0773528598. 
  13. ^ Sandwell, Contesting, 4.
  14. ^ Sandwell, 89-90.
  15. ^ Sandwell, Beyond, 90-91.
  16. ^ Sandwell, Beyond, 93.
  17. ^ a b c d "Origin Notes and History". Integrated Land Management Bureau of British Columbia. http://ilmbwww.gov.bc.ca/bcgn-bin/bcg10?name=13666. Retrieved 2009-03-03. 
  18. ^ Richardson, James (1872-05-01). "Report on the coal fields of the East Coast of Vancouver Island". Report of Progress - Geological Survey of Canada. Geological Survey of Canada. http://books.google.com/?id=PSJMAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA87&dq=%22Saltspring+Island%22. "Southward of Saltspring Island, or, as it is named upon the chart, Admiralty Island, are situated" 
  19. ^ Environment Canada—Canadian Climate Normals 1971–2000, accessed 28 March 2010

External links

Howe Sound Islands
Anvil • Bowen • Defence Islands• Hutt • Bowyer • Gambier • Keats • Passage
Northern Gulf Islands (major)
Cortes • Denman • Hornby • Lasqueti • Quadra • Savary • Texada
Northern Gulf Islands (minor)
Southern Gulf Islands (major)
Gabriola • Galiano • Kuper • Mayne • North and South Pender • Saltspring • Saturna • Thetis • Valdes
Southern Gulf Islands (minor)