Sechelt

Sechelt is a city in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located on the Sunshine Coast across from Vancouver Iceland. 2001, the town had 7,775 inhabitants., Of which about 240 Indians ( members of First Nations ). In 2006, she had 8,454 inhabitants. The village is situated on the Sechelt Inlet and the Strait of Georgia, where Sechelt Village in the center, West Sechelt in the west, Tuwanek in the extreme north and form Wilson Creek in southeastern borders. The Pebble Bay opened the Sechelt Inlet to the north, Bay Trail forms the border with the Strait of Georgia. The climate is very mild and sunny properties.

History

The Sechelt

Sechelt derives its name from the Sechelt or Shishalh, a tribe of the Salish language group, which is located on the eastern side of the Strait of Georgia. They are, like the Pentlatch and the Comox the group of northern coastal Salish.

The first contact with whites took place when the missionary Paul Durieu came to the region. The smallpox epidemic of 1862 is pleasing to almost the entire tribe to sacrifice. The Sechelt this disaster led to a mass conversion to Catholicism.

In Chateleech the first residential school was built. St. Augustine's Residential School was opened on June 29, 1904, where now stands the House of Chiefs ( house of the chiefs ). 1917 burned out from school, but was re- established in 1922 and existed until the 60s. The Sechelt had to hand their totem poles burn and other " paraphernalia of the medicine men". Durieu founded an all- Native Brass Band and a theater group. He also encouraged the massive logging and industrial fishing.

1881 were still alive 167 of 5,000 once have Sechelt. The " great fire ", which had once extended from Gower Point to Saltery Bay, their culture, songs, chants, dances, stories and art skills were lost.

They were in 1986 but also the first First Nation in Canada, reaching self-government (self -government).

The first settlers

1869 took John Scales, a British engineer, 150 acres of land on the Bay Trail in possession, later bought another 110 acres at the Porpoise Bay. But he never moved to the area, but sold his property to Thomas John Cook and his wife Sarah. They named their property Shorncliffe, according to the area where Thomas John was born. They are considered the first white settlers.

After another early settler, William Jackson Wakefield, Wakefield Creek was named.

The Whittakers

Alfred and Henrietta Whittaker came in 1893 with their five sons and three daughters to Sechelt. Alfred Whittaker acquired Shorncliff, today stands on the Sechelt. Already with 22 Herbert Whittaker, the eldest son built, a shop, the only one between Gibsons Landing and Pender Harbour. To this end, he built a 21-room hotel, and two other hotels, a larger shop, tenement houses, a dance hall, two saw mills, two shipyards, a fleet of steamboats. From 1906 he lived in Beach House. He owned practically the city, his business methods were notorious. In 1912 persuaded him to let use a small house as a school, but he accused students and teachers out again than 7 dollars a month he was offered by a telegraph station.

However, in 1914 burned down a hotel in 1915 broke his yard together. However, the Union Steamship Company acquired in 1917 an area on the site of present-day Selma Park, where the All Read Steamship Line had bought, and operational steam boats, the SS Selma - in sharp competition with Whittaker. 1915, the first farms were established in West Sechelt. 1924 Whittaker was almost broke. The Union Steamship Company bought his property and continued his concept.

Jiro Konishi bought a 32- acre area at the west end of Porpoise Bay. He successfully delivered fruit and vegetables to Sechelt, but died a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His family, like all Japanese internment, forced selling the farm.

Industries, tourism, building expansion

The main industries were at this time logging, fishing and tourism. 1926 built Bryce and Gertrude Fleck Oneongo Lodge, with a tennis court at the seashore. 1936 was the Rockwood Lodge, which is now used as accommodation for the annual Festival of the Written Arts. St. Hilda 's Anglican Church was built in 1936 and the primary school in 1939.

1952 Highway 101 was completed and the economic center shifted from the Bay Trail to Cowrie Street.

Tourism and forest ecosystems

Some of the oldest trees in Western Canada are in the Caren Range, northwest of Sechelt. Almost 2,000 -year-old Red Cedars ( red cedar ) rise in the area, which is 800-1300 m altitude. The oldest tree in Canada (120 AD), but in 1995 pleases. Here in 1993 and 1994, the nearly extinct Marmelalke were rediscovered. You no longer nest in the rocks, like other auks, but lay their eggs in the giant tree crowns.

In 1991, the Friends of Caren established, which set itself the protection of the area to the target. 1999, the Caren Range Old Growth Forest was established as a park, which covers an area of ​​2,979 ha. He is also known under the name Spipiyus Provincial Park. The Friends of Caren require an increase to around 8,000 ha

Traffic

The place is (asphalted until 1952 ) only via Highway 101 along the coast to reach by plane or by ferry from Earls Cove Ferry Terminal.

Sons and daughters of the town

• Christine Jensen (born 1970 ), jazz musician