Desolation Sound

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Desolation Sound
French: Baie Desolation
Desolation sound 2006.jpg
Desolation Sound
Canada British Columbia relief location map.jpg
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Desolation Sound
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Extent of Desolation Sound
Location Discovery Islands, British Columbia
Coordinates 50°07′20″N124°45′30″W / 50.12222°N 124.75833°W / 50.12222; -124.75833 (Desolation Sound) Coordinates: 50°07′20″N124°45′30″W / 50.12222°N 124.75833°W / 50.12222; -124.75833 (Desolation Sound)
Type Sound
Part of Salish Sea
Islands Kinghorn Island, Martin Islands, Mink Island, Protection Island, Station Island
Settlements Refuge Cove

Desolation Sound [1] (French : Baie Desolation) is a deep water sound at the northern end of the Salish Sea and of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, Canada.

Contents

History

Desolation Sound has always been inhabited by tribes of the Tla'amin and falls within the traditional territories of the Klahoose First Nation, Tla'amin Nation, and Homalco First Nations. In the summer of 1792, two expeditions led by Captains George Vancouver, Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores arrived and cooperated in mapping the sound. Vancouver named it Desolation Sound, cryptically claiming that "there was not a single prospect that was pleasing to the eye". [2]

Geography

The sound is flanked by Cortes Island, East Redonda Island and West Redonda Island. Adjacent waterways include Lewis Channel (to the northwest), Waddington Channel (to the northeast), Homfray Channel (to the east), Okeover Inlet (to the southeast), and the Strait of Georgia (to the south).

Major provincial parks located within the sound include Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park, Malaspina Provincial Park, Okeover Arm Provincial Park, and Roscoe Bay Provincial Park.

Demographics

Refuge Cove is the only community in Desolation Sound. It is located on West Redonda Island and administered within Strathcona Regional District. The community serves as a centrally located supply stop for boaters and local fishers travelling in or near Desolation Sound.

Industries

The major industries of Desolation Sound include shellfish farming, forestry, and ecotourism.

Transportation

Visitors travelling by car to Desolation Sound can take BC Ferries from Vancouver or Courtenay to Powell River, and drive the short distance northward to Lund. By boat or kayak from Lund,

Savary Island Ferry at Dock Savary Island Ferry at Dock.jpg
Savary Island Ferry at Dock

the Copeland Islands (Copeland Islands Marine Provincial Park) and Desolation Sound (which includes Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park), and Malaspina Provincial Park.

Major anchorages include Gorge Harbour (on Cortes Island), Grace Harbour, Prideaux Haven (a cove on Homfray Channel), Refuge Cove, and Tenedos Bay.

Related Research Articles

Sunshine Coast (British Columbia) Subregion of British Columbia in Canada

The Sunshine Coast is a geographic subregion of the British Columbia Coast that generally comprises the regional districts of qathet and Sunshine Coast.

Toba Inlet

Toba Inlet is one of the lesser, but still principal, inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is fourth in the series north from the 49th parallel which begins with Burrard Inlet, which is the harbour for the city of Vancouver. Between it and Jervis Inlet to its east, however, there is a freshwater fjord, Powell Lake, which has been augmented by a small hydro project to supply power to the large pulp mill at Powell River, the principal town of the Malaspina Peninsula of the upper Sunshine Coast. Klahoose 1 Reserve, of the Klahoose First Nation is at the mouth of Toba River at the Head of Toba Inlet. Toba Inlet and the Toba Valley is home to many grizzly bears.

Copeland Islands Marine Provincial Park

Copeland Islands Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located in Desolation Sound to the northwest of Lund on the northern Sunshine Coast off the west coast of the Malaspina Peninsula.

Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park

Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, and is located approximately 32 km north of Powell River and 150 km north of Vancouver. This provincial marine park, which is about 84 km2 in size is only accessible by boat. It is distinguished by its many picturesque sheltered coves and anchorages, and is frequented by yachts and pleasure craft. The scenery consists of waterfalls, rugged glaciated peaks, and their steep forested slopes that fall into the ocean.

East Redonda Island

East Redonda Island is a coastal island in British Columbia, Canada, part of the Discovery Islands archipelago. It lies just to the north of Desolation Sound Marine Park, which is located off the north end of the Malaspina Peninsula at the mouth of Toba Inlet within Electoral Area C of the Strathcona Regional District.

Savary Island

Savary Island or Áyhus is an island in British Columbia, Canada. Located in the northern part of the Strait of Georgia, it is 144 kilometres (89 mi) northwest of Vancouver. It is approximately 0.8-1.5 km wide and 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) long. It has a permanent population of about 100, expanding to perhaps 2,000 or more in the summer months. Savary Island lies within the traditional territory of the Tla'amin Nation.

Cortes Island

Cortes Island is an island in the Discovery Islands archipelago on the coast of British Columbia, Canada. The island is 25 km (15.5 mi) long, 13 km (8.1 mi) wide, and 130 km2 (50 sq mi) in area. It has a population of 1,035 permanent residents. Cortes Island lies within Electoral Area B of the Strathcona Regional District, which provides water and sewerage systems, fire protection, land use planning, parks, recreation, and emergency response.

Lund, British Columbia Unincorporated community in British Columbia, Canada

Lund is a small craft harbour and unincorporated village in qathet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is along the northern part of the Strait of Georgia on the mainland BC coast. The main landmark in the village is the Lund Hotel, established in 1905. By boat from Lund, the Copeland Islands and Desolation Sound, are nearby. Lund is home to many shops and services including a general store, a restaurant overlooking the water, kayak and adventure tourism stores, and Nancy's Bakery, a favourite of locals and tourists.

Tlaamin Nation First Nations place in Canada

The Tla'amin First Nation, formerly Sliammon Indian Band or Sliammon First Nation, is a First Nations self governing nation whose lands and traditional territories are located on the upper Sunshine Coast in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The Tla'amin are closely related to the Klahoose and Homalco peoples and have shared their adjoining territories; formerly all three as well as K'omoks were grouped collectively as the Mainland Comox due to their shared language. They have been part of the Coast Salish indigenous peoples of the western coast of Canada since ancient times.

The Sechelt Peninsula is located on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, just northwest of Vancouver. It is bounded to the west by Malaspina Strait, to the north by Agamemnon Channel and Jervis Inlet, to the east by Sechelt Inlet, and to the south by the Strait of Georgia (separating it from Vancouver Island. Its approximately 350 km2 is a mixture of drier and wetter temperate rain forest. The Caren Range extends north–south along the shore of Sechelt Inlet. The peninsula is a popular outdoor recreation destination, containing many lakes and opportunities for shoreline and woodland hiking, including to the renowned Skookumchuk Narrows. There are several parks, the largest of which is Spipiyus Provincial Park in the interior of the peninsula.

Klahoose

The ƛoʔos Klahoose are one of the three groups comprising the ʔayʔaǰuθəm Tla'Amin or Mainland Comox. The other two divisions of this once-populous group are the χʷɛmaɬku Homalco and Sliammon. The Klahoose, Homalco and Sliammon are, according to oral tradition, the descendants of the survivors of the Great Flood. The three groups were split by colonialism into different band councils but united historically as the Tla A'min, known as the Mainland Comox, and K’ómoks, the larger grouping of the Comox people, also known as the Island Comox and before the merger with the Laich-kwil-tach culture. Historically both groups are a subgroup of the Coast Salish though the K’ómoks name is from, and their language today, is the Lik'wala dialect of Kwak'wala. The ancestral tongue is the Comox language, though the Sahtloot/Island dialect is extinct.

West Redonda Island

West Redonda Island is an island in British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the Discovery Islands, an archipelago between Vancouver Island and the mainland, and between the Strait of Georgia and Johnstone Strait.

Sutil Channel

Sutil Channel is a broad strait located in the Discovery Islands of British Columbia, Canada.

Refuge Cove, B.C., is a year-round community on West Redonda Island in the heart of the Desolation Sound area of the Inside Passage. It serves as a centrally located supply stop for boaters travelling in or near Desolation Sound, offering a wide range of services including moorage, fuel, groceries, ice, showers, laundry, espresso, and other supplies.

The New Westminster Land District is one of 59 land districts of British Columbia, Canada, which are the underlying cadastral divisions of that province, created with rest of those on Mainland British Columbia via the Lands Act of the Colony of British Columbia in 1860. The British Columbia government's BC Names system, a subdivision of GeoBC, defines a land district as "a territorial division with legally defined boundaries for administrative purposes" All land titles and surveys use the Land District system as the primary point of reference, and entries in BC Names for placenames and geographical objects are so listed.

Malaspina Inlet is an inlet on the east side of Desolation Sound in the South Coast region of British Columbia, Canada, located between Malaspina and Gifford Peninsulas. Sidewaters include Thors Cove and, via it, Theodosia Inlet, where the locality of Theodosia Arm is located. The upper, southeastern, end of Malaspina Inlet near the City of Powell River is called Okeover Inlet. on the east side of which the steamer landing Larsons Landing is located. Grace Harbour is located on north side of Malaspina Inlet on the southwest side of Gifford Peninsula.

Grace Harbour is a harbour and traditional village site of the Tla'Amin peoples in the South Coast of British Columbia, located near Desolation Sound on the south side of the Gifford Peninsula opposite the Malaspina Peninsula to the southwest. Along with the Gifford Peninsula, it is part of Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park. Kahkaykay Indian Reserve No. 6 was located on the west side of the harbour but as of 2011 is now fee-simple land as a result of the Sliammon Treaty. at 50°02′58″N124°45′21″W The headland at the southwest corner of the harbour is similarly named from the name of the ancient village at this site, Kakaekae Point, at 50°02′32″N124°45′56″W

Lewis Channel

Lewis Channel is a strait located between Cortes Island and West Redonda Island in the Discovery Islands of British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the northern Salish Sea.

Waddington Channel

Waddington Channel is a strait located between East Redonda and West Redonda Island of the Discovery Islands in British Columbia, Canada.

Homfray Channel

Homfray Channel is a deep water channel, reaching depths of 731 meters, located between East Redonda and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada.

References

  1. "Desolation Sound". Geographical Names Data Base . Natural Resources Canada . Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  2. Robson, Robson (2007). "Hakluyt edition of Vancouver's journals". W. Kaye Lamb, editor, Vol. 2, p 609. Archived from the original on 2007-06-22. Retrieved 2007-07-27.

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