Bowen Island, British Columbia, is an island municipality in Howe Sound, and within Metro Vancouver. Approximately 6 kilometres wide by 12 km long, the island sits about 6 km west of the mainland, with regular ferry service from West Vancouver. There were 3,551 permanent residents as of the 2007 BC Stats Estimate, a number that is supplemented in the summer by roughly 1,500 visitors, as Bowen Island is a popular vacation home location for British Columbians. About 500 workers and over 200 students commute to offices and schools on the mainland each day. The island has a land area of 49.94 km² (19.28 sq mi).
Indigenous people
Bowen Island and BC Ferry, viewed looking southwest from the Cypress Mountain ski area. Georgia Strait and Vancouver Island visible in the background, Keats Island the Sunshine Coast to the right.
Bowen Island has a history that goes back thousands of years, with Sḵwxwú7mesh territory covers the Howe Sound, including Bowen Island. The indigenous people of this land are known as Sḵwxwú7mesh. They apart of the Coast Salish cultural and linguistic group. Their language is separate and distinct from their Halkomelem-speaking relatives to the south, but more closely connected to their Shishalh kinship from Sechelt.
Area's such Snug Cove and a few other parts of the island, were used as "camp sites" for hunting and gathering trips. In their Sḵwxwú7mesh language, the name for Snug Cove is Xwilil Xhwm, which means "Cove". Historically they would use the warmer spring and summer months to travel to resource gathering sites and move from their permanent winter villages. The strip of land between Bowen and Finisterre Islands has a name that translates to "Fast Drumming Ground". The tide rushing in and out is reminiscent of the sound of drums beating fast. The name "kwemshem" is used for Hood Point. Bowen is still used by people from Sḵwxwú7mesh and Musqueam for deer hunting.
Into the 20th century Bowen Island was actively used by Sḵwxwú7mesh people for deer and duck hunting, fishing and, later, wage jobs. In conversations with Vancouver archivist Major Matthews in the 1950s, August Jack Khatsahlano recalls knowing several Sḵwxwú7mesh who worked for whalers on the island at the turn of the 20th century. In a conversation with City of Vancouver archivist JA Matthews, Khatsahlano himself recalls deer hunting on Bowen saying that at one time he took the biggest deer in British Columbia from the island, weighing in at 195 pounds.
Post-colonization
When Spanish explorers arrived on the west coast of Canada, they named many of the features of what is now the Strait of Georgia. Bowen Island was called Isla de Apodaca by the Spanish Captain Narvaez in July, 1791. Later the island was renamed by Cpt. George Henry Richards in 1860, who named it after Rear Admiral James Bowen.
Bowen remained a wilderness until 1871 when homesteaders built houses and started a brickworks, which supplied bricks to the expanding city of Vancouver. Over the years, local industry has included an explosives factory, logging, mining, and milling, although there is no heavy industry on the island at present.
In the first half of the 20th century, life on Bowen was dominated by the Union Steamship Company that operated a very busy resort at Snug Cove. The resort closed in the 1960s and the island returned to a quiet period of slow growth. In the 1980s, real estate pressures in Vancouver accelerated growth on Bowen and currently the local economy is largely dependent on commuters who work on the mainland in Greater Vancouver.
In 1999 the Bowen Island Municipality was incorporated, becoming the second 'island municipality' in BC. The first was Saltspring Island which was incorporated in 1873 and dissolved by the BC legislature 10 years later.
The Island today
Commerce
The Island has several small businesses and a Chamber of Commerce.[1] In June 2007, First Credit Union, a full-service bank, opened its doors in Snug Cove. There is also a North Shore Credit Union automated banking machine that provides cash withdrawals. There is no supermarket, but groceries are available at a general store and a health food store, the Ruddy Potato, as well as a handful of smaller outlets. Shops are concentrated around Snug Cove and, further into the island, Artisan Square. There are also several good restaurants, including The Galley, Blue Eyed Mary's, and the Tuscany. Bowen Island has a high proportion of artists and artisans, and the Bowen Island Pub on Trunk Road regularly features live music.[1] There is also a 2,746 metre (3,003 yard) 130 Slope rated 9-hole golf course.[2]
Education
The Island has an elementary school called Bowen Island Community School, a Montessori daycare / preschool / Kindergarten [2] and the private Island Pacific School, a middle school. There is a public supported homelearning program which provides classroom and teacher support to homelearning families. A small number of families also unschool. Students travel to West Vancouver on the mainland for high school.
Culture
Particularly for a small community, Bowen Island has an extensive cultural life. Notably, Bowen Island boasts four different choral ensembles; an extensive Theatre School for children; and a public Gallery which showcases local artists.
Recreation
Bowen has a long history as a day-trip destination from Vancouver. Today, the island offers a number of popular swimming beaches, including Sandy Beach, Tunstall Bay, and Bowen Bay. There is a kayak rental operation in Snug Cove. A popular hike leads from the ferry dock to Killarney Lake, and from there up Mount Gardner, the island's highest point. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has also run a summer camp on the island since the 1960s.
Churches and other religious communities
Bowen Island United Church, c. 1971
There are four permanent churches on the Island. St Gerard's Catholic Church is located on Miller Road.[3] The United Church is situated in a timber building erected in 1932 a little further along on the same road.[4] Further still along Miller Road, nearer to Snug Cove, and meeting in Bowen Court, is Bowen Island Community Church,[5], an affiliate of the Congregational Christian Churches in Canada. Lastly, Cates Hill Chapel is a Christian Brethren church founded in 1991. Its present building was opened in 1999.[6] There are also regular meetings held by Unitarians and Quakers.
There are regular Buddhist meditation sittings in both the Zen and Vipassana traditions. Bowen's small Jewish community celebrates Shabbat and high holidays, and acquired a Torah in 2006.
Bowen Island on Film
- 1966 The Trap starring Oliver Reed and Rita Tushingham was filmed in Tunstall Bay, where a whole village was specially constructed. (Weblink to some great photos of the village on the Rita Tushingham homepage) [7]
- 1976 Food of the Gods starring Marjoe Gortner and Ida Lupino, a shlock horror film which appears on many "Worst Films" lists. (Giant rats, chickens, wasps and maggots on Bowen in this butchered version of H. G. Wells' classic The Food of the Gods) [8]
- 1986 Clan of the Cave Bear starring Daryl Hannah and Pamela Reed, portions of this film were shot on Bowen.
- 1988 People Across the Lake starring Valerie Harper and Gerald McRaney, Made for TV, Murder Mystery/Horror film.
- 1988 American Gothic starring Rod Steiger, Yvonne De Carlo and Michael J. Pollard, homicidal hillbillies invade Bowen in this 80's slasher film!
- 1989 Cousins starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini, shots of Bowen and locale.
- 1989 Look Who's Talking starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley
- 1990 Bird on a Wire starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn
- 1990 The Russia House starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, parts of the John le Carré espionage thriller were filmed on Bowen Island
- 1993 Another Stakeout starring Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez
- 1994 Intersection starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone
- 1995 Hideaway starring Jeff Goldblum and Christine Lahti
- 1997 All the Winters That Have Been starring Richard Chamberlain and Karen Allen, Made for TV, scenes inside The Snug cafe on Bowen....called Raven Island in the film.
- 1998 Disturbing Behavior starring James Marsden and Katie Holmes, Bowen becomes Cradle Bay where teens are brainwashed. There is even a race to catch the ferry! [9]
- 1999 Double Jeopardy starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, partly filmed on the island
- 2001 Antitrust
- 2005 A remake of horror film The Fog was filmed on the Island where a whole graveyeard was constructed.[10]
- 2005 The documentary Crusader Babbitt Goes Home is still in production.
- 2005 Jacob Two Two and the Hooded Fang - an all island production.
- 2006 The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn , a remake of the 1973 Christopher Lee classic.
- 2008 A Tale of Two Sisters (2008 film) starring Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel and David Strathairn, which is itself a remake of a Korean horror film of the same name.
References
- ^ Hill Strategies Research. "Artists in Small and Rural Municipalities in Canada".
- ^ "Bowen Island Golf Course". Retrieved on 2008-03-08.
External links
Surrounding Municipalities
Coordinates: 49°23′N, 123°23′W
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