Cowichan Logging: From River to Rail
Impressed by the beauty and bounty of Lake Cowichan, the aptly-named William Forest is credited with introducing European settlement to the Cowichan River Valley. In 1883, having toured the area with local First Nations guides, Forest convinced the premier of British Columbia to build a rough road from Cowichan Bay to the lake at the head of the Cowichan River.

Favoured by both geography and topography and spurred by consumer demand, logging quickly became the biggest economic attraction of the area. The richness of the timber resource, the steep drop of the fast-flowing river, and its relatively short run to the Strait of Georgia coast meant that loggers simply cut the timber around Lake Cowichan and floated the logs down the Cowichan River for shipping.

Industry Log Jam: Soon after the turn of the century, the charm of the convenient river transportation system wore thin, when a series of disastrous log runs resulted in huge financial losses. At the same time, concern for the Cowichan's internationally-renowned sport fishery began to grow as trophy trout were blasted with dynamite along with the troublesome log jams.

Railway to the Rescue: Just as the future of Cowichan logging began to look dim, rumours of a railroad to Cowichan Lake started to surface. In the spring of 1912, the Esquimalt and Nanaimo (E & N) Railway reached the village and a new logging boom was underway. In 1921, a second rail line to Cowichan Lake, built by the Canadian National Railway (C.N.R.) arrived to keep up with the demands of several large lumber companies. By the time the Great Depression of the 1930's signalled the decline of the Cowichan's lumbering industry, hundreds of thousands of cars of timber had been hauled away to the coast.

From Cloth to Canoes: The Many Uses of Cedar
In the moist and temperate forests of the Cowichan River Valley, limitless stands of cedar supplied the Cowichan people with the raw materials of transportation, clothing and shelter. Using stone axes, adzes, chisels and hand-crafting skills honed by centuries of adaptation, the bountiful and versatile timber was transformed into canoes, houses and a unique, innovative wardrobe.

• Cedar Canoes: Coast Salish dug-out cedar canoes ranged from just a few metres in length to elaborate 20 metre craft that could carry as many as 40 passengers on voyages of hundreds of miles. The southern-style canoes of the Salish often had projecting bows, allowing them to cut easily through the water. Canoe-building called for complicated skills and techniques. The wood was sometimes charred to make it easier to cut away, while hulls of large canoes were widened by pouring boiling water into their cavities, covering them with blankets to contain the steam, and inserting wooden stretchers to push the sides apart.

• Cedar Houses: Like the feudal castles of medieval Europe, the cedar houses of the Coast Salish were a testament to the natural resources of the land and the wealth and power of the tribal chiefs. Up to 90 metres long and 18 metres wide, the massive cedar structures were supported by upright cedar house-posts sunk deeply into the earth. The houses were clad with large cedar planks, and adorned with elaborate carvings. Several families could be accommodated in the multi-room dwellings.

• Cedar Clothing: Though cedar seems an unlikely raw material for making cloth, the Coast Salish developed ingenious ways to twist the bark into thread. When woven, the bark thread produced a cloth which was soft and warm. Women fashioned it into aprons for warm weather, cloaks for the cold, and long dresses which were held in by a belt and trimmed with fur. Men wore cedar bark robes for ceremonial occasions. Cedar rain ponchos, woven from actual strips of unshredded bark, were uncomfortable but efficient.

Salmon, Cedar and the Coast Salish
In contrast to the hardship, harshness and daily struggle which dominates the early history of Canada, the story of ancient aboriginal life along the Cowichan River is one of plenty and good fortune. Ever since the last of the glaciers retreated from Vancouver Island 10,000 years ago, the river valley has provided a haven for human habitation.

Blessed with the warmest temperatures in the land, a forest filled with deer and timber, a river thick with salmon and an ocean strait teeming with shellfish, the Cowichan Valley offered beauty and bounty to the people known as the Coast Salish.

West Coast Aristocracy: As occupants of the coastal areas of the Strait of Georgia from Campbell River in the north to the State of Washington in the south, the Coast Salish were a fortunate people who, along with their more northern neighbours such as the Haida, developed a complex, sophisticated society based on trade, elaborate art and architecture, and a highly-refined system of social stratification.

The Coast Salish lived life on a large scale. Massive cedar houses, giant war canoes, big families and huge feasts exemplified their wealth. At the peak of their pre-European power, aristocratic Salish chiefs amassed fortunes of goods and slaves that were used to maintain position and prestige in the great gift-giving tradition of the potlatch.

The Khowutzun Land: In the "land warmed by the sun", the Cowichan First Nation of the Coast Salish relied on the riches of the Cowichan River valley. Cutting cedar for canoes, houses, clothing and tools, harvesting salmon and coastal shellfish as their nutritional mainstay, and supplementing their diet with game, medicinal plants, roots, herbs and berries, the Cowichan River population became one of the major First Nations tribes of the west coast.