Petroglyphs – Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada

 March 30, 2008

In my last post, I told about some of the wonderful petroglyph sites we have come across in Southwestern Arizona.  The Pacific Northwest, also, has its share of ancient Indian villages, burial sites and rock art.  Now, I would like to share a unique petroglyph site we discovered on an island in Canada.
 
My fifth and last book in the “Maverick Series”, The Strait Years, centers around our activities during the twenty years we lived in the town of Port Angeles, on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.  Situated between the Olympic Mountains and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, it is a beautiful area.  Living on the waterfront, much time was spent cruising among the islands in US and Canadian waters on our 30-foot cabin cruiser named The Maverick.  
 
When leaving Port Angeles on the Maverick, our first challenge was the twenty-mile crossing of the Strait of Juan de fuca.   Frequently trips were delayed due to fog or stormy conditions on the Strait!  Once across the Strait and in  sheltered waters,  we had the choice of cruising among Washington’s San Juan Islands, or clearing customs and heading north into Canadian waters and the many  islands off the Eastern shore of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  When heading into Canadian waters, one of our favorite  overnight stops was at a  government wharf in Degnan Bay, on Gabriola Island. 

From The Strait Years…..  “In our boating guide there was a reference to a ‘petroglyph of a killer whale on the shores of Degnan Bay, which can be seen at low tide.’    In the morning the tide was out, so we took the dinghy and rowed along the shoreline searching for the petroglyph.  It didn’t take long to find.  The whale figure was about four feet long, deeply etched into a large flat rock on shore.  I climbed out on the slippery rocks, and proceeded to create a rubbing, using some white muslin and a black crayon I had brought along.”

     

We had planned to leave in the morning, but coming out of the channel into the big waters of Georgia Strait (another 20-mile stretch of big water) we could see that it was too rough to cross, so we went around the shoreline to Silva Bay Marina.  After getting moored, we went for a walk along a road behind  the marina.  Coming to a gift shop we stopped.  I mentioned to the clerk about the whale petroglyph, and she told us that Gabriola Island had  numerous petroglyph sites, and that one site, (called the “Weldwood Site”)  was in walking distance from the marina!  She referred to “behind a church and down an old logging road”. (Actually, several miles!!)
 
Excited with this new found information, the following morning we headed out.  We passed a church, but didn’t see a logging road…and walked on and on.  Finally,  not seeing a thing that resembled a petroglyph site, we retraced our steps.  Coming to the church again,  Rodger…with his bad knees…said he had to rest.  Then the part about “behind a church” came back to me, so I wandered around and found a well worn path leading alongside a newly-built fence…on the other side of which there was an old logging road!  My excitement mounted and I hurried on!  The trail led to a clearing in the woods…a sign posted on a tree cautioned about “not disturbing antiquities etc.” and I knew I had found the Weldwood Site!.  I hurried back to get Rodger, so that we could explore this fascinating area together…a meadow covered with flat rocks amidst the long grasses, and every rock covered with wonderful petroglyphs!

The petroglyphs were awesome!  Included were large etchings of fish, serpents, birds, design-like creatures, and stickmen figures.  One in particular intrigued me.  It was of a stick-figure which has been named “Dancing Man”, and depicts a stick-figure with knees bent outward,  and arms flexed at the elbow as if he were dancing.

Thankfully, we had the camera along, but I didn’t take nearly enough photographs, and was very sorry that I hadn’t thought to bring my muslin and crayons along to make a few rubbings of these fantastic figures. No one knows how old these rock carvings are, but  some archaeologists believe they may date back as far as 2,000 to 3,000 B.C.  Other sources believe they are only about 1,000 years old. 

Returning to the Marina, we stopped at the gift shop to tell the clerk we had found the site.  She showed me a pewter key chain (that could also be put on a chain and worn as a necklace) of “Dancing Man!”  Which of course, I purchased!

It had been a wonderful experience, and I thought about how interesting it would have been to seek out some of the other petroglyph sites on lovely Gabriola Island!                                                    (Click on any of the pictures above to enlarge.)

 

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