Gambier Island is an island located in Howe Sound near Vancouver, British Columbia. It is about 17,049 acres (6,899 hectares) in size and is located about 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) north of the Horseshoe Bay community and ferry terminal in westernmost West Vancouver.
A rugged and sparsely populated island, it is far quieter than its neighbour Bowen Island, which is popular with day-trippers and summer vacationers. Gambier Island is accessible only by B.C. Ferries passenger service, water taxi or other boats. There is no central road network.
The island elects two trustees to the Islands Trust, an organization that unites small island communities in British Columbia to oversee development and land use. Other islands in Howe Sound include Keats Island and Anvil Island. The island is part of West Howe Sound, Electoral Area F within the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada.
There are around 150 long-term residents on Gambier, but the population swells to more than 800 in the summertime due to the island's recreational properties. [1] The island's scenic setting and solitude make it popular with artists and writers.
The main wharf and settlement area is called New Brighton, on the west side of the island. Gambier Harbour, West Bay, lies to the east, with another wharf and boat dock. At the north end of the island is Ekins Point. [2] Off-grid communities include Douglas Bay, Daisy Bay, Gambier Acres, Ekins Point, Brigade Bay (coordinates ), Fircom Plateau (coordinates ), Sea Ranch (coordinates ).
Gambier Island had a general store (closed about 2010) and few seasonal options for accommodations. Barging companies provide service from Gibsons and Horseshoe Bay for transport of large items. Fire service is run by volunteers. There are no garbage processing facilities on the island. There is a community centre.
Halkett Bay Provincial Park is located on the southeast side of Gambier. [3]
Squamish people called the island Cha7élkwnech, in reference to its deep protected bays. It was a celebrated deer hunting area and was extensively used for resource gathering. [4]
The island was named by Captain Richards in 1860 for James Gambier, Admiral of the Fleet who had a distinguished career in the British navy, [5] was a Governor of Newfoundland and served as a negotiator of the Treaty of Ghent ending The War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. Logger Ken Reid cut a 14-foot diameter fir there in the 1930s.
Bowen Island, British Columbia, is an island municipality that is part of Metro Vancouver. Bowen Island is within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. Located in Howe Sound, it is approximately 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) wide by 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) long, with the island at its closest point about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the mainland. There is regular ferry service from Horseshoe Bay provided by BC Ferries, as well as semi-regular water taxi services. The population of 4,256 is supplemented in the summer by roughly 1,500 visitors, as Bowen Island regularly receives travelers in the summer season. The island has a land area of 50.12 km2 (19.35 sq mi).
British Columbia Highway 101, also known as the Sunshine Coast Highway, is the main north-south thoroughfare on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada.
Horseshoe Bay is a community of about 1,000 permanent residents, located in West Vancouver, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Situated on the western tip of West Vancouver at the entrance to Howe Sound, the village marks the western end of Highway 1 on mainland British Columbia. It also serves as the southern end of the Sea-to-Sky Highway, with Lions Bay just 15 minutes north.
The Sunshine Coast is a geographic subregion of the British Columbia Coast that generally comprises the regional districts of qathet and Sunshine Coast.
The North Shore is a term commonly used to refer to several areas adjacent to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:
Porteau Cove Provincial Park is a provincial park located along the eastern shore of Howe Sound in British Columbia, Canada.
Howe Sound is a roughly triangular sound, that joins a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia. It was designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2021.
Halkett Bay Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park off Gambier Island in British Columbia, Canada.
Plumper Cove Marine Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. The park is located on Keats Island in Howe Sound, northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia (ARSBC) is a registered non-profit society based in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), and is a registered tax-deductible charity in Canada.
The Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSNC) was founded by Charles E. Peabody in 1898. Today the company operates an international passenger and vehicle ferry service between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria, BC on the Coho.
Langdale is a small community on the Sunshine Coast of southern British Columbia, Canada. It is set in a verdant environment characteristic of many small BC communities. It plays host to a ferry terminal of the same name, which serves as the point of entry for most vehicles entering the Sunshine Coast region. Langdale is part of West Howe Sound, Electoral Area F within the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) in British Columbia, Canada.
Keats Island is an inhabited island located in Howe Sound near Vancouver, British Columbia. Around eighty people live on Keats Island year-round.
Longview was a cannery town on the South Coast of British Columbia, Canada, located near Langdale and Port Mellon on the west, mainland side of Thornbrough Channel, a side-channel of Howe Sound separating Gambier Island from the mainland Sunshine Coast. Another cannery town on the same bit of coast was just south, at Seaside Park.
Anvil Island, is the third-largest of the islands in Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada, and the northernmost of the major islands in that sound. The island is part of West Howe Sound, Electoral Area F within the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) on the Sunshine Coast.
The Defence Islands are two small islands in Howe Sound, British Columbia, Canada, located northeast of Anvil Island and in the northern reaches of that sound near Porteau Cove. The easterly and smaller of the two comprises Defence Island Indian Reserve No. 28, 1.7 ha., the westerly comprises the Kwum Kwum Indian Reserve (unnumbered), 6.20 ha. Both are under the administration of the Squamish Nation.
Horseshoe Bay is a major ferry terminal owned and operated by BC Ferries in British Columbia, Canada. Located in the community of Horseshoe Bay, a neighbourhood of West Vancouver, the terminal provides a vehicle ferry link from the Lower Mainland to Vancouver Island, the Sunshine Coast, and to Bowen Island, a small island in the southern part of Howe Sound.
West Howe Sound, British Columbia is also known as Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) Electoral Area F on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is bound on the south by the Town of Gibsons, on the west by Elphinstone SCRD Electoral Area E, on the east by Howe Sound, on the north by Squamish-Lillooet Regional District Electoral Area D, and on the southeast by Metro Vancouver Regional District Electoral Area A.
The Bowen Island ferry travels between Snug Cove on Bowen Island, and Horseshoe Bay in the District of West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a trip of three nautical miles across Howe Sound. A scheduled ferry has been in operation since 1921, when Bowen Island was a popular holiday destination. Prior to that year, transportation to the island was by steamship from Vancouver, with only one trip daily. The Bowen Island ferry used a fleet of small passenger vessels until 1956, when a single car ferry began passenger service, and that ferry began carrying vehicles in 1958. In 2021 the route carried in excess of 1 million passengers plus 500,000 vehicles.
Langdale Ferry Terminal is owned and operated by BC Ferries, which provides ferry services from the Sunshine Coast to the Lower Mainland, Gambier Island, and Keats Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
Coordinates: 49°29′35″N123°23′35″W / 49.49306°N 123.39306°W