Wallace Island Marine Provincial Park

Wallace Island Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. The park includes all 72 hectares of Wallace Island. This long, thin island lies in Trincomali Channel west of Galiano Island, and about 1.5 km east of Saltspring Island. There are numerous hiking trails, and camping is permitted in designated areas.

Conover Cove, on the western side, and Princess Bay, slightly north of Conover on the western side, are the two anchorages used by pleasure boaters. Conover Cove also has a small float which can accommodate shallow-draft vessels. The island is accessible by private boat or water taxi only. There is no public ferry service.

Panther Point, at the south end, has dangerous rocky reefs which extend southwards well past the island. Following the local tradition of naming hazardous reefs after the ships that found them, Panther Point is named after the Panther, a merchant coal-carrier, which ran aground there in 1874, carrying a full load of coal from Nanaimo. Divers still visit what remains of the ship. (See http://www.benthic.ca/report.cfm?report=4)

Between 1946 and the mid 1960s the island was developed as a vacation resort, and the remains of a few of the guest cabins are still present. The most famous resort visitor was Marilyn Monroe. David Conover wrote a book, 'Once upon an Island', which describes this period of the Island's history.

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