Those Lake People: Stories of Cowichan Lake

Nora D.S. Robins is the co-ordinator of internal collections at the
University of Calgary Libraries.

The Cowichan Valley, lying on the lee side of Vancouver Island, is one
of Canada’s most naturally scenic and abundant regions. Lake Cowichan,
the largest freshwater lake on Vancouver Island, offers everything from
fine fishing to isolated areas of old-growth forest. The Cowichan has
been a home for people from earliest recorded times. The Natives called
it “The Warm Land” because of its mild climate and good land.

The first white settlers arrived in the early 1860s. Trappers, hunters,
loggers, remittance men, gardeners, and tourists followed. Such
illustrious visitors as the Duke of Connaught, Lord and Lady Aberdeen,
and Archduke Franz Ferdinand undertook the arduous trip to enjoy Lake
Cowichan’s pristine beauty.

This book takes the reader on an excursion into social history. Lynne
Bowen has chosen to tell the story of the Cowichan Valley through the
lives of some of its people—in particular, “those lake people,”
who were thought by outsiders to be “too uncivilized, too poor, too
rich, too eccentric, or too foreign.” Using a wide range of personal
accounts—letters, diaries, memoirs, and personal interviews—Bowen
begins her history in 1883, with the arrival of Frank Green, and carries
the story forward to the present day.

The book is a blend of scholarly and popular local history. While the
author does not use footnotes, she does provide a seven-page summary of
sources, by chapter, together with a six-page bibliography. A glossary
of local terms, black-and-white photographs, maps, and an index further
enhance the book, which will be of value to the historian and satisfying
to the general reader.