Sechelt (British Columbia)
| Sechelt | |||
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| Location in British Columbia | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | British Columbia | ||
| Regional District : | Sunshine Coast | ||
| Coordinates : | 49 ° 28 ′ N , 123 ° 45 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 8 m | ||
| Area : | 39.01 km² | ||
| Residents : | 9291 (as of 2011) | ||
| Population density : | 238.2 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Time zone : | Pacific Time ( UTC − 8 ) | ||
| Postal code : | V0N | ||
Sechelt is a small town in the Canadian province of British Columbia . It is located on the Sunshine Coast across from Vancouver Island .
The site extends along the Sechelt Inlet and the Strait of Georgia , with Sechelt Village in the center, West Sechelt in the west, Tuwanek in the far north and Wilson Creek in the southeast. Pebble Bay opens the Sechelt Inlet to the north, Trail Bay forms the border with the Strait of Georgia. The climate is very mild and sunny.
history
The Sechelt
Sechelt derives its name from the Sechelt or Shishalh , a tribe of the Salish language group that is resident on the eastern side of the Strait of Georgia. Like the Pentlatch and the Comox, they belong to the group of the northern coastal Salish .
The first contact with whites came when the missionary Paul Durieu came to the area. Almost the entire tribe fell victim to the smallpox epidemic of 1862. Among the Sechelt, this catastrophe led to a mass conversion to Catholicism.
The first residential school was built at Chateleech . St. Augustine's Residential School opened on June 29, 1904, where the House of Chiefs now stands. The school burned down in 1917, but was re-established in 1922 and existed until the 1960s. The Sechelt had to burn down their totem poles and other “paraphernalia of the medicine men” by hand. Durieu founded an all-native brass band and a theater group. He also encouraged massive logging and industrial fishing.
In 1881 167 of the once 5,000 Sechelts were still alive. The "one great fire" that once stretched from Gower Point to Saltery Bay, their culture, songs, chants, dances, stories and arts were lost.
In 1986 you were also the first First Nation in Canada to achieve self-government.
The first settlers
In 1869, John Scales, a British engineer, took 150 acres of land on Trail Bay and later bought another 110 acres on Porpoise Bay. But he never moved to the area, but sold his property to Thomas John Cook and his wife Sarah. They named their property Shorncliffe, after the area where Thomas John was born. They are considered to be the first white settlers.
Wakefield Creek was named after another early settler, William Jackson Wakefield.
The Whittakers
Alfred and Henrietta Whittaker came to Sechelt in 1893 with their five sons and three daughters. Alfred Whittaker bought Shorncliff, which now reads Sechelt. Herbert Whittaker, the eldest son, opened a shop at the age of 22, the only one between Gibsons Landing and Pender Harbor . To this end, he built a hotel with 21 rooms, as well as two other hotels, a larger shop, tenement houses, a dance palace, two sawmills, two shipyards and a fleet of steam boats. From 1906 he lived in Beach House. He practically owned the city and his business practices were notorious. In 1912 he was persuaded to use a small house as a school, but he threw students and teachers out when a telegraph station offered him $ 7 a month.
In 1914, however, a hotel burned down, and in 1915 its shipyard collapsed. In 1917, however, the Union Steamship Company acquired an area on the site of what is now Selma Park, where the All Read Steamship Line had bought, and operated steam boats, such as the SS Selma - in fierce competition with Whittaker. In 1915 the first farms were built in West Sechelt. In 1924 Whittaker was nearly broke. The Union Steamship Company bought his property and continued his concept.
Jiro Konishi bought a 32 acre plot on the west end of Porpoise Bay. He successfully delivered fruit and vegetables to Sechelt, but died a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Like all Japanese, his family was interned and the farm was forcibly sold.
Industries, tourism, building expansion
The main industries at the time were logging, fishing and tourism. In 1926, Bryce and Gertrude Fleck built Oneongo Lodge, with a tennis court on the seashore. The Rockwood Lodge was built in 1936 and is now used as accommodation for the annual Festival of the Written Arts . St. Hilda's Anglican Church was founded in 1936 and the elementary school in 1939.
In 1952, Highway 101 was completed and the economic center shifted from Trail Bay to Cowrie Street.
Demographics
In 2001 the city had 7,775 inhabitants, including around 240 Indians (members of First Nations ). In 2006 it already had 8,454 inhabitants and grew to 9,291 inhabitants by the census in 2011. The population has thus increased by 9.9% compared to the 2006 census, while the population in British Columbia only increased by 7.0%. With an average age of 53.6 years, the population here is also significantly older than in the rest of the province, with 41.9 years.
education
Sechelt belongs to School District # 46 - Sunshine Coast , which is located in Gibsons . There are several schools in the small community, including an elementary school and a secondary school . There is also a campus of Capilano University in Sechelt .
economy
In Sechelt, the largest areas of employment are trade, the construction industry and health and social affairs. Employers are often not in the community, but workers commute to work on the mainland, mainly to Vancouver.
The average income of all employees of Sechelt in 2005 was less than average 23,090 C $ , while it was at the same time the average for the entire province of British Columbia 24,867 C $. The percentage difference in income between men (27,802 C $; provincial average = 31,598 C $) and women (19,459 C $; provincial average = 19,997 C $) is different in sixths, based on the average income of all employees in the province. For men, the percentage difference based on the provincial comparison (~ 1.1 times the provincial average) is slightly above average, while women (~ 0.78 times the provincial average) earn an income well below the average of all employees in the province. Male employees only earn more here compared to the provincial average of all employees; compared to all male employees in the province, they earn a lower income (~ 0.88 times the average of all men). The income of female employees from Sechelt is almost average compared to all female employees in the province (~ 0.97 times the average of all women).
Tourism and forest ecosystems
Some of the oldest trees in Western Canada are in the Caren Range , northwest of Sechelt. Almost 2000 year old red cedars ( giant arborvitae ) rise in the area, which is between 800 and 1,300 m. However, the oldest tree in Canada (120 AD) was felled in 1995. Here the almost extinct Marmelalke were rediscovered in 1993 and 1994 . They no longer nest in the rocks like the other alks, but lay their eggs in the huge tree tops.
In 1991 the Friends of Caren were founded with the aim of protecting the area. In 1999 the Caren Range Old Growth Forest was established as a park covering an area of 2,979 hectares. It is also known as Spipiyus Provincial Park . The Friends of Caren are calling for an increase to around 8,000 hectares.
The various Provicial Parks near Sechelt or on the Sunshine Coast at all , such as Porpoise Bay Provincial Park, which is almost on the outskirts, or the nearby Mount Richardson Provincial Park , also have an impact on tourism .
traffic
The place can only be reached via Highway 101 (only paved in 1952) along the coast, by plane or by ferry to the Earls Cove Ferry Terminal .
sons and daughters of the town
- Christine Jensen (* 1970), jazz musician
Web links
- Official website of the Sechelt district
- Website of the region and the city of Sechelt
- The parish on britishcolumbia.com
- Caren Range Old-Growth Forest
- Heather Till, History of Sechelt
supporting documents
- ↑ All Data - Sechelt. Census 2001. In: Statistics Canada . June 28, 2013, accessed July 16, 2014 .
- ↑ 2006 Community Profiles - Sechelt. Census 2006. In: Statistics Canada . December 6, 2010, accessed July 16, 2014 .
- ↑ Sechelt Community Profile. Census 2011. In: Statistics Canada . April 28, 2014, accessed July 16, 2014 .
- ^ Schools. School District # 46 - Sunshine Coast, accessed July 16, 2014 .
- ↑ Sechelt Community Facts. BCStats , accessed July 16, 2014 .