| Bowen Island | |
|---|---|
| — Island Municipality — | |
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| Country | Canada |
| Province | British Columbia |
| Regional District | Metro Vancouver |
| Incorporated | 1999 |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Bob Turner |
| - Councillors |
(list)[1]
Peter Frinton
Doug Hooper Cro Lucas Alison Morse Nerys Poole David Wrinch |
| - MP | John Weston (Conservative) |
| - MLA | Joan McIntyre (BC Liberal Party) |
| Area | |
| - Land | 49.94 km2 (19.3 sq mi) |
| Population (2007) | |
| - Total | 3,551 |
| - Density | 71.1/km2 (184.1/sq mi) |
| Time zone | PST (UTC−8) |
| - Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC−7) |
| Postal Code | V0N 1G0 |
| Website | Municipal Website |
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Bowen Island, British Columbia, is an island municipality in Howe Sound, and within Metro Vancouver. Approximately 6km wide by 12km long, the island at its closest point is about 2km west of the mainland. There is regular ferry service from Horseshoe Bay, as well as three water taxi services. There were 3,551 permanent residents as of the 2007 BC Stats Estimate, a number that is supplemented in the summer by roughly 1,500 visitors, as Bowen Island is a popular vacation home location for British Columbians. About 500 workers and over 200 students commute to offices and schools on the mainland each day. The island has a land area of 49.94 km² (19.28 sq mi).
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Indigenous people
The indigenous people of this land are known as Sḵwxwú7mesh. Their territory covers Howe Sound, including Bowen Island. They are part of the Coast Salish cultural and linguistic group. Their language is separate and distinct from their Halkomelem-speaking relatives to the south, but more closely connected to their Shishalh kinship from Sechelt.
Areas such as Snug Cove and a few other parts of the island were used as camp sites for hunting and gathering trips. In their Sḵwxwú7mesh language, the name for Snug Cove is Xwilil Xhwm, which means "Cove". Historically they would use the warmer spring and summer months to travel to resource gathering sites and move from their permanent winter villages. The strip of land between Bowen and Finisterre Islands has a name that translates to "Fast Drumming Ground". The tide rushing in and out is reminiscent of the sound of drums beating quickly. The name "kwemshem" is used for Hood Point. Bowen is still used by people from Sḵwxwú7mesh and Musqueam for deer hunting.
Into the 20th century Bowen Island was actively used by Sḵwxwú7mesh people for deer and duck hunting, fishing and, later, wage jobs. In conversations with Vancouver archivist Major Matthews in the 1950s, August Jack Khatsahlano recalls knowing several Sḵwxwú7mesh who worked for whalers on the island at the turn of the 20th century. In a conversation with City of Vancouver archivist JA Matthews, Khatsahlano himself recalls deer hunting on Bowen, saying that at one time he took the biggest deer in British Columbia from the island, weighing in at 195 pounds.
Post-colonization
When Spanish explorers arrived on the west coast of Canada, they named many of the features of what is now the Strait of Georgia. Bowen Island was called Isla de Apodaca by the Spanish Captain José María Narváez in July, 1791.[2] In 1860 Cpt. George Henry Richards renamed the island after Rear Admiral James Bowen master of the HMS Queen Charlotte.[3]:58
Bowen remained a wilderness until 1871 when homesteaders built houses and started a brickworks, which supplied bricks to the expanding city of Vancouver. Over the years, local industry has included an explosives factory, logging, mining, and milling, although there is no heavy industry on the island at present.
In the first half of the 20th century, life on Bowen was dominated by the Union Steamship Company that operated a very busy resort at Snug Cove. The resort closed in the 1960s and the island returned to a quiet period of slow growth. In the 40s and 50s, the artists' colony called Lieben[4] was a retreat for many famous Canadian authors, artists, and intellectuals including Earle Birney, Alice Munro, Dorothy Livesay, Margaret Laurence, A.J.M. Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Eric Nicol and Malcolm Lowry, who finished his last book, October Ferry to Gabriola, there. It is now a national heritage site. In the 1980s, real estate pressures in Vancouver accelerated growth on Bowen and currently the local economy is largely dependent on commuters who work on the mainland in Greater Vancouver. Prior to becoming a municipality, Bowen Island was part of the Sunshine Coast Regional District, made up of small communities and municipalities. However, in the 1980s the island transferred to the Greater Vancouver Regional District after a campaign organized by developers and realtors. It soon became apparent that it was not a good fit as Bowen was an "unorganized area" with small community issues and the larger cities resented having to use their valuable time at GVRD meetings to deal with those matters. Eventually the Island's representatives became "frustrated" with the GVRD and the push for autonomy was successful after two referendum attempts.The referendum campaigns were divisive within the community and resulted in a rift which continues today,between the pro municipal "developers" and the "small community" activists.
In 1999 the Bowen Island Municipality was incorporated, becoming the second 'island municipality' in BC. The first was Saltspring Island which was incorporated in 1873 and dissolved by the BC legislature 10 years later.
The Island today
Commerce
The Island has several small businesses including marinas, cafes, gift shops, grocery stores, a pharmacy, restaurants, garden and flower shops, a building supply shop and a Chamber of Commerce.[5] In June 2007, First Credit Union, a full-service bank, opened its doors in Snug Cove. There is also a North Shore Credit Union automated banking machine. Groceries are available at a the Snug Cove General Store and the Ruddy Potato Whole Foods Market.[6] Shops are concentrated around Snug Cove and, further into the island, Artisan Square. There are also several good restaurants, including Blue Eyed Marys, Mik.sa, and Tuscany. Bowen Island has a high proportion of artists and artisans, and the Bowen Island Pub on Trunk Road regularly features live music.[7] There is also a 2,746 metre (3,003 yard) 130 Slope rated 9-hole golf course.[8]
Transportation
Marine
Bowen Island is served by four scheduled water-transportation operators:
- B.C. Ferries, a de-facto Provincial Crown corporation, serves the island with the Queen of Capilano car ferry, which travels between Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver and Snug Cove on Bowen Island.
- Cormorant Marine[9] runs a late-night passenger-only water taxi between the government docks in Horseshoe Bay and in Snug Cove.
- Granville Island Water Taxi Services[10] runs a 12-passenger water taxi between Granville Island, near Downtown Vancouver, and Snug Cove.
- Coastal Link Ferries runs a passenger-only water taxi between downtown Vancouver's Coal Harbour and Snug Cove, serving morning and evening weekday commuters.
Road
Bowen Island is served by two Translink bus routes:[11]
- Route C10 - Bluewater/Snug Cove
- Route C11 - EagleCliff/Snug Cove
Education
The Island is in the West Vancouver School district and has an award winning public elementary school Bowen Island Community School. High school students living in Bowen Island (grades 8 to 12) travel to West Vancouver to attend West Vancouver Secondary School, Sentinel Secondary School, or Rockridge. Other education options are Daycare and Preschool programs run by the Bowen Children's Centrea private Montessori preschool / and the Island Pacific School, an international baccalaureate middle school for grades 6 through 9. Some students also travel to West Vancouver to attend French Immersion at Ecole Pauline Johnson. There is a public supported home learning program The Learning Centre and a growing number of families also unschool.
Culture
Particularly for a small community, Bowen Island has an extensive cultural life. Notably, Bowen Island boasts four different choral ensembles; an extensive Theatre School for children; and a public Gallery which showcases local artists. The Bowen Island Historians run the small museum, which features regularly changing exhibits documenting Bowen Island's history, as well as a restored logger's cabin from 1948.
Recreation
Bowen has a long history as a day-trip destination from Vancouver. Today, the island offers a number of popular swimming beaches, including Sandy Beach, Tunstall Bay, and Bowen Bay. There is a kayak rental operation in Snug Cove. A popular hike leads from the ferry dock to Killarney Lake, and from there up Mount Gardner, the island's highest point. The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has also run a summer camp on the island since the 1960s.
Churches and other religious communities
There are four permanent churches on the Island. St Gerard's Catholic Church is located on Miller Road.[12] The United Church is situated in a timber building erected in 1932 a little further along on the same road. Further still along Miller Road, nearer to Snug Cove, and meeting in Bowen Court, is Bowen Island Community Church,[13] an affiliate of the Congregational Christian Churches in Canada. Lastly, Cates Hill Chapel is a Christian Brethren church founded in 1991. Its present building was opened in 1999.[14] There are also regular meetings held by Unitarians and Quakers. Bowen Island is home to the Canadian branch of L'Abri, a communal Christian retreat centre where visitors come for self-directed study. Finally, Camp Bow-Isle is a summer camp for Christian Scientists.
There are regular Buddhist meditation sittings in both the Zen and Vipassana traditions. Bowen's Jewish community celebrates Shabbat and high holidays, and acquired a Torah in 2006.
Bowen Island on Film
- 1966 The Trap starring Oliver Reed and Rita Tushingham was filmed in Tunstall Bay, where a whole village was specially constructed.[15]
- 1976 The Food of the Gods starring Marjoe Gortner and Ida Lupino, a shlock horror film which appears on many "Worst Films" lists. (Giant rats, chickens, wasps and maggots on Bowen in this butchered version of H. G. Wells' classic The Food of the Gods.)[16]
- 1986 Clan of the Cave Bear starring Daryl Hannah and Pamela Reed, portions of this film were shot on Bowen.
- 1988 People Across the Lake starring Valerie Harper and Gerald McRaney, Made for TV, Murder Mystery/Horror film.
- 1988 American Gothic starring Rod Steiger, Yvonne De Carlo and Michael J. Pollard, homicidal hillbillies invade Bowen in this 80's slasher film![17]
- 1989 Cousins starring Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini, shots of Bowen and locale.
- 1989 Look Who's Talking starring John Travolta and Kirstie Alley.
- 1990 Bird on a Wire starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn.
- 1990 The Russia House starring Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer, parts of the John le Carré espionage thriller were filmed on Bowen Island.[18]
- 1993 Another Stakeout starring Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez.[19]
- 1994 Intersection starring Richard Gere and Sharon Stone.
- 1995 Hideaway starring Jeff Goldblum and Christine Lahti.
- 1997 All the Winters That Have Been starring Richard Chamberlain and Karen Allen, Made for TV, scenes inside The Snug cafe on Bowen....called Raven Island in the film.
- 1998 Disturbing Behavior starring James Marsden and Katie Holmes, Bowen becomes Cradle Bay where teens are brainwashed. There is even a race to catch the ferry![20]
- 1999 Double Jeopardy starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, partly filmed on the island[21]
- 2001 Antitrust.
- 2004 Rugged Rich and the Ona Ona Rich hates the outdoors. Jane is a nature jock. Rich is so smitten with Jane that he can't bear to tell the truth - even if that means having to confront a really weird tropical fish.[22]
- 2005 The Fog remake was filmed on the Island where a whole graveyeard was constructed[23]
- 2005 Paper Moon Affair An enigmatic Japanese woman, abandoned by her wealthy Chinese husband in a remote Pacific Northwest village, becomes entwined in the lives of two rugged locals.[24]
- 2006 The Hitchhiker A beleaguered hitchhiker discovers that getting a ride from the woman who just pulled over may require more than he'd bargained for.[25]
- 2006 The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn , a remake of the 1973 Christopher Lee classic.[26]
- 2008 Are We Still the Ugly American? explores US covert operations in the Middle East over the past fifty years.[27]
- 2008 River A young man falls in love with a woman who happens to be a six foot Sturgeon. Helping her to escape from his redneck, fish poaching, pot-growing brothers, he falls in love.[28]
- 2009 The Uninvited starring Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel and David Strathairn, which is a remake of the South Korean horror film A Tale of Two Sisters.[29]
- 2009 Harper's Island, a CBS 13-episode miniseries.
References
- ^ "Council Members". Bowen Island Municipal Website. http://www.bimbc.ca/council_members. Retrieved 2009-04-08.
- ^ Bowen Island in the BC Geographical Names Information System
- ^ Walbran, Captain John T. (1971), British Columbia Place Names, Their Origin and History (Facsimile reprint of 1909 edition ed.), Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, ISBN 0-88894-143-9, http://www.nosracines.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=3545
- ^ http://www.lieben.ca
- ^ http://www.bowenisland.org/
- ^ http://www.ruddypotato.com/
- ^ Hill Strategies Research. "Artists in Small and Rural Municipalities in Canada". http://www.hillstrategies.com/docs/Artists_small_rural.pdf.
- ^ "Bowen Island Golf Course". http://www.bowengolf.com. Retrieved 2008-03-08.
- ^ http://www.cormorantwatertaxi.com/
- ^ http://www.giwt.ca/Bowen_Island_Express.html
- ^ http://tripplanning.translink.bc.ca/hiwire?.a=iScheduleLookup
- ^ http://stgerards.rcav.org/
- ^ http://www.bowencommunitychurch.org/
- ^ http://www.cateshillchapel.com/
- ^ Weblink to some great photos of the village on the Rita Tushingham homepage: http://members.cox.net/rjd0309/tush/1964.htm#trap
- ^ http://www.stomptokyo.com/movies/f/food-of-the-gods.html
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094642/locations
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100530/locations
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106292/locations
- ^ http://www.katieholmespictures.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=292&pos=38
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0150377/locations
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404387/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432291/locations
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433615/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0852964/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450345/locations
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1304567/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1342927/
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815245/locations
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bowen Island |
- Bowen Island Municipality - official site for municipal government
- Bowen Island Chamber of Commerce
- Bowen Bulletin - editorials and columns
- Lieben Artists Colony - website for writers and artists inspired by Bowen Island and the Lieben National Heritage Conservation Site.
- Bowen Island Journal - links to webloggers on Bowen Island
- Bowen Island GeoLibrary - interactive maps, stories, and planning documents
Surrounding Municipalities
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Sunshine Coast (via ferry from West Vancouver) |
Howe Sound | North Shore Mountains Lions Bay (via West Vancouver) |
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| Howe Sound |  |
West Vancouver (ferry to Horseshoe Bay) |
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 Bowen Island  |
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| Strait of Georgia | Strait of Georgia | Vancouver (via West Vancouver) |
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