Contesting Rural Space: Land Policy and Practices of Resettlement on Saltspring Island, 1859–1891

Ann Turner, formerly the financial and budget manager of the University
of British Columbia Library, is a freelance writer.

With an area of about 180 square kilometres, Saltspring is the largest
of the Canadian Gulf Islands between the B.C. mainland and southern
Vancouver Island. The first non-native settlers began arriving there in
1859. They included British, Europeans, Afro-Americans, and later
Hawaiians, all drawn by the prospect of land available for pre-emption
(homesteading).

The author first became interested in the island’s history while
working on an oral history project at the island archives. She later
returned to study the economic and social history of the first
generation of settlers in-depth for her doctoral dissertation. This book
originated in her research. She observed that while the homesteaders
were apparently successful in supporting themselves on the island, their
farming techniques and aspirations did not fit the traditionally held
model of increasing production, land development, and the pursuit of
personal wealth by landowning farmers. She contrasts this model with her
observations of actual practices in the community of rural Saltspring
during its formative period, some of which persist to the present day.

Historical photographs of early residents, maps of settlements, census
data for 1881 and 1891, and records of pre-emptions and agricultural
production illustrate the text. It is both a thoroughly researched local
history and a thought-provoking study of rural land economics.