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NEWCASTLE ISLAND PARK
Park Info:
For an experience rich in history, culture and entertainment, do what people have been doing since the 1930s—hop a boat to Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park, one of the most intriguing parks in BC. Bring your own boat or take the passenger ferry from Nanaimo—a 10-minute ride that deposits passengers on Newcastle Island, located just a few hundred meters offshore from Vancouver Island. From a distance you’ll see an island shoreline dominated by steep sandstone cliffs and ledges, interspersed with sunny beaches. Up close, you’ll discover rocky caves and caverns - a marked contrast to the interior of the island, which is studded with mature Douglas fir, Garry oak, arbutus and dogwood trees.
Visitors to Newcastle Island can choose from an extensive network of walking/hiking trails that lead to various historic points around the island. Indian middens offer mute evidence of at least two Salish First Nations villages, which were deserted before the discovery of coal in this area in 1849. Subsequent decades saw the island's fortunes rise and fall as it went through various incarnations while supporting a fish-salting operation, a sandstone quarry and a shipyard.
In 1931 the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company purchased the island and operated it as a pleasure resort, building a dance pavilion - now the visitor center - a teahouse, picnic areas, change houses, a soccer field and a wading pool. An old ship was tied to the dock at Mark Bay and served as a floating hotel. The island became very popular for company picnics and Sunday outings, with ships from Vancouver bringing as many as 1,500 people at a time. The advent of the Second World War, however, caused a decrease in the number of ships available for pleasure excursions and Newcastle Island suffered a consequent decline in popularity.
Today, park services and facilities include walk-in campsites complete with flush toilets and showers, as well as facilities for group camping and picnicking. The newly restored Newcastle Island Pavilion offers daily food services, interpretive programs and a gift shop during the peak May to September season. The Pavilion can also be rented for dances, corporate picnics and wedding receptions.
Park Size: 336 hectares
History
A brief walk around Newcastle brings you to the site of Saysetsen Village, where recovered native artifacts bear silent witness to the life of a Salish Indian village that was deserted some time before coal was discovered in 1849. For centuries the Salish had occupied this village between the months of September and April, leaving every spring in order to fish for cod and gather clams and tubers on Gabriola Island. Although the Salish were among the island’s first coal miners, they were soon "supplemented" by boatloads of British; these men christened the island after a famous coal town in northern England and diligently worked the mines until 1883. Newcastle Island’s supplies of sandstone lasted longer than did the coal: this attractive building material, used in many constructions along the west coast, was quarried from 1869 until 1932.
Newcastle Island also played a role in the fishing industry of the province. By 1910 the Japanese, who dominated fisheries, had established a small settlement just north of Shaft Point on the west side of the island. Here they operated a saltery and shipyard until 1941 when all the Japanese-Canadians who lived along the coast were sent to internment camps in the Interior in the interests of national security during wartime.
In 1931 the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company purchased the island and operated it as a pleasure resort, building a dance pavilion (now the visitor centre), teahouse, picnic areas, change-houses, soccer field and a wading pool. An old ship named Charmer (later replaced by the Princess Victoria) was tied to the dock at Mark Bay (Echo Bay) and served as a floating hotel. The island became very popular for company picnics and Sunday outings, with ships from Vancouver bringing as many as 1,500 people at a time. The advent of the Second World War caused a decrease in the number of ships available for pleasure excursions and Newcastle Island suffered a consequent decline in popularity.
Cultural Heritage
Newcastle Island provided a home to the Coast Salish native peoples prior to the discovery of coal in 1849.
Conservation
The Park offers an island shoreline dominated by steep sandstone cliffs and ledges punctuated by beaches. Caves and caverns exist along the shoreline and provide a marked contrast to the interior of the island studded with Douglas fir, arbutus, Garry oak and dogwood trees.
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