Helen Dawe's Sechelt

David Mattison is a librarian with the Provincial Archives and Records
Service Library in Victoria.

Dawe, a descendant of the first white family to homestead in the tiny
settlement of Sechelt, northwest of Vancouver on the Sunshine Coast,
occasionally published articles in local papers, and assembled a
collection of local history. This posthumous volume of her writings,
capably edited by Macaulay, is filled with an impressive number of
historical photographs covering more than a hundred years of Sechelt
history.

Former Royal Engineer John Scales took the first white interest in
Sechelt in 1869, when he requested his 150-acre military land grant.
Whether Scales actually lived on the property is not clear, but he
eventually sold the land to Lieutenant-Governor Hugh Nelson. Dawe’s
grandparents, Thomas John and Sarah Belle Cook, arrived in 1894 and
initially lived in log houses, two of which are illustrated. The second
white family to make Sechelt home also arrived in 1894. Dawe writes that
“Bert Whitaker began assembling a minor empire which eventually
included two hotels, a series of stores and two steamship companies. He
also owned the local wharves, a couple of sawmills, five logging camps
and a group of revenue cottages.”

Then, as now, Sechelt is chiefly accessible by boat; Dawe devotes a
chapter to early transportation routes and to the impact of the Union
Steamship Company vessels on the community’s development. This chapter
also discusses the small network of roads interconnecting the various
communities of the Sunshine Coast, and early air traffic.

Logging was the principal resource around Sechelt, but hunting,
fishing, and mining also helped to account for the area’s financial
prosperity. Sechelt was also a popular resort destination, with Whitaker
providing the earliest hotel services in 1899. The Union Steamship
Company also owned some cottages, and eventually purchased Whitaker’s
holdings. Sechelt boasted a small number of commercial and retail
services, which Dawe documents as well as the usual public institutions.
The final chapter is devoted to the impact of Catholic missionary
activities on the Sechelt Indian Band, and to other church and school
personalities. A fine index rounds out this intimate look at Sechelt.