Texada Island
| Texada Island | ||
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| Waters | Strait of Georgia (Pacific Ocean) | |
| Archipelago | Gulf Islands | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 40 ′ N , 124 ° 25 ′ W | |
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| length | 50 km | |
| width | 10 km | |
| Residents | 1053 (2011) | |
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Texada Island is the largest island in the Strait of Georgia , a waterway that separates mainland Canada from Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia . With a length of 50 km and a width of up to 10 km, it is also the largest of the northern Gulf Islands , which in addition to Texada mainly includes Denman , Hornby and Lasqueti Island . Texada is accessed from the mainland and from neighboring Nelson Island by the Malaspina Straitseparated from Lasqueti Island in the northeast and by the Sabine Channel in the southwest. In the northwest, between Texada and Harwood Island, lies the Algerine Channel, while three-quarters of the west lies on the Strait of Georgia.
The island is 300.4 km² and in 2011 had exactly 1,053 inhabitants. It belongs to the qathet Regional District and there to District D.
Geography and climate
There are two places on the island, each with around 500 inhabitants, namely Van Anda and Gillies Bay, most of the inhabitants live in the vicinity of Blubber Bay in the north of the island.
history
Texada belonged to the traditional area of the Sliammon , a group of the coastal Salish , which extended from the area between Stillwater and Texada northwards over Malaspina and Gilford Peninsula to the south of the Homfray Channel and partly Cortes Island . In this area, the Sliammon inhabited about ten villages, plus many seasonal homes, some of which were discovered on Texada.
1791 the Spaniard circumnavigated José María Narváez in connection with an expedition led by Francisco de Eliza on the Santa Saturnina Texada to map the area. Spain wanted to reinforce its claim to the region. Narvaez named the islands, which he circumnavigated, after the Spanish rear admiral Felix de Tejada and after Saint Felix. First Lasqueti Island was named Isla de Texada, the name of the rear admiral, while today's Texada was named Islas de San Felix . It was only on the map created by Eliza and Juan Carrasco that the name Texada was moved to what is now Texada Island. When George Vancouver reached the area the next year, he then registered and mapped the island under the name Favada .
In the 1870s the whaler Harry Trim discovered an ore deposit. The island sparked a political scandal at the end of which the provincial prime minister had to resign. Amor De Cosmos planned to build port facilities in Victoria , the provincial capital. He negotiated a £ 1 million loan with the government of John Macdonald . However, when he returned to Victoria in January 1874, he was criticized by his opponents who feared that because of the planned port, the transcontinental railroad would not be built as far as Victoria as promised in 1871. The opponents, which included De Cosmos' former comrades-in-arms John Robson and John Sebastian Helmcken , said he had abused his office to promote his own iron mine on Texada Island. De Cosmos resigned on February 11, 1874.
At the end of the 19th century, a fishing port was established in the north, where humpback whales were temporarily cut up. This fact gives the place the name Blubber Bay , from the English word for whale blubber .
At the same time, copper was discovered at Van Anda . There the Copper Queen and the Cornell Mine were built . The place was named after the son of the raw materials entrepreneur Edward Blewett, Van Anda Blewett. Even John D. Rockefeller invested in the mines, but soon withdrew, as did the Canadian investors Sir William Mackenzie and Donald Mann . The iron ores were mined by Union Iron Works of San Francisco . An opera house and a Chinatown were built in Van Anda , but the city was repeatedly destroyed by fire. In addition, an ore mine was built on Gillies Bay by Kaiser Aluminum , which supplied iron to Japan and Germany after 1945.
In addition to metals, limestone was mined from 1910 . Here were Pacific Lime Company and BC Cement in Blubber Bay and Marble Bay worked until the early 21st century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the island had more than 5,000 inhabitants. Alcohol smuggling into the United States flourished during the prohibition period.
In 1982 BC Hydro established a 500 kV power connection across the island, and in 1989 a gas pipeline was built from south to north, supplying Powell River and Vancouver Island.
A dispute broke out over the gas supply in 2007 when Westpac LNG wanted to set up a port for liquefied gas. and a gas-fired power station at Kiddie Point in the north of the island. An initiative, Texada Action Now , was born. The project is currently on hold.
Attractions
There are two parks on the island, South Texada Island Provincial Park in the south and Anderson Bay Provincial Park .
There is a museum in Blubber Bay, the Texada Museum .
Web links
- Texada Island . In: BC Geographical Names (English)
- Texada Island ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
Remarks
- ^ Powell River D Community Profile. Census 2011. In: Statistics Canada . March 1, 2013, accessed July 20, 2013 .
- ↑ Jim McDowell: José Narváez: The Forgotten Explorer , Spokane 1998, pp. 58f.
- ^ Andrew Scott: The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names: A Complete Reference to Coastal British Columbia. Harbor Publishing, Madeira Park (BC) 2009, ISBN 978-1550174847 , pp. 587-588
- ^ WestPac LNG Corporation. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007 ; accessed on May 21, 2016 .
- ^ Texada Action Now and the Alliance to Stop the LNG project on Texada Island. Archived from the original on February 20, 2012 ; accessed on May 21, 2016 .