The Cowichan River is the connection from Lake Cowichan to the rest of the Valley, it drops down approx. 400 feet from the mouth of the Lake down to the
Strait of Georgia through forests of Cedar and Douglas Fir, enjoying Canada's only Mediterranean climate this area was the cradle of the ancient and prosperous First Nations civilization, the Valley was rich with fish, fowl Elk and Deer, the Lake was a place where the young men came to envision their futures. The Cowichan basks in its cultural heritage as Khowutzun, the land warmed by the sun. The people used the cedar for their canoes, houses, clothing and tools, there is a lovely lady who makes very stylish hats out of tightly woven cedar, I have personally seen one that is 30 years old and still looks great, it certainly keeps the rain out. The natives used clothes made out of cedar for their ceremonies. I love the cedar baskets made by Fran and Cathy Edgar, Mrs Edgar tried to teach me years ago but to no avail, it is a art form I failed to acomplish you can see their work at the heritage centre in Duncan.
People harvested the salmon and the sea life on the coast for their nutritional mainstay, they used the plants, roots herbs and berries to supplement their diet. They lived life large, with big houses, giant war canoes, which we enjoyed seeing in the opening of the Torch Relay that went through town this past fall, aristocratic Salish chiefs amassed great fortunes of goods and slaves that were used to maintain their high position in the tradition of potlatch. the Cowichan River population became one of the major First Nations tribes of the west Coast.
In 1883 William Forest (perhaps a distant relative our our own Mayer Ross Forest) introduced European settlement on the river he travelled down with a local First Nation guide and convinced the premier of BC to put in a road. Logging quickly became a booming business, they floated the logs down the river to the ocean for shipping around the world, there where some world class log jams that quickly discouraged this practice. It was very hard on the Cowichans internationally renowned sport fishing. We are a fly fishing Mecca once again. Most recently the river has become a tourist destination for tubers, I have been taking my kids down the river since they where very young, it is a most enjoyable experience, and unless you go past Skutz Falls and into Maria Canyon, very safe.
They then brought in the train which opened up the area even more, there is a tale about when one of the first trains was being barged over to Youbou, before the road went that far and they lost it in the Narrows, never to be found. I have heard many stories about life around the Lake at that time, people worked hard and played hard, the landscape was dotted with house boats and float homes, many of which where later dragged up onto the shore and turned into peoples homes. It sounded like a fun time to live at the Lake. Lots of music and dances.
The Nature Conservancy has recently played a huge role to take large plots of land and keep them for the people and animals to enjoy, the Cowichan is now designated a Heritage River. Many including our local Band are stocking the river, there was a initiative last summer to put more gravel right in front of our place on the river and I saw more Salmon spawning this fall than I have in the past 5 years. Many local people go to the mouth of the creeks in the summer and try and save as many fry as possible from drying up in the summer sun, this is a great project for the kids to do.
The areas mountains are rich in granite and marble and iron ore, there are mining claims being held to the tune of millions of dollars at present which makes me think we will soon be replacing logging with mining as a means of employment. There is several world class developments about to happen on the Lake, we are a small resource town about to be discovered again. Visit our website for more information on the area www.remaxlakecowicha.com
Sandy Stinson
Owner
Managing Broker 250 749 6000