Duke Point is a geographical location in the extreme southeastern part of the city of

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. As of the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, it had a population of 99,863, and it is known as "The Harbour City." The city was previously known as the "H ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. It is located on a thin peninsula to the east of the

Nanaimo River The Nanaimo River is a river on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located near the city of Nanaimo on the island's east coast. Its headwaters are in the Vancouver Island Ranges of central Vancouver Island and its mouth, the Nanaimo ...

estuary, just across the Northumberland Channel from

Gabriola Island Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia (BC), Canada. It is about east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by a 20-minute ferry service. It has a land area of about and a res ...

. An industrial park is located at Duke Point, which includes one sawmill. The

Duke Point ferry terminal Duke Point is a major ferry terminal owned and operated by BC Ferries that provides ferry service across the Strait of Georgia to Tsawwassen. The ferry terminal is located at Duke Point in Nanaimo and is the only major terminal in the BC Ferries s ...

is also located here, but there are no public transit connections.

History

Before Duke Point became an industrial park, there were searches for archaeological sites on the peninsula. Several sites were found and these examinations found that the settlements on Duke Point belonged to the

Coast Salish The Coast Salish is a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak one of the Coas ...

and were around 4,000 years old. The site also revealed that Duke Point was used as a seasonal ground for the Coast Salish. In 1980, the BC Development Corporation bought the Jack Point land from private owners, and the Duke Point land from then

MacMillan Bloedel MacMillan Bloedel Limited, sometimes referred to as "MacBlo", was a Canadian forestry company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was formed through the merger of three smaller forestry companies in 1951 and 1959. Those were the Po ...

, and then levelled and serviced the lands to create the industrial park, three sawmill sites, and a 2 berth shipping terminal (only one berth was built). The 350 acre Duke Point Industrial Park was built by the BC Development Corporation from 1980 to 1983, under the Federal/Provincial Industrial Subsidiary Agreement ("TIDSA"). The Duke Point Ferry Terminal was built on Provincial land outside the TIDSA lands, and sits on land that was originally called "Jack Point", but which was amalgamated with the Duke Point Land. Originally, the Jack Point land was separated from the Duke Point land by Canoe Pass, that connected the Northumberland Channel to the waters of the Nanaimo Estuary.

References

External links

* Neighbourhoods in Nanaimo {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub

History

See also

References

External links