Texada Island
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Texada Iceland is the largest island in the Strait of Georgia, a waterway that separates the Canadian mainland of Vancouver Iceland in the province of British Columbia. It is at once which include 50 km in length and up to 10 km wide, the largest of the northern Gulf Islands, in addition to Texada especially Denman, Hornby and Lasqueti Iceland. Texada is separated from the mainland and neighboring Nelson Iceland by the Malaspina Strait in the northeast and from Lasqueti Iceland by the Sabine Channel in the southwest. To the northwest lies between Texada and Harwood Iceland Algerine the channel, while the west side is three-quarters of the Strait of Georgia.
The island is 300.40 km ² and in 2011 had just 1,053 inhabitants. The island is part of the Powell River Regional District and there to the District D.
Geography and climate
On the island there are two places with about 500 inhabitants each, namely Van Anda and Gillies Bay, most residents live within Blubber Bay in the north of the island.
History
Texada was part of the traditional territory of the Sliammon, a group of coastal Salish, the northward stretched from the area between Stillwater and Texada over Malaspina and Gilford Peninsula to the south of the Homfray Channel and partially Cortes Iceland. In this area the Sliammon inhabited about ten villages, and many seasonal residential sites, some of which were discovered on Texada.
1791 circumnavigated the Spaniard Jose Maria Narvaez in connection with an expedition led by Francisco de Eliza on the Santa Saturnina Texada to map the area. Thus Spain wanted to substantiate his claim to the region. Narvaez named the islands he circumnavigated by the Spanish Rear Admiral Felix de Tejada and after the Saint Felix. Initially received Lasqueti Iceland as Isla de Texada the name of Rear Admiral, while the present Texada was named Islas de San Felix. Only on the card that created Eliza and Juan Carrasco, the name Texada was moved to its present Texada Island. When George Vancouver reached the area in the next year, he registered and then charted the island under the name Favada.
In the 1870s, the whalers Harry Trim discovered Ore. The island became the trigger of a political scandal, was forced to resign at the end of the prime minister of the province. Amor De Cosmos was planning to build port facilities in Victoria, the provincial capital. He negotiated with the government of Sir John A. Macdonald from a loan of 1 million pounds. However, when he returned in January 1874 to Victoria, he was criticized by his opponents, who feared that because of the port project will not be built as promised in 1871 to Victoria, the transcontinental railway. Opponents, which included De Cosmos ' former colleagues John Robson and John Sebastian Helmcken, suggested that he had his office misused to promote his own iron mine on Texada Iceland. De Cosmos resigned on 11 February 1874.
End of the 19th century originated in the north, a fishing port where humpback whales were temporarily broken. This fact also gave the place the name Blubber Bay, after the English word for whale blubber.
Around the same time discovered copper at Van Anda. There, the Copper Queen and the Cornell created mine. The place was named after the son of the commodity trader Edward Blewett, Van Anda Blewett. Even JD Rockefeller invested in the mines, but soon withdrew, as did the Canadian investors Sir William Mackenzie and Donald Mann. Iron ores were mined by Union Iron Works in San Francisco. In Van Anda an opera house and a Chinatown emerged, but the city was destroyed several times by fire. In addition, an iron mine at the Gillies Bay was built by Kaiser Aluminum, which provided after 1945 iron to Japan and Germany.
In addition to metals, limestone was mined from 1910. Here Pacific Lime Company and BC Cement worked in Blubber Bay Marble Bay until the beginning of the 21st century.
Beginning of the 20th century, the island had more than 5,000 inhabitants. During the Prohibition era of the smuggling of alcohol flourished in the United States.
1982 BC Hydro built a power connection to 500 kV across the island in 1989 was a gas pipeline from south to north, which supplies Powell River and Vancouver Iceland.
To the supply of gas flared in 2007 a dispute, as Westpac LNG wanted to set up a port for LPG. and a gas-fired power plant at Kiddie Point in the north of the island. An initiative Texada Action Now, was born. as well as an alliance against the project. Currently, the project is based.
Parks
On the island there are two parks, located in the south of South Texada Iceland Provincial Park and the Anderson Bay Provincial Park.
Museum
In Blubber Bay is a museum, the Museum Texada.