| Early Days in Qualicum Beach
According to an old Salish Indian
legend, the name Qualicum means "Where the Dog Salmon Run". Spanish
naval explorers in the early 1790's were off our shores naming Lasqueti
and Texada Islands and, five miles south of Qualicum, named French
Creek Punta de Leonards, a name that did not remain.
Land development in the Qualicum
area did not begin until the late 19th Century. The Hudson's Bay
Company established Victoria in 1843 and Nanaimo in 1852. Spurred
on by the profitable fur trade, the Company sent a party, headed
by Adam Grant Horne, to find a land route to the West Coast. This
successful trip inaugurated the Horne Lake Trail used by settlers
and traders traveling to Alberni.
Horne had witnessed a terrible
rnassacre of many Qualicum Indians at the mouth of the Qualicum
River. However, many Indians still came to the area to fish, pick
berries, dig for claims and hunt. Some sought work in the mining
town of Nanaimo.
Active residents during the later
part of the century were Qualicum Tom and his wife, Qualicum Annie.
Tom had a canoe for hire to cross Horne Lake. They also had a hotel
and store for those traveling via the Home Lake Trail.
Journeying south in 1864 the explorer,
Dr. Robert Brown, spoke of a beautiful tract of land extending past
the Qualicum River. This was one of the earliest complimentary remarks
about our area.
In 1886 a road reached Parksville
and was extended to Qualicum in 1894. The railway reached Parksville
in 1910 and Qualicum in 1914.
In 1906 a railway official, Mr.
H.E. Beasley, passed through Qualicum and was so enamored with the
location he sponsored a land development company, "The Merchants
Trust and Trading Company", who built golf links and a hotel in
1913. Settlement at Coombs added settlers, some of whom drifted
to Qualicum.
The 1914 War siphoned off many
settlers. The hotel, after opening in 1913, became a soldiers' convalescent
hospital for amputees. It re-opened as a hotel in 1920. After the
war, the town site continued to progress and other hotels were built.
Several lumber mills gave local employment and provided the much
needed building material. |
