Pender Harbour
Written by Susan O'Rourke
Photos by Ian Cook
British Columbia's Sunshine Coast is not very far from the urban sprawl of Vancouver, and although it is part of the mainland, it feels more like a rugged, remote island. There is no road access except by car ferry. A few small anchorages with names such as Smuggler Cove, and Secret Cove, that evoke wilder times, can be found along its fifty-mile length, but near the north end of "The Coast" is a magnificent natural harbour. On July 19, 1891, the Vancouver News-Adviser described Pender Harbour this way: Scarcely any place could be more naturally adapted for holidaying than this beautiful waterfront location which has the distinction of being the first landlocked harbour on the mainland north of Vancouver, deep enough for ocean vessels.
The Pender Harbour area was once the winter capital of the Coast Salish nation, specifically the Shishalh tribe. In 1800, before European contact, the local population was over five thousand, greater than it is now. During summer, the Shishalh people fished for salmon, hunted venison and gathered berries, all of which were dried for winter use. Winters were a time to celebrate, and Pender Harbour was the gathering place for many tribes of the Sunshine Coast area. Dances and potlatches lasting weeks or months, spiritual coming-of-age rituals and performances by medicine men helped to pass the long, rainy months.
Where did the name come from? From 1857 to 1870, Staff Commander (later Captain) Daniel Pender of the Royal Navy carried out the tedious task of surveying the BC Coast aboard the vessels Plumper, Hecate, and Beaver. He was remarkably thorough in his efforts.
If you are making your way from the south, as you round the Francis Peninsula, you will first see Martin Island. Then to starboard, Charles and Williams Islands guard the entrance to Pender Harbour. Keep Williams Island to starboard, and in the first bay on your port side is Irvines Landing, now a marina and pub. Keep an eye on your chart as you negotiate your way around the Skardon Islands and then the harbour opens up. There are Hospital Bay, Garden Bay, Madeira Park, and Gerrans Bay, giving numerous options for moorage or anchorage. Throughout most of the harbour, depths are less than fifty feet, but the most popular anchorage is in Garden Bay where the north shore is a marine park with a dinghy dock. There are also a pub and restaurant in this bay as well as a few marinas and yacht club outstations.
At Madeira Park, there is a large public dock where most of the local fishing fleet ties up. While moorage for a larger boat can be difficult to find here, there is always room to secure a dinghy. At the top of the dock is Seafarers Park, which has a boat-launching ramp. From here it is a short walk to an IGA supermarket, a drug store, numerous cafés and a tourist information booth. If Pender Harbour has a "downtown," Madeira Park is it.
Pender Harbour, though, has never been a single community. Since the early days, it has been a series of settlements scattered around this intricately indented harbour. For the first half century of their existence, the only communication between these settlements was by boat or by a few rough trails through the forest. While Pender Harbour became locally known as the "Venice of the North," life here was not an easy existence in the early years. Call them "characters," "hermits," or "misfits," it took a special breed of person to endure the isolation, the rugged terrain, and the poor soil. It also took some imagination and some entrepreneurial spirit to eke a living out of this place.
Charlie Irvine (for whom the Landing is named) is normally recognized as the first white settler here, having arrived in the 1860s. He built a log trading post at the Landing, then sold his property in 1904, for six dollars an acre, to an enterprising sailor and fisherman, "Portuguese Joe" Gonsalves (originally from the Madeira Islands), and his Salish wife, Susan Harris. Joe and his son-in-law Theodore Dames really developed the area. They built a deep-sea dock, general store, post office and hotel/saloon at the head of the wharf. The Union Steamship Company made this a regular stop early in the twentieth century, the beginning of Pender Harbour's real presence on the map. Further up the harbour, and on the opposite side, Joe also obtained another 160 acres of land. Many years later, his daughter Theresa named her father's homestead "Madeira Park."
Another early settler, Robert Donley began a chicken ranch on Edgecombe Island, at the mouth of Bargain Bay about this time. To market his eggs, he paddled canoe loads of them out to passing steamers for delivery to Vancouver. He also started a herring fishing operation and finally a store at Donley Landing in Pender Harbour. He became an agent for the All Red Steamship Line. In 1912, Donley fathered the first male child of European heritage born in the area, William Emmond Donley.
There were settlements of Japanese families in Pender Harbour at this time and several colonies of Scottish farmers and fishermen. Because of the difficulty in making a living, the area became known as Hardscratch. Business continued to develop, though. George Duncan started a blacksmith shop in Duncan Cove, and Harry Dusenbury opened a machine shop, boat repair and sealing operation on Dusenbury Island in 1905. By 1917, there were communities of draft dodgers living in the nearby hills, escaping the Canadian government's conscription bill to support World War I.
Until after WWI, the only medical service was from a midwife named Maryann Rouse, and an American doctor named Howard. He was practicing illegally as he had lost his licence for earlier malpractice. Despite this, he was in constant demand as he had the only medical knowledge in the area.
Then came the yachting set. By the 1920s, the Rogers family of sugar refinery fame had built several summer homes around the harbour, and arrived in their fifty-foot yacht each summer. Their presence and their properties were a magnet for high society friends, and the people of Pender Harbour were witness to a steady parade of arriving and departing yachts each summer.
Next came novelist Bertrand Sinclair, known for his westerns. He came here for the isolation so he could finish a book, then bought property, stayed, and became known as the "Pender Harbour Cowboy." This attracted his writing and boating friends such as Stewart Edward White, Lee Peck, and Erle Stanley Gardner the prolific pulp fiction writer best known for creating the fictional lawyer Perry Mason.
In 1941, Elizabeth Smart disembarked from the Lady Cynthia and took up residence in the old Irvines Landing schoolhouse, alone. In this tight little community, she became the topic of much gossip. She had arrived with trunks full of evening dresses and, soon after her arrival, was obviously pregnant. It turned out she had left her home in Ontario, travelled the world, lived in Mexico and California and was now carrying the child of a married English poet after a steamy love affair. He visited her only once here. This heartbreak inspired Ms. Smart's celebrated novel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.
Pender Harbour was, in its early years, the closest some people on the fringes of society ever got to civilization. There were the gyppo loggers, the bootleggers, the hermits and tax evaders who had no trust in proper society. They lived off the land and sea and would appear here only occasionally for a few staples.
When you arrive in Pender Harbour today, you will see a few modern homes along the shoreline and in the hills. It doesn't take much imagination, though, to see it as Charlie Irvine did in the 1800s – a gorgeous, pristine harbour. If you turn into Garden Bay, you will find, in the northeast corner next to the Seattle Yacht Club outstation, the humble cottage where Edith Iglauer, author of Fishing with John still lives.
If you are in the area late in the boating season, the third weekend in September, make a point of stopping for the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival. All the communities around the harbour pull together to make this event, or series of events, a success, and it is no small town rinky-dink affair. Numerous Vancouver musicians play as well as guests from other parts of the continent. Venues include the Irvine's Landing Pub, the Garden Bay Resort Pub, the Madeira Park Community Centre and a large outdoor concert at Lowes Resort in Gerrans Bay on Sunday afternoon. There is a free shuttle bus from event to event, but even better is the free shuttle boat. It stops at Madeira Park, Garden Bay, Irvine's Landing and Lowes Resort. Hop on and hop off as you see fit.
Whether you choose to drop your anchor, or find a place to tie up, launch your dinghy and explore Pender Harbour's twelve miles of coastline slowly. There is a lot to see.