British Columbia, Cartography, Vancouver Island

BC Parks Maps Just Aren’t What They Used To Be

In digging through my new collection of old maps, I discovered a rather rare and beautiful find – a full-colour map from the late 1970s. This is the crown-jewel of my map collection. I can find no information on this publication and BC Parks was unable to help date the map. The contents of the information on the reverse of the guide (see below) indicate a time when First Peoples heritage were ignored entirely as a legitimate part of Vancouver Island’s history, as the History section starts abruptly with the arrival of the first European. The map, rather uniquely, shows ferries for Prince Rupert departing from Kelsey Bay, roughly mid-island. Ferries have not sailed from this port since 1978, making the dating of this undated map much easier. Note the absence of Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park.

This map was printed between 1976 and 1978. This was determined by the presence of a ferry terminal at Kelsey Bay (relocated to Port Hardy in 1978) and major road between Kelsey Bay and Port Hardy (nonexistent until 1976). This History heading is an indicator of a time of ignorance and disregard of history of First Peoples on this island.
The reverse of the 1976 map has individual hand-painted representations of every major park that existed at the time. Several of these parks no longer exist – either decommissioned entirely or transferred to the Federal Government to become parts of Gulf Islands National Park reserve of Canada.