East Sooke Feature Article
Metchosin and East Sooke: Connections Through Time
By John Corsiglia
For almost twenty years, the winding drive through Metchosin and East Sooke has served the writer as both a convenience and a pleasurable meditation.
Across the open fields of Metchosin where Camas bulbs once grew in profusion we enjoy magnificent views of farms and the Straight of Juan de Fuca beyond. Then winding through west Metchosin we pass through dense bush and more open meadow before reaching the unique and mysterious forest canopies of Rocky Point. Almost immediately thereafter at the approach to East Sooke Park we find the sacred groves of Arbutus and the old Aylard Farm and moments later we are at Beecher Bay where Emily Carr made wonderful sketches and the Scianew First Nation people still command the heights above a sheltered harbour.
Then the road begins to wind into some of the dark and serious rain forest of East Sooke. After passing Glenairley Farm and then Timberdoodle, Seagirt, and Tideview roads, East Sooke Road meanders all the way to Pike Road where an easy trail to Iron Mine bay brings mosses, ferns, lichen and the wonderfully light and strong Sitka Spruce that found its way into bi-planes and Martin Mars water bombers. And yes, here Douglas Firs have long grown so tall and straight they have been felled for both ship’s masts and the world’s longest piles -- driven to form weirs for capturing rich runs of Salmon at the East Sooke fish traps. Mercifully, salmon runs still hug the shores of East Sooke as they circle the Basin on their way toward the rivers and hills of Sooke. And, importantly, juveniles return seaward to seek protection in the Eel Grass beds across from Whiffin Spit at Bathtub Bay.
After a twenty minute walk past the ferns and mosses that line the broad trail; the roiling waves sifting the pebble beach at Iron Mine Bay can roar like the soundtrack for a film version of the Book of Revelations. Visible to the west of Iron Mine Bay and at the end of East Sooke Road sheep still graze the old Silverspray ranchland where cold winds blow down trees and chilly summer fogs can obscure the new roads, fire hydrants, and signs that suggest development in potentia. This part of East Sooke was only recently annexed by Sooke and on a night to remember, Champagne corks popped and a ten-year- old debate seemed almost to evaporate.
The road is said to follow an old pre-contact footpath and is best driven slowly as it does have a way of winding along and, thank you very much, most locals assert that this rural quality should be preserved at least through the rest of the millennium. This is deer and cougar country and although the road probably began as an animal trail, it is thought that the T’Souk-e First Nations people who wintered at Pedder Bay used it when weather on the outside prevented canoe travel to and from the amazing food resources of the Sooke Basin. Chiefs Jim Cooper and Jack Planes have shared an old story about how the great rock located just off Whiffin Spit provided the Sooke Harbour and Basin with a unique and highly valued advantage in that the rock was believed to prevent Red Tide and shellfish poisoning from entering the Harbour and Basin! Thus, when Manuel Quimper arrived at Sooke in the summer of 1790 he was able to buy stocks of both Camus bulbs and [edible] shellish. Mysteriously, once the rock was dynamited, to facilitate the movement of log booms and wood chip barges, the T’Souk-e recall that clams and other shellfish lost their special immunity and could become affected in summer.
For more than 100 years the only road access between East Sooke and the world beyond was the old footpath that became the road to Metchosin. As with First Nations residents, the route became a lifeline for Euro-Canadian settlers—especially during winters when small boats could be inconvenient or dangerous. In the earliest days of settlement a local midwife served both East Sooke and Metchosin by walking the old East Sooke trail to homes where she was needed. The first official political riding in the area was given as “East Sooke and Metchosin” and both communities and all farms and estates in the area received mail addressed to “Route 6, Victoria”. Reportedly there was even a stage service through Metchosin to East Sooke. The life and death importance of the old connection with Metchosin is revealed in an incident involving the old East Sooke Gillespie family (for whom the recent “Gillespie Road” was named ) in Elida Peers’ 1985 compilation of regional history:
“It was in November of 1919, at the height of a snowstorm, that the Gillespies found themselves with a very sick elder daughter, Sheila. Having taken her temperature with the aid of a dairy thermometer, they urgently telephoned to Dr. Richard Felton in Sooke Village. Nothing daunted by the fierce weather, Dr. Felton rowed up the harbour to Glenairley and diagnosed the illness as appendicitis. Sheila’s uncle was telephoned in Victoria, and he came to the rescue driving his Cadillac through Metchosin to transport her to hospital.”
East Sooke has always attracted residents who prefer a rural character and from 1927 on East Sooke, (like Metchosin) was an active participant in the Farmer’s Institute and built a meeting hall at Beecher Bay. In 1973, when Sooke attempted to take over the community in order to use its considerable assessments to pay for Sooke’s new arena; East Sooke rejected the plan categorically. The “Mt. Macguire, East Sooke Women’s Institute” was formed on April 11, 1973 and enjoying the kindness of the Sisters of St. Ann, held public meetings in the old Badminton Gymnasium at Glenairley. The community went on to form the East Sooke Ratepayers Association and worked hard to prevent a Sooke takeover. During the 1970’s this third rural-minded Association managed to end shooting in the Basin and succeeded in forcing lumber mills to keep mill wastage from polluting fish habitat. Together with Regional Director Howard Elder the Association helped to encourage the land swaps that produced both the Coppermine community and the stunningly beautiful East Sooke Park.
As with Metchosin there are in East Sooke many stories to be told about colourful and creative residents who remind us that rural life can be lived with energy, a regard for practicality, and an appreciation for interaction with like minded-neighbors.