Minstrel Island

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Minstrel Island from Knight Inlet Minstrel Island, Broughton Archipelago.jpg
Minstrel Island from Knight 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. [1] The island is separated on its south from East Cracroft Island by a marine passageway called The Blow Hole. [2]

Contents

There is a government dock at the southeast side of the island bordering Chatham Channel. The community of Minstrel Island is located on the east side of the island. [3] The island has a floatplane base, Minstrel Island Water Aerodrome.

Name origin

The name is believed to have derived from a visit by a boat, believed to be HMS Amethyst, carrying Lord Dufferin, then Governor-General of Canada, and his wife which carried the viceregal couple on a voyage up the coast to Metlakatla in 1876. According to one of the crew, a Patrick Riley, Amethyst's crew performed regularly as a troupe of "minstrels", white people made up in blackface, who provided entertainment for shipmates and visitors, and the name likely commemorates a performance in these waters. Bones Bay and Sambo Point nearby are related names, referring to stock characters in minstrel shows. [4]

See also

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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.

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Chatham Channel is a strait and marine passageway on the coast of British Columbia. It leads from the lower reaches of Knight Inlet to the opening of Call Inlet, separating Minstrel and East Cracroft Islands from the mainland to the east. From the opening of Call Inlet, running south then east around East Cracroft, is Havannah Channel.

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.

Drury inlet is an inlet in the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, extending west from Wells Passage to the northwest of North Broughton Island, northwest of the town of Port Hardy. Branching off to the northeast from the north side of the head of the inlet is Actaeon Sound.

References

50°37′09″N126°19′14″W / 50.61917°N 126.32056°W / 50.61917; -126.32056 (Minstrel Island)