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History & Heritage

Etymology

The name Qualicum means “Where the Dog Salmon Run” in the Pentlach language. In the early 1790s, Spanish naval colonizers on the shores of what is now Qualicum Beach were naming local islands. This includes Lasqueti and Texada Islands as well as French Creek Punta de Leonards (five miles south of Qualicum Beach), a name that did not remain.

Early Colonial History

Land development in the Qualicum Beach 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 Port Alberni.

Horne had witnessed a terrible massacre of many Qualicum Indigenous people at the mouth of the Qualicum River. However, many Indigenous people 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.

Expansion of Settlements and Land Development

In 1886 a road reached Parksville and was extended to Qualicum Beach in 1894. The railway reached Parksville in 1910 and Qualicum Beach in 1914. 

In 1906 a railway official, Mr. H.E. Beasley, passed through Qualicum Beach 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 Beach. 

World War I and Beyond

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 much-needed building material.

To this day, Qualicum Beach maintains a strong historical identity and twelve of its buildings are on the National Historic Register.