Cracroft is a locality at the east end of Forward Bay on the south side of West Cracroft Island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. [1]
The Cracroft post office and accompanying settlement was originally listed as being at the head of Port Harvey, at 50°34′10″N126°16′20″W / 50.56944°N 126.27222°W at the head of Port Harvey, but moved about 1/2 mile east prior to 1928, with the post office having opened in 1905. It was relocated to Forward Bay in 1951, with the post office closing later that same year. In 1961, there were 2 people residing at the original location of the Cracroft Bay Post Office, with 4 living there in 1976.
The Cracroft Islands were named in 1861 by Captain Richards of HMS Plumper for Sophia Cracroft, the niece of Sir John Franklin, the explorer. She accompanied Lady Jane Franklin on her round-the-world voyage, which brought them to British Columbia during the Fraser Gold Rush of 1858. They remained in British Columbia and explored its coast in 1861 before returning to England. Other features named for her in this area are the Sophia Islets off the southwest side of the island, and Cracroft Point, with the nearby Franklin Range across Johnstone Strait on Vancouver Island being named for Sir John and Lady Franklin. [2]
Cormorant Channel Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located in the Pearse Islands, a small archipelago to the east of Cormorant Island and the Village of Alert Bay at the western end of Johnstone Strait.
The Franklin Range is a small mountain range on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located just southwest of Robson Bight and Johnstone Strait. It has an area of 200 km2 and is a subrange of the Vancouver Island Ranges which in turn form part of the Insular Mountains. The range was named in 1861 by Captain Richards for noted Arctic explorer Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin who died exploring the Arctic and his wife, Lady Franklin. The Cracroft Islands across Johnstone Strait were named for Sophia Cracroft, Sir John's niece who accompanied Lady Franklin on her journey around the world that brought them to British Columbia during the Fraser Gold Rush of 1858.
Robson Bight is a small Vancouver Island bay at the west end of Johnstone Strait across from West Cracroft Island in British Columbia, Canada that includes a protected killer whale habitat famous for its whale-rubbing beaches. The bight is adjacent to Lower Tsitika River Provincial Park. The nearest access point is Telegraph Cove on the east coast of Northern Vancouver Island.
The Tlowitsis Nation, formerly the Klowitsis Tribe, the Turnour Island Band and the Tlowitsis-Mumtagila First Nation, is the Indian Act band government of the Ławit'sis (Tlowitsis) tribe of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples, located in the Queen Charlotte Strait-Johnstone Strait area in the Discovery Islands between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland in Canada. Ławit'sis territory covers parts of northern Vancouver Island, Johnstone Strait, and adjoining inlets of the mainland. Kalugwis, on Turnour Island, was their principal community in times past, but the band's offices are in the city of Campbell River to the southeast. Hanatsa IR No. 6 on Port Neville is the most populated of the band's Indian reserves.
Havannah Channel is a marine passageway in the South Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, leading off of the north side of Johnstone Strait leading to Chatham Channel and Call Inlet, south of East Cracroft Island. Havannah Channel is entered from Johnstone Strait at the Broken Islands. Hull Island is located in the channel, to the southeast of East Cracroft and south of the opening of Call Inlet.
Minstrel Island, is an island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is near the entrance to Knight Inlet just east of Turnour Island at the junction of Clio and Chatham Channels. The island is separated on its south from East Cracroft Island by a marine passageway called The Blow Hole.
Englewood was a community located at the head of Beaver Cove on Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Beaver Cove is on the south side of the Johnstone Strait, between Robson Bight and Port McNeill. The mouth of the Kokish River is to the southeast of the former site of Englewood.
Harbledown Island is an island in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, located west of West Cracroft Island. It is at the west end of Johnstone Strait and lies at the eastern edge of the Queen Charlotte Strait region. Hanson Island is to its west, West Cracroft Island to the south and southeast, across Baronet Passage, and Turnour Island to the northwest, across Beware Passage.
Port Neville is a bay, port and locality on the north side of Johnstone Strait, south of Call Inlet, in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada.
Turnour Island is an island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, located between Gilford Island and West Cracroft Island. On the other side Canoe Passage on its northwest is Village Island, while to its south and southwest is Beware Passage, across from which is Harbledown Island. Gilford Island is to the north across Tribune Channel. Separating Turnour from West Cracroft is Clio Channel.
West Cracroft Island is an island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, located east of Port McNeill. It is the larger of the two Cracroft Islands, the other, East Cracroft Island, being so named to distinguish between the two islands, which at low tide are one island.
East Cracroft Island is an island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is the smaller of the two Cracroft Islands, and at low tide is really one island with its larger neighbour, West Cracroft Island. On the south side of the shallows that form an isthmus between them at low tide is Port Harvey, a short, wide inlet or bay. On its east shore is Keecekiltum Indian Reserve No. 2, which is under the governance of the Tlowitsis Nation of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples. at 50°33′00″N126°16′00″W.
Port Harvey is a port on the south side of the Cracroft Islands in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, forming a small bay or inlet south of the shallows that link West Cracroft and East Cracroft Islands. On its east shore is Keecekiltum Indian Reserve No. 2, 11.7 ha., which is under the governance of the Tlowitsis Nation of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples. at 50°33′00″N126°16′00″W. It was named by Captain Richards for Captain Harvey of HMS Havannah.
Village Island is an island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, located on the northwest side of Turnour Island.
Memkumlis or, officially Meem Quam Leese, Memkoomlish, Memqumlis, 'mimkumlis or Mi'mkwamlis, commonly known as Mamalilaculla, which is actually the name of the subgroup of the Kwakwaka'wakw whose home it is, is located on the west side of Village Island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia.
Gwayasdums is a village of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples on the west side of Gilford Island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. The village, located on Retreat Pass, is on Gwayasdums Indian Reserve No. 1. Other spellings of the name are Kwaustums and gwa'yasdams and Gwa'yasdams and Gwa’yasdams.
The Blow Hole is a short marine passage or strait separating Minstrel Island on the north from East Cracroft Island to the south, in the lower Knight Inlet region of the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. At its east end is the northern end of Chatham Channel, which separates East Cracroft from the mainland to the east, and leads southeast to the opening of Call Inlet and beyond to Johnstone Strait via Havannah Passage.
Hull Island is an island in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, located in Havannah Channel to the east of the southern end of East Cracroft Island.
Bones Bay is located inside the territorial properties of the Namgiis indigenous peoples on a bay the north side of West Cracroft Island in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, on Clio Channel.
Clio Channel is a marine waterway running southwest to northeast between Turnour and West Cracroft Islands in the Johnstone Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
50°31′35″N126°22′50″W / 50.52639°N 126.38056°W