Tofino and Clayquot Sound: A History. Nanaimo Historical Society public programming.

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Thursday, February 11th, 2016
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

In the history of Canadian westward expansion the isolated and trackless west coast beckoned the most committed of explorers and homesteaders, pushing the boundaries of westward movement until land meets the Pacific and fragments into clustered small islands and reefs.

The district of Tofino and the Clayoquot Sound region occupy just a small section of the British Columbian coastline, but authors Margaret Horsfield and Ian Kennedy have mined its historic depths back from the geologic ageup until the present day.

Their research yielded a 640 page book, Tofino and Clayquot Sound: A History. The authors begin at the beginning as they describe the geologic development of the area. Next they descibe how the First Nations lived before, and after, contact with European explorers, traders, and settlers. Horsfield and Kennedy dig into 20th century developments in the area, much of it within the scope of living memory, including the establishment of a Second World War air-force base, and later a radar station at the beginning of the Cold War.

Previously accessible only by air or water Tofino didn’t reach the status as an end-of-the-road town until a rough network of logging roads was linked together in 1964, connecting the village with the western terminus (then) of Highway 4 at Sproat Lake in the Alberni Valley. Soon after, draft-dodgers and hippies rattled over the switchbacks to squat in driftwood shacks beside Long Beach.

The Nanaimo Historical Society is pleased to host local historians Margaret Horsfield and Ian Kennedy as they speak about the process of researching and writing Tofino and Clayoquot Sound. The public is welcome to attend this free event at Bowen Park Complex, Room 1.