Comox () is a town on the southern coast of the Comox Peninsula in the Strait of Georgia on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Thousands of years ago, the warm dry summers, mild winters, fertile soil, and abundant sea life attracted First Nations, who called the area kw'umuxws (Kwakʼwala, the adopted language of the Kʼómoks, for plentiful).
When the area was opened for settlement in the mid-19th century, it quickly attracted farmers, a lumber industry and a fishing industry. For over fifty years, the village remained isolated from the outside world other than by ship until roads and a railway were built into the area during the First World War. The installation of an air force base near the village during the Second World War brought new prosperity to the area, and in recent years, Comox attracts tourists for its fishing; local wildlife; year-round golf; and proximity to the Mount Washington ski area, the Forbidden Plateau, and Strathcona Provincial Park. The town is also home to a Royal Canadian Air Force base CFB Comox, an airport for military and commercial airline use and the Sea Cadet training facility HMCS Quadra. The mild climate has attracted many retirees to the area in the 21st century, which has resulted in a high rate of growth and a sharp increase in the median age of residents.
The town of Comox is in the Comox Valley. Other communities in the Comox Valley include Courtenay, Cumberland, and the unincorporated hamlets of Royston, Union Bay, Fanny Bay, Black Creek and Merville. The nearby Comox Glacier is visible from many parts of the town and is the area's signature landmark. It is close () to Denman Island in the Strait of Georgia.
History
Before arrival of Europeans Archaeological evidence suggests there was an active Coast Salish fishing settlement at Comox for at least 4,000 years. Due to its gentle climate, fertile soil and abundant sea life, the Laich-kwil-tach conquerors of the area, and of the Kʼómoks, called the area kw'umuxws (Li'kwala for plentiful), which was eventually anglicized to Komoux and then to Comox.
At the time of first contact with Europeans, the Pentlatch Nation, who spoke the Island Comox dialect of the Comox Coast Salish language, occupied the shores of present-day Comox Bay (The last speaker of the Island Comox dialect died in 1995). Another Island Comox speaking Nation, the Kʼómoks, occupied settlements further north along the east coast of Vancouver Island, in the area of present-day Campbell River, including Quadra Island and several other Gulf Islands.
At the fishing village located at present-day Comox, the Pentlatch set out elaborate fishing weirs—nets on tidal flats tied to wooden stakes that would be covered at high tide but uncovered at low tide, allowing trapped fish to be removed. These wooden stakes can still be seen at low tide—local archaeologist Nancy Greene has estimated that up to 200,000 wooden stakes remain in the mud flats. Several of these wooden stakes were carbon dated, revealing the oldest to be made from a hemlock tree c.750 CE, while the youngest dated from around 1830. Some scientists estimate that the weirs could have supported a population of several thousand people. The Pentlatch also harvested the abundant shellfish in Comox Bay. Centuries of discarded shells resulted in a deep strata of shell fragments along the shoreline of present-day Comox now known as the Great Comox Midden.
By the 19th century, the Kʼómoks had been driven out of their lands by a particularly fierce group of Kwakwakaʼwakw, the Laich-kwil-tach, who raided other villages to capture slaves. The Kʼómoks migrated south to present-day Comox, where they allied with the resident Pentlatch against their common enemy. In 1862, a smallpox epidemic swept across Vancouver Island, killing an estimated 30% of First Nations people. A census of First Nations in the Comox Valley taken in 1876 revealed that the local First Nations population had dwindled to only 88 Kʼómoks and 21 Pentlatch.
Early European explorers In 1579, Francis Drake, on his circumnavigation of the globe in the Golden Hind, found a good port somewhere along the northwest coast of North America and stayed for several months while restocking supplies and trading with the inhabitants of the area. He named the region New Albion—Latin for "New Britain". Drake's detailed logs—and the exact location of Nova Albion— were later lost in a 17th-century fire, but some historians believe Drake made a landing at Comox.
In 1791, a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores produced a crude chart of the Strait of Georgia and possibly visited Comox. Captain George Vancouver arrived the following year, tasked by the British government with charting the northwest coast of North America. Vancouver, in concert with the Spanish expedition, entered the Courtenay River estuary between the present-day locations of Courtenay and Comox and charted the shoreline of Comox.
Nineteenth century: settlement By the middle of the 19th century, European and American settlements had sprung up in the Vancouver area and on southern Vancouver Island. In 1837, the Hudson's Bay Company steamship Beaver began to search the south and east coasts of Vancouver Island for suitable locations for new trading posts, and subsequently set up a post in the area, calling it "Komoux".
, commanded by Captain Courtenay, was a frequent visitor to the area, and was one of the first ships to use Augusta Bay and a long sandy hook-shaped spit (now "the Goose Spit") for gunnery practice. In 1848, the river flowing through the Koumax valley was informally named the Courtenay River by British sailors after their captain. In 1857, Captain George Richards of was tasked with undertaking a complete survey of the coastline of Vancouver Island, and was given authority to name local landmarks. When he arrived in the area, he confirmed the name as the Courtenay River.
In 1853 Sir James Douglas, then governor of Vancouver Island, took a journey up the coast of Vancouver Island aboard SS Beaver, and recognized the area's agricultural potential. In 1861, Lieutenant Richard Mayne of the Royal Navy visited the area and wrote of the rich agricultural prospects of the area, saying it had taken him a day and a half to walk on the land "through which a plough might be driven from end to end". That same year Governor Douglas issued a land and settlement proclamation for the Koumox Valley, intending to divert new settlers away from the Victoria area as well as from the newly discovered Cariboo gold fields. He offered land in the valley for $1 per acre and free transportation to the area.
Although some unofficial settlers had arrived in previous years, the first government-approved settlers arrived in 1862 aboard . Scottish immigrant James Robb, age 44, and his son William realized that the shoreline along the former Kʼómoks fishing village and the Great Comox Midden was sheltered from the prevailing south east winds by the sandy hook of the Goose Spit, and would be the only place between the Courtenay River and the Spit suitable for landing supplies. Rather than claiming lots on the relatively flat and untreed "prairies" along the east side of the Courtenay River like the other settlers, Robb and his son preempted of steep and heavily forested land along the shore of the bay, with the idea of clearing the land, building a dock and then selling town lots for the village that would inevitably spring up at the site.
Two years later, Frederick Whymper, a member of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, visited Robb's land, and wrote, "Here Mr. Robb with laudable faith in the country has preempted land though the site is principally bush: when he could have got good prairie land as he came among the first two years ago."
By this time, as Robb had foreseen, supplies for the settlers had to be landed on his property, which became known as "The Landing", or formally "Port Augusta", named by the settlers after a member of the British royal family. James Robb by this time had also set up a prosperous farm, although he and his son spent a lot of time clearing land of timber in the hopes of selling it by the lot.
The Hudson's Bay Company and the British Admiralty promised the settlers that there would be regular mail service to the area via steamship, and Governor Douglas committed to building a road from Nanaimo. However, it quickly became clear that a wagon road would be too expensive; a bridle path with some bridges was built instead. Flooding and tree falls made maintenance of this path impractical, and the trail was soon abandoned. Supplies and mail continued to arrive by ship, but service was irregular, and delivery was measured in months rather than weeks.
A narrow trail was soon built to connect The Landing with the nearby settlers on the Courtenay River, and by 1860, this had been widened enough that an ox cart could pass.
In 1864, seams of high quality coal were discovered in nearby foothills, but it would be two decades before mining would begin.
In 1865, Reverend J. Cave Brown Cave, an Anglican missionary, complained to a local magistrate that a group of Eucletaw (Laich-kwil-tach) from Cape Mudge had moved to the area and were camped on a Kʼómoks potato patch; Cave demanded that they be removed from the area, due to alleged thefts of potatoes and friction with the Kʼómoks people. James Robb, who did not get along with Cave, disagreed. The argument grew so vociferous that a small British naval squadron—, HMS Elias and —under the command of Rear-Admiral John Kingcome was dispatched to the area to sort out the problem. The rear-admiral listened to all sides of the argument, then commended Cave for his letter, advised that Robb's conduct should be investigated, and returned the Eucletaw to Cape Mudge.
By 1876, the Kʼómoks and Pentledge had been moved onto two reservations: Comox Indian Reserve No. 1 adjacent to the village of Comox, and Pentledge Indian Reserve No. 2 at the confluence of the Puntledge and Tsolum rivers adjacent to the village of Courtenay. A third area of , Graveyard Indian Reserve #3 on the Goose Spit, was also allocated in recognition of the historic burial grounds there.
The old Hudson's Bay post had been built up on a hill overlooking the bay. In 1868, Adam Grant Horne, the manager of the Hudson's Bay Company post, recommended that a lot be purchased from James Robb close to where a wharf would likely be built, but he was ignored by his superiors. Six years later, the provincial government provided a grant of $3,337 to build a wharf at The Landing, consisting of a pier long with a wharf head. This allowed passengers and supplies to be offloaded directly from large ships without the need for smaller boats of shallow draught. An Italian immigrant named Joseph Rodello shrewdly bought from James Robb the two lots on the shore immediately to either side of the wharf, and quickly built a store beside the end of the wharf so that his supplies arriving by packet steamer would not have to be dragged up the hill into town.
By 1871, the census counted 102 inhabitants in the area of The Landing, mostly single men, an indication that a true village had not yet developed. In 1876, the Royal Navy, desiring a permanent presence in the area, built a naval base on the Goose Spit despite the presence of the Kʼómoks burial grounds. The following year, Joseph Rodello expanded his business presence by building the Elk Hotel on the opposite side of the road from his store, thus owning the first two businesses that visitors encountered as they stepped off the wharf. The first school was built on Anderton Road in 1877. It was a one-room school for grades 1 to 8