DeCourcy Island
Written by Susan O'Rourke
Photos by Ian Cook
When I first started cruising the Gulf Islands twenty years ago, I have to admit that I was oblivious to their history, only dimly aware of some aboriginal settlements and, thanks to high school history lessons, I was vaguely familiar with the best-known 18th century sailor explorers. However, as boating seasons sailed by I gradually came to realize that the Pacific Northwest is rich with history and I began to take a deeper interest in the cruising destinations I have come to love.
One of the prettiest anchorages in the Gulf Islands is Pirates Cove Marine Park at the south-end of DeCourcy Island, a beautiful lagoon-like bay close to Porlier Pass. DeCourcy Island also happens to have a colorful and intriguing history as a result of a community that settled there in the 1920s. DeCourcy’s early colonists were members of the Aquarian Foundation, headed up by Edmund Wilson, more famously known as Brother XII. The Foundation believed that a new age -- the Age of Aquarius -- was coming, heralding in an era of peace for the world. Foundation members believed that they were on a divine mission to sire and prepare the generation that would become the leaders of the New Age.
Their sense of purpose was the result of the teachings of Brother X11, who claimed that he was on a divine mission, instructed by a group of ethereal spiritual guides. Divinely derived or not, Wilson’s ideas were fundamentally theosophical, drawing heavily on the work of Madame Blavatsky, the Russian aristocrat who founded the Theosophy Society in 1875. Theosophists believed, among other esoteric ideas, in astrology and that the conflict of the contemporary age would give way to an age of peace and harmony.
Charismatic, and preaching in an age of disillusionment with established religion, Brother Xll managed to convince many wealthy idealists that they had a role to play in forming the new world order. Many of his followers were themselves theosophists. In the 1920s Aquarian Foundation members worked passionately to build the infrastructure they required to create their community on Valdes and DeCourcy Islands. Many of them made generous financial contributions as well, allowing the foundation to buy huge tracts of land.
But there was more trouble than peace in the colony’s future. Colony members began to doubt their leader when he took on a mistress he claimed was to give birth to the New Messiah. Brother Xll met the proposed mother-to-be, Mrs. Myrtle Baumgartner, on a train trip between Seattle and Chicago. He claimed that she was the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess Isis and brought her back to the community. He told his followers that he, as the reincarnation of the Egyptian god Osiris, and his partner Isis were to give birth to a World Teacher and that this justified their sexual relationship
Given Brother Xll was already involved in a long-term relationship with a woman who his followers identified as his wife, the move to take on a mistress was not popular. Some of the Foundation members were not happy that Wilson used a donation from a wealthy follower (Mary Connally, a wealthy American widow) to build an ashram-like settlement on Valdes Island which Wilson called the Mandieh Settlement. Some accounts say that the real purpose of the settlement on Valdes was to keep away from the prying and unhappy eyes of the followers who did not buy into his relationship. Ultimately the purchase of Valdes led to serious disharmony within the Foundation and a few of its members sued Wilson, claiming that he had used Foundation funds inappropriately, claiming that the Valdes project was a private venture.
Wilson dodged the lawsuit when Mary Connally testified that she had given him the money for his own use. But the discord was not so easily resolved and when Wilson’s mistress miscarried, Wilson blamed the disloyalty of his followers and determined that penance was required. Penance turned into abuse at the hands of Wilson and his new mistress ultimately known as Madame Zee. The couple’s ill treatment of many of the colonists led to a second insurrection and this time the court ruled against Wilson. In a final act of revenge he and Madame Zee destroyed most of the buildings in the colony and then escaped on their boat. No one knows what the ultimate outcome was for the couple although various rumours surfaced for many years after the pair’s disappearance.
There is little evidence left of the cult and its sensational history on DeCourcy Island. The tranquil anchorage bears no trace of the turmoil that existed and the only visible reminder of the community is a lovely trail, named after Brother Xll, which wends its way along the perimeter of the island.