Cortes Island Self Guided Tour

Cortes Island Booklet Series

SELF DRIVING TOUR

Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society

Contents 1. Whaletown FROM THE Ferry 2. Side Trip to Coulter Bay 3. Whaletown PuBLIC Dock 4. Gorge Harbour 5. Gunflint Lake 6. Manson’s Landing Provincial Park 7. “Downtown” Manson’s Landing 8. Smelt Bay 9. Hollyhock 10. Hague Lake and KW’AS Beaver Pond 11. Hank’s Beach 12. Red Granite Beach 13. Cortes Bay 14. Seaford 15. Squirrel Cove

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Self Drive Tour Text Chapters

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1 - Whaletown from the Ferry

In earlier times there was a community church that was used as both a church and a hall between this small cemetery and the corner. The larger and newer Whaletown Cemetery is around the corner to the left, one block up Carrington Bay Road at the beginning of Sawmill Road on the left (three lefts in a row).

Whaletown Bay, c1950 Arriving at the ferry dock in Whaletown, as you drive off the ferry, notice the rocky beach to the left. This is where there was once a whaling station for a couple of years in the 1860s. It did not last very long because the large whales that used the Inside Passage for their migrations were soon hunted out, putting all the whaling stations around the Gulf of Georgia out of business. It’s taken 150 years, but large whales are now beginning to use this long forgotten traditional migration route again.

2 - Side Trip to Coulter Bay

Coulter Bay, 1994 To make the drive down to Coulter Bay, from the Whaletown Cemetery, or from the stop sign, turn left onto Carrington Bay Road. At the nearby “Y” with Olmsted Road, follow Carrington Bay Road to the left. This gravel road ends at Coulter Bay, an early homestead area for the logging and fishing Tooker family.

* Watch out for small island deer along the roadsides.

Their movements are often unpredictable!

Continue up and along Harbour Road. Just prior to the stop sign at Carrington Bay Road, on your left is a mostly hidden picket fence in the trees at the edge of the road. This crumbling fence surrounds a small homestead cemetery.

Tooker home, Coulter Bay, 1920

The channel out of Coulter Bay south of Coulter Island has a rock in mid-channel submerged except at low tide. Many a boat has come to grief on this rock, including the Columbia Coast

First Whaletown Church, 1920 2

Mission boat CMM Rendezvous in 1953.

The captain had to wait for the rising tide to refloat her.

Just before the zig-zag in the road (known by oldtimers as Hell’s Corner) is where Burnside, the Robertson family’s large homestead farm, went from the bay, across the road and all the way up the hill above the road.

Rendezvous on Coulter Bay rock, 1953 Prior to the end of this road, Talbot Road leads up to a number of homes with a view high above the bay. Stop by the pile of rocks on the water side at a high point on Talbot, and climb to the top of these rocks for a great view of Coulter Bay below and looking west to Read Island, Quadra Island, and the high mountains on Vancouver Island.

Retrace your route back on Carrington Bay Road – which was so-named as it formed part of the trail that was used by early settlers of Carrington Bay (north of Coulter Bay) traveling to Whaletown for mail and supplies. Back at the stop sign at the Harbour Road intersection, continue straight through on Carrington Bay Road.

Road to Burnside, c1918 Alice Robertson sold her fruits and vegetables from this farm to locals and also to summer folks on Savary Island, rowing her produce there once a week to sell during summers. That’s a very long return row!

As you round Hell’s Corner there is a good view of Whaletown Lagoon and the bay beyond.

At the top of a slight incline is the Old SchoolHouse Art Gallery on the left, open during summer weekends. It once served as the one-room Whaletown School, from 1950 until 1972.

3 - Whaletown Public Dock If you choose not to drive the side trip to Coulter Bay, turn right onto Carrington Bay Road from Harbour Road. . Schoolhouse (now Art Gallery) Old The school was built in 1939 in Oyster Bay and served as a school there until 1950 when it was barged to Whaletown.

Burnside Farm, c1918 3

At the stop sign, turn right to follow Whaletown Road to its end. You will pass the historic CCM Medical Clinic building (now a private home), and the Rectory beside the clinic where once an older building housed the serving reverends for St. John-the-Baptist Church next door. The church door is often open if you care to take a trip into history of a time when the Columbia Coast Mission served the scattered camps and communities along the B.C. coast with boats from bases like this one at Whaletown.Â

Post Office and the old store Ken Slater once had his boat works (1940s to 50s) where he built fishboats and skiffs.

Ken Slater Boat Works - skiffs, 1940 Walk out to the public dock past the old Whaletown Store building which is now a private home with a B&B. This dock celebrated 100 years in 2014 and, up into the 1960s it was a very busy place on boat days when the Union Steamships and then the Gulf Line stopped by to deliver mail, goods, supplies and people. Locals gathered early to wait for the boat, exchanging news, selling home-made baking and crafts and creating a sense of community.

Down the hill from the church is a tiny building on the right – the Louisa Tooker Memorial Library, open a few hours on Fridays only. It was built in memory of a well-liked early homesteader.

Whaletown Post Office Park your vehicle in front of the small Whaletown Post Office which opened in 1894. It once stood across the road from its present perch on the rocks of Whaletown Bay. It has a unique claim to fame above all other post offices in Canada. Its split-ring postmark, still used today (2015), is the same one that was first used in 1894. This makes it the longest-serving cancellation mark in Canadian postal history. Between the

Whaletown Boat Day, 1918 The shed on the dock was used to store goods coming and going on the boats. The float below the dock was once crowded with fishboats from an active local fleet that has now diminished, like the salmon. The 4

Return up Hunt Road back to Whaletown Road, turn right. The next road is Robertson.

Turn right and continue down past the Gorge Harbour Hall, built in the 1930s and used for community and private events. Behind the hall is a sand volleyball court and walkways to Gorge Harbour Marina. At the bottom of Robertson Road is the public dock and boat launching ramp at the beach. If you park your vehicle, please keep clear of the private driveway and the boat ramp – it gets frequent use for aquaculture shipments.

floathouse moored at the bottom of the dock ramp belongs to the local dentist who opens his practice two weeks of each month – except in the summer when he’s off sailing!

Reversing back up Whaletown Road, continue following it past Firehall No. 2 (on the left) and along a straight stretch - one of very few straight roads on Cortes, which passes an early homestead on the island, again on your left. All that’s left to show people once lived here is a stone chimney, old fruit trees and parts of the log frame of a shed on this now overgrown property.

From the dock you can see the narrow entrance across the harbour. It’s beyond the two rocky Bee Islets beside which you will see 150 aquaculture rafts strung together in three double lines.

4 - Gorge Harbour On a corner is the right turn onto Hunt Road down to Gorge Harbour Marina where there’s a store, fuel pump, campground, boat marina, Floathouse Restaurant, swimming pool, laundry, showers, washrooms, and lodging.

If you are interested in how these rafts produce oysters, scallops and mussels, check out the informational kiosk near the Squirrel Cove Store. You will be amazed at how much work goes into producing these products for yummy consumption.

Gorge Harbour Entrance, 1918 You are welcome to stroll the pathways and view the gardens and docks. This is a busy place, particularly in summer, with good views of Gorge Harbour.

During summer months Farmers’ Markets are held here Saturdays on the grass.

Clam Garden This dock is also a good place to spot, at low tide, along the shore, clam 5

gardens, created by centuries of First Nations living here. The Cortes Museum at Manson’s Landing has explanations of these clam gardens, unique to the BC coast.

of the island via Squirrel Cove. Along here you will pass the road works yard (on your left) and then you skirt around a large swamp area. In spring and fall watch for brown Rough-skinned Newts crossing the road on their way from (or to) winter hibernation in the woods.

Returning up Robertson Road, that large metal shed you see is used by BC Hydro crews when repairing lines on Cortes after frequent winter windstorms.

Back at Whaletown Road, turn right and continue following its twists and turns until a steep hill down at the end of Gorge Harbour which you will glimpse through the trees. As you start down this hill there’s an exposed clay bank on the upper side of the road, dug away by early potters on Cortes. The small holes in this bank are inhabited in spring by nesting Kingfisher birds.

Newt crossing the road

5 - Gunflint Lake When you reach the stop sign at Seaford Road, turn right and a short way along you will see Gunflint Lake. The lake’s name comes from its shape as a flint of a gun. There are two pullouts to park and enjoy the view of this lake.

Notice the logs sticking out in the lake from the road. Canada geese and ducks often rest here to preen their feathers. If it’s sunny and warm, you could be lucky to see western painted turtles sun bathing on these logs. They lay their eggs in sandy spots around this lake and also Hague Lake.

The road then climbs again across 2 small bridges – watch for the “Y” turn part way up. Take the turn veering to the right. Signs indicate to Manson’s Landing. Have you figured out yet why cycling magazines rate Cortes roads as “extreme”? These roads began as walking trails between early farms, then were widened for horses, then carts, then logging, and finally as roads that follow the lay of the land and, in most cases, are not banked properly.

Many roads were constructed by local residents and named after early homesteaders.

Around the end and right side of Gunflint Lake is Kw’as Park with hiking trails. At the far end of Gunflint Lake, a narrow channel flows into Hague Lake, which then flows into Manson’s Lagoon.

Across Gunflint Lake on the left side from you is Linnaea Farm.

You are now on Gorge Harbour Road that was built as a connector road by locals who were tired of driving such a long way to the ferry from the south end 6

This farm has the unique history of being the first land purchase on Cortes Island in the 1880s by Mike Manson. It has been a farm ever since. Once a dairy farm, it also became Lakeview Guest Ranch for children during summers. Now it is a conservancy farm selling produce, seeds and teaching farmers-to-be the many techniques of organic farming. Recently the Linnaea Independent School’s (closed a few years ago) Tiber Room has become the Cortes Branch of the Vancouver Island Library. It also has two disk golf (think frizzbee) courses through trees on hills. If you care to visit, one course for public use is on Seaford Road, a couple of blocks the other way past the corner you just turned at. Look for a tent and campfire pit with seating. The disk golf course is across the road, using inverted metal tanks to “ring” out a hit.

of the Manson property purchase on Gunflint Lake. This farm is still owned

by Manson relatives. As you pass the Cortes Motel up on your right, slow down for the sharp curves around a marsh that was once Granny Lydia Hague’s potato patch. It was turned into a marsh when the road went in on the lower side, blocking drainage. On your left is an entrance with a sign map into the Kw’as Park trails, maintained by Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI). There is room to park only a couple of vehicles alongside the road. (Another entrance on the far side of Hague Lake has more parking room.)

6 - Manson’s Landing Provincial Park At the bottom of a hill Seaford Road crosses a small bridge over the creek draining Hague Lake into Manson’s Lagoon.

Gunflint Lake Manson’s Lagoon

Gunflint Lake and Hague Lake are inhabited by an ancient line of trout – pan size and tasty! The lakes are not stocked to keep this ancient line true.

Motors are not allowed on either lake.

Next to the creek on your left is a parking lot with a short trail leading to a big rock for swimming in the lake -the “Teen Rock” to the right and the “Nude Swimming Rock” to the left. Up the hill, around the corner there is a Manson’s Landing Provincial Park day use swimming beach with parking on

Continuing on Seaford Road past Gunflint Lake, the road winds closely around a farm that was originally part 7

the right under trees and a short trail on the left down to the natural white sand family beach, a Cortes gem!

This dock is busy with boats and floatplanes. Beginning in the mid-1880s Mike & John Manson settled to operate a Trading Post here, supplying loggers and First Nations People.

Manson’s Dock, 1949

Hague Lake picnic, 1919 At the back of the parking area there is a trail leading down into Manson’s Lagoon. Back in the 1950s a wide swath was cleared through the trees here so floathouses from the lagoon could be towed by two “cats” up over the hill and into Hague Lake where they were then floated across to property lots and pulled ashore to forever sit on dry land.

Many homes on Cortes began their “lives” before 1950 as floathouses in the early days of family logging in this area.

Mike built a big home that eventually became a lodge with a store, then 6 cabins were added along the water for tourists. Later, there was also a Farmers’ Institute building, Post Office, general store, café and fuel on the dock for cars, boats and floatplanes. Union Steamships stopped here regularly, making this a very busy place.

Manson’s Store truck, 1950 After this area became a provincial park, the last building here, the general store, had wheels placed under it and was hauled up the road to continue its life as the Cortes Museum building on Beasley Road. There are picnic tables near the parking lot and a trail through the trees for a stroll out to the spit and the lagoon’s narrow entrance

Seaplane, Manson’s Landing, 1940 At the Sutil Point Road stop sign, a left turn takes you up to “downtown” Manson’s Landing. A right turn takes you through Manson’s Landing Provincial Park to Manson’s Landing Dock at the end of the road.

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– or you can follow the gravel road into Manson’s Lagoon. (Caution: on very high tides in January and July, the lagoon waters rise to cover the gravel road.) This is a great beach, inside or outside the lagoon, to swim, picnic or to launch a kayak or fishing boat. When the tide changes, grab a ‘floatie’ for a ride through the narrow entrance into the lagoon – or out on an outgoing tide!

Hike back over the spit to repeat the ride again and again.

Logging, John Manson, c1918

There is evidence to show First Nations have traditionally used this lagoon for possibly thousands of years.

At the top of the dock there is a telephone and a park map. A short way up the road is a pit toilet.

7 - “Downtown” Manson’s Landing Union Steamship, Manson’s dock, 1919 If you have a Tidal Waters Fishing Licence, you can collect your daily limit of clams (75) and oysters (15).

These bivalves take on the “flavour” of their beach – the lagoon is known as a “sweet” beach. You don’t need to dig far down for clams, and oysters of all sizes are lying in the open for the picking.

Main road at Manson’s School, 1914 Back up the hill on Sutil Point Road you will come to “downtown” Manson’s Landing with Cortes Market (deli, WiFi, and ATM), Natural Food Co-op, Espresso Café (WiFi), Marnie’s Books, and Manson’s Landing Hall with a Post Office and Thrift Store that are open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (mail days). The hall also hosts Friday Markets (noon to 3:30 p.m.) throughout the year.

In the mid -1900s Manson’s Lagoon was used to boom up logs harvested from around Gunflint and Hague Lakes, and then sent down the creek in the back corner of the lagoon. In the 1950s there were three mills in the lagoon and about 50 people living in floathouses, anchored in deep parts of the lagoon or pulled up temporarily on shore.

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During summer months the Market Take-Out is open beside the Cortes Market parking lot. Next to the hall is the old St. James Church that has been purchased privately.

an ambulance station and helicopter pads. The fire department is manned by volunteers with a salaried chief.

On a corner of Firehall property sits the Cortes Island Museum & Archives with a mandate to collect, preserve and exhibit the history of Cortes Island and surrounding area.

Market Take-out At the Manson’s Landing Hall corner, turn up Beasley Road. At the back of the hall parking lot sits a modular building housing the popular Cortes Radio Station. You can tune in to CKTZ 89.5 FM or listen on-line through a link at cortesisland.ca. In behind the radio station is the tiny office building for Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI).

Manson’s Landing Hall, 1978 Above the parking lot is a large skateboard park with a basketball court and a pit toilet. The park is popular with local youths and those from off island.

Also on the left past the skateboard park is Firehall No. 1 which includes

Cortes Museum Boating and travel magazines list this as a “must see” on your visit to Cortes.

Exhibits are continually changing and there is a Museum Shop. Summer hours (June to Labour Day) are Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Fall-Winter-Spring hours are Fridays & Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m. There is a Tourist/Visitor Information Booth inside the Museum but some maps and brochures are always available on the covered porch.

Next to the Museum is the Cortes Health Clinic, open weekdays with a doctor on duty. Behind the clinic are six cottages for seniors, usually with a waiting list for occupancy.

Across the street from the clinic is the Cortes Island Elementary/Junior Secondary School, presently with 10

grades from K to 9. Past the school is a gravel storage area. Beyond here are private homes and Beasley Road turns onto Rexford Road that dead ends.

myriad of tidepools at low tide, keep a close eye on the changing tide. It rushes in quickly across the flats.

In the back parking lot behind the trees are pit toilets. The gravel road at the near end of the grass leads to a camping overflow parking area and then up the hill to the Smelt Bay Provincial Campground. This gravel road continues up the hill to Sutil Point Road where you would turn left to head back to Manson’s Landing. (The roads to the right all dead end.)

8 - Smelt Bay Returning back down Beasley Road, turn right onto Sutil Point Road and follow it all the way to Smelt Bay. (At the top of the hill down to the water, Sutil Point Road veers left, but go straight down the hill on Smelt Bay Road.) The road follows the shore and ends in Smelt Bay Provincial Park with a parking lot along the beach.

9 - Hollyhock

Across the water you will see nearby Marina Island and beyond that the south tip of Quadra Island and the far mountains of Vancouver Island.

On your way back along Sutil Point Road, past the “Y” and on a curve, watch for Highfield Road on the right and a small sign to Hollyhock, a wellknown retreat centre on the east shore of Cortes Island. At another “Y” with Manson Road, Highfield Road veers to the right – and ends at Hollyhock.

Smelt Bay The open grassy area above the road is used for many community events and gatherings – such as Cortes Day, Sandcastle Day and watching summer sunsets over Vancouver Island.

There was once an ancient First Nation village along this bay, so named for smelt fish that used to swarm this beach for spawning. If you take a walk from the end of the road south along the expansive beach and the spit with its

Hollyhock Garden They welcome visitors to walk through their amazing garden that supplies their colourful vegetarian meals and flower arrangements throughout their complex. Hollyhock offers retreats and courses from spring to fall and closes in the winter. To enjoy a meal here, you should make reservations a day ahead.

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A wide path leads down to their beach and some oceanside cabins. More cabins and a tenting site are scattered throughout Hollyhock’s woods.

Back on Sutil Point Road, watch for Bartholomew Road going right (left it is Cemetery Road, ending at Manson’s Landing Cemetery).

From the float on the pond you can view their lodge across the water.

Around both sides of the parking lot you can see evidence of beaver-chewed trees and channels they have dug to float branches and tree parts back to their lodge or dam.

10 - Hague Lake and Kw’as Beaver Pond The first left off Bartholomew Road is Hague Road. Then turn right onto Kw’As Road and follow it down to where it ends at Hague Lake. As you turn around at the end, look across the length of the lake where you can see the white sandy beach with access off Seaford Road, as mentioned earlier.

And across the near end of the lake you will see a white house with a red metal roof that was one of the early floathouses pulled up from Manson’s Lagoon and floated across the lake in the 1950s.

Kw’as Beaver Pond Besides the motel trail head, this is the other entrance into the hiking trails mentioned earlier. Numbers on the park map denote the number of minutes it would take to hike between trail intersections.

11 - Hank’s Beach

Hank’s Beach Hague Lake A short way back is a parking lot now on your left (at the bottom of the hill) that leads into the trail system around Hague and Gunflint Lakes. It begins at a swamp created by beavers. As you walk toward the pond, notice the extensive beaver dam to the left.

Reverse your way back to Bartholomew Road and turn left. A short way along at a low point in the road, on the right you’ll see parking for Hank’s Beach Regional Park and Birgitte’s Beach. A trail leads down to these two beaches popular with locals.

The view from there is of Twin Islands, looking eastward.

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12 - Red Granite Beach

13 - Cortes Bay

Continuing on Bartholomew, you’ll pass Fairhaven Gardens, a nursery that was once an early homestead.

The next low point in the road passes “Sprungman’s Pond” on your left, another swamp created by beavers who often dam the culvert that passes under the road! The road climbs a big hill past the pond with a narrowing curve at the top between solid rock of the island.

Returning up Red Granite Road, go right onto Bartholomew again. Near the bottom of the hill, Bartholomew actually turns right (though the road continues now as Cortes Bay Road) and you can drive to the end of Bartholomew, park, and walk down to the Cortes Bay public dock with local boats moored alongside.

Cortes Bay dock

At the top of the hill watch for the gravel Red Granite Road going to the right. After turning right onto this gravel road, keep to the right side as Red Granite Road narrows considerably at the crest of its hill. The steep downgrade on Red Granite Road is the only paved part to save the road from washing away in rain storms. Watch for blue grouse, often seen along the edges of this steep hill.

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Floatplanes and water taxis often come in at the end of this dock. You are now between the two yacht club outstations for Desolation Sound. There is a porta pottie on the dock and a telephone near the parking area.

Reaching the very bottom of Red Granite Road you will see Red Granite Beach on your right, and the Seattle Yacht Club’s outstation on Cortes Bay to your left – take note: their property is private for members only. On the far side of Cortes Bay you can see the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s outstation.

The dock you see in between is the Cortes Bay public dock. The beach on your right is open to the winds coming up the Gulf of Georgia (now part of the Salish Sea) making it a great place to collect driftwood of all sizes and shapes.

Beyond the beach are three private homes.

Back at the stop sign, turn right on what is now Cortes Bay Road. At the water’s edge at the back of Cortes Bay there is a public boat ramp, some space for parking, and a home-made grid for tying a boat against at high tide to scrape or paint its hull when the tide recedes.

At the back end of this inner part of Cortes Bay (once called Blind Creek) is a quaint yellow and white original homestead house that has been well kept over the years.

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This trail leads up to the top of Easter Bluff where there are great scenic views on a clear day.

Homestead house, Blind Creek Near this house on the other side of the road is a narrow gravel driveway angling back, that leads up to the most used church on Cortes, St. Saviour-ByThe-Sea, overlooking Cortes Bay.

Easter Bluff The trail is steep in some parts and will take 20 to 30 minutes to hike up.

Easter Bluff is named after a Cortes Bay postmistress who used to hide eggs and chocolates for Easter egg hunts for local children up here.

14 - Seaford

St. Saviour-By-The-Sea Church The next road on the right is Manzanita Road (gravel) which ends near the ocean on the outside of Cortes Bay. A short way along this road is the entrance driveway and trail to the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club outstation and much further down is where Karl’s Castle used to be available to visit or stay in. The aging castle has now been closed.

Returning to Cortes Bay Road, turn right. At the very top of the hill is a hardto-spot trailhead on the right with just enough room to park two small cars.

Continuing along Cortes Bay Road you will come to a “Y” (yes, another “Y”!) in the road at Seaford Road – veer right. (Left takes you past a disk golf course to Linnaea Farm and back to Gunflint Lake.) Along here you’ll soon pass on the left the gated entrance to the Cortes Shooting Range operated by a shooting club on the island. The first road corner you come to is where Seaford Road actually makes a right turn down to the small community of Seaford where few people live today.

It was once a busy community with a school, big dock for steamships and a post office. Early residents living here had a strong connection to Squirrel Cove. Now nothing remains of these buildings or dock.

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pumps (gas and diesel), washrooms, laundromat, showers, garden shop, boat launch ramp and some campsites.

Seaford Post Office, 1927 Today, it is the point where under water electric and telephone cables come to Cortes from Sarah Point on the mainland. Return back up the hill

Squirrel Cove, 1950 Check out the covered Aquaculture Kiosk next to the Craft Shop to learn about how Cortes Island is a world supplier of oysters, clams, scallops and mussels. Find out how they’re grown and see how much work goes into one delicious slurp of an oyster on the half shell. Open only during summer months are the Flying Squirrel Take Away, Craft Shop, The Cove Restaurant with outside decks overlooking the water, and on Sunday mornings a Farmers’ Market.

15 - Squirrel Cove At the corner where Seaford Road turned right, the main road continues as Squirrel Cove Road – to Squirrel Cove, of course! Along the way, near the top of the hill is the entrance into the Cortes Recycling Centre, open Thursdays to Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s worth a visit if it’s open to see the Free Store where “shoplifters are encouraged”!

Locals send anything and everything to this store if it still has some useful life left, instead of sending it to the landfill. Need to replace a washing machine pump or a windshield wiper motor on your car or boat?? You can scrounge parts from appliances or vehicles that are here before they’re shipped off Cortes.

Squirrel Cove community picnic races

There’s a long hill down to Squirrel Cove where you will find a big public dock, the small store dock, and the store with groceries, ice cream, post office, liquor and hardware. Also here are fuel

In the 1950s this cove was once very busy with a hall, church, school, boat works, mill and machine shops as well as two stores and a post office. Today it 15

is busy with holidaying pleasure boaters, particularly in the summer.

Middleton’s machine shop, c1950 Along the shore from the store you will see the Torkeanum Reserve of the Klahoose First Nation with its catholic church standing tall in the middle.

Klahoose Torkeanum Reserve.

Their village is called T’oq. Whaletown Road climbs a long hill up past a trailhead to the Klahoose Fish Hatchery, then winds through deep forest and comes eventually to the first “y” in the road you turned at to head towards Manson’s Landing.

You have driven a complete loop of the settled southern part of Cortes Island and can now turn sharp left back to Manson’s Landing or continue down the hill and back towards Whaletown and the ferry.

Klahoose T’oq Village Church, 1950

Klahoose Village

Partially hidden in the trees to the right of the village is the modern Klahoose Community Centre. Beyond that is the narrow passage for boats sailing into the sheltered anchorage of the inner Squirrel Cove bay. In the busy summer boating season there can be up to 85 boats anchored for the night here.

We hope you’ll find a place to stay and spend some time exploring our amazing island paradise.

Leaving Squirrel Cove, turn right onto what is now called Whaletown Road (Squirrel Cove Road ended at the store). The first road you pass on the right is Tork Road leading to the

Squirrel Cove Whimsy

by Dianne Bersea-CSPWC/AFCA 16

George Emery’s Chevrolet (1926 or 1927) on a float being towed from Okeover Inlet to his camp on Cortes, c. 1935. All vehicles came to Cortes this way before ferry service began in 1969.

(CRM 13841)

Looking for a Cortes Adventures or a place to stay?

Check: www.cortesisland.com www.ourcortes.com www.cortesmuseum.com

Produced by Lynne Jordan Layout by Grazyna Trzesicka Photos from Cortes Museum Archives Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society www.cortesmuseum.com 957 Beasley Road, PO Box 422 Manson’s Landing, BC V0P 1K0 Canada Sketch created by Dianne Bersea-CSPWC/AFCA See Dianne’s work at www.islemuse. com

A publication of Cortes Island Museum & Archives Society 2015