West Coast Trail: Background Info For Hikers

If you are hiking the West Coast Trail, these notes may help your appreciation of the history and diversity of the trail.

If you would want to add more information for future hikers or add/correct included material, drop me a line.

DONKEY MACHINE
Origin of name uncertain. Some suggest that it did the work of a donkey, others that the heavy steel cables were hitched to donkeys. Used in forest industry. The cables were wound round the steel drums. Cables were wound out and pulled to fallen trees by horses. Once cable was attached to tree, it was winched back. Worked on steam principle.

OWEN POINT
Named for Admiral William Owen, surveyor who mapped coast around 1830.

CULLITE CREEK
From the native word “Kowshet” which referred to elk droppings on the beach there.

FELLING A CEDAR
You may notice notching left in some of the old cedar stumps. The notching was used by loggers to insert boards on which to stand while sawing cedar. This was necessary as the base of cedars flay out and standing above this made it easier and faster to cut.

LOGAN CREEK
Named for David Logan. Logan came to the area to look after cattle for Wm. H. Grove, who had opened a trading post at Clo-oose and raised cattle. He returned to Australia in 1894 when Logan arrived to look after his herd. Grove never returned and Logan assumed his property, built a house, and later added a store and a post office.He was post master and Magistrate for Clo-oose until he died in 1938.

He was also a lineman for a stretch of the tree-to-tree telephone line that ran from Victoria to Cape Beale which needed constant repairs and upkeep. Consequently, he was away from home 6 weeks at a time. He traveled alone except for a dog which always went with him.

WALBRAN CREEK
Named for captain of the Princess Maquinna, one of the supply ships that plied the coast.

BONILLA POINT SHIPWRECK
The wreckage near the waterfall is probably from the Lizzie Marshall which was lost in February 1884. A three masted wooden vessel with a crew of 13. All but one crew member was saved.

Bonilla is Spanish for “high”.

CARMANAH COAL COMPANY
Hole drilled in 1910 at Coal Creek. Camp then moved to Bonilla Point. Original hole at Coal Creek still spills water with a sulphuric content . Therapeutic advantages were highlighted in literature promoting development at Clo-oose.

CARMANAH LIGHTHOUSE
Built in 1891. Planned for Bonilla Point, which protrudes further out than Carmanah. Builders mistook Carmanah for Bonilla. By time error was realized it was decide to keep it at Carmanah.

William Daykin was the original keeper. Kept a daily diary during his tempestuous stay there from 1891 to 1912. His gruff ways often irritated and alienated his superiors. If supply ship was late or did not deliver what he ordered or it spoiled, he was on the phone to Victoria complaining. And he used expletives freely. He did enjoy his spirits, a bottle of scotch each day.

Stay took its toll on family. Wife developed pneumonia and died in Victoria. Youngest son, 17, was killed when the line holding the supply trolley he was riding from the beach to the lighthouse snapped and the he was flung to his death. The other son went hunting with a friend to the Nitinat area. Search party found their boat drifting on lake with all equipment including guns but no boys. Disappearance is still a mystery.

PETROGLYPHS
The images are not freely located. Graffiti by indifferent hikers of an important spiritual and historical location for First Nation peoples , has resulted in the site being hidden from hikers. If you should happen upon it, make very effort not to deface or walk on the fragile images. They are cut into sandstone and very vulnerable to hiking boots walking over them.

Images carved in stone. Those at Stanley Beach are not possible to date with the exception of the vessel, “Beaver”. It was constructed for the Hudson Bay Company in England and sailed over to the west coast where it was fitted with a side wheel. It made one trip passed this stretch of coast and that was in 1836.

NITINAT LAKE
One of only two tidal lakes (levels determined by tide) in the world. The other one is also in BC at Pitt Lake (near Vancouver)

A cannery was located near the opening to the sea. Pilings which held the cannery can be seen from Nitinat crossing. It was built in 1917 to provide economic opportunity for area. Chinese from Victoria were boated in the provide labour. Overfishing led to its closure in 1921. Restarted temporarily, but finally closed 1931. The largest canoe ever built (72’/28m) was from a cedar behind the cannery. It proved to be unseaworthy.

TSUQUADRA VILLAGE & CAVES
Population wiped out in smallpox epidemic in late 1800s. All but one died. Burial was in caves at west end of beach. Natives buried dead in boxes facing east. Corpses were left sitting up with heads above the boxes. Scavenging of these burial sites by hikers over the years has led to the area’s closure.

Remains of communal house posts still evident.

TSUSIAT FALLS/LAKES
It means “where the water runs down always”. The region of lower lakes was where natives felled cedar trees for their canoes. They were roughed out there, then either lowered by rope over the falls or skidded over to Hole in the Wall and paddled over to Whyac at the Nitinat Narrows for completion.

KLANAWA
Area between the lineman’s cabin and the cable car crossing on the southern side was a native burial ground. The dead here were suspended from the trees.

TRESTLE CREEK
The anchor here is believed to be from the Janet Cowan.


VALENCIA: BACKGROUNDER
Left San Francisco for Seattle – Victoria return, early January 1906. Poor weather. Readings from sun and stars not possible. Navigational instrumentation very limited in those days. Captain based his position on dead reckoning (speed of ship, current, and time determines position). Acceptable tool at the time. Unfortunately did not factor in that Japanese current faster in winter than other seasons. Thus Valencia was farther north than anticipated on rainy, foggy, and stormy evening of January 6th. Captain looking for Juan de Fuca Strait which would lead him to Seattle. Dead reckoning placed him at the opening of the strait, yet soundings (depths in correspondence to his navigational charts) did not make sense. Around midnight it hit the shelf. He ordered engines reversed before the ship was pushed higher on to the shelf and recovery impossible. He extricated the vessel from the shelf only to find that the hull had been torn open and water was being taken in quickly. Between a rock and a hard place, he ordered the ship run up on to the shelf to prevent the vessel from sinking in open water. The ship was but 30 yards/10 meters from ominous cliffs.

" I was in my bunk asleep. I got up at once and went on deck. It was thick dark, sleeting and blowing a stiff breeze. I could not see any light. I went back and got my clothes. By that time the passengers were getting out of their rooms and most of them had life preservers on.

At the time the engines were working, but I don't know which way. The chief officer told me to clear away the boats, which I did. The deck was crowded and it was so dark I could not tell the crew from passengers. We only carried eight sailors and four quartermasters. We had seven boats and three rafts. The captain shouted from the bridge to lower all boats to the saloon rail and keep them there, but the four forward boats were lowered all the way; most of them were full of passengers and there was a strain on the tackles. Of those four boats, only one, No. 2, got away from the ship's side. There was a heavy sea running, breaking almost to the bridge, and I am doubtful if those boats could have got away even in daylight.

The captain turned the searchlight all around. I saw No. 2 boat off at some little distance, then someone pulled the whistle and the electric lights went out. I saw No. 1 boat smash alongside. There would be 15 or 20 people in her. I had a ladder thrown over, also some ropes and I saw one man climb aboard. At that time, the Valencia took a heavy list to port and No. 7 boat was lowered. I saw the firemen's mess boy in No. 6 boat. She got away from the ship's side.
One raft was also put overboard. There were at the time several people in the rigging and the rest on the hurricane deck. Some rockets were then assuring the passengers that they would be all right. At the same time the social hall and the weather side of the saloon were the only dry places on the ship"

Boatswain T.J. McCarthy gives his account before the Coroner's jury in Victoria.

Read the full story of this tragedy.

LIFE SAVING TRAIL
The high number of shipwrecks along this stretch of coast resulted in a call for some kind of maintained trail to assist survivors and to help rescuers reach them. The high cost of constructing and maintaining such a trail was not viewed as cost efficient by the government in lieu of the small number of deaths and infrequent emergencies. After the Valencia, the commission which investigated the tragedy, recommended that a life saving trail be built. Public pressure resulted in the government authorizing its construction.

Work began in 1907. The road was 12’/3.5m wide and ran for 15.5 miles/25 km from Bamfield before construction was stopped in 1910 near Shelter Bight (location of Valencia grounding). The slow pace and the huge cost resulted in a decision to proceed with the construction of a narrower trail to Nitinat (1911) and ultimately to Carmanah (1912).

The donkey machine marks the spot were the road ended. It actually was not part of the road construction but was landed in 1912 at Shelter Bight and skidded up the draw onto the road and hauled to it present site. What it was used for? No one seems to know.

DARLING RIVER
The steel plates which can be seen at the mouth are from the Uzbekistan, a Russian freighter that went aground during WWII .

MICHIGAN CREEK
The boiler from the Michigan 1893 , just west of the creek, can be reached at low tide.

PACHENA LIGHT
Built 1907 in response to Valencia. Lit in May 1908. Glass lens measures 3m [10’] tall, 2.5 m wide [8’], weighs 400 kg [900 lbs]. Brought round Cape Horn. Puts out 1000 watt bulb/4 million candlepower and is visible from Olympic Peninsula.