Storm Bay through a smoky haze Storm Bay is found in the

Sechelt Inlet Sechelt Inlet formerly ''Seechelt Inlet'' is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. The inlet is significant in that it almost makes an island of what is instead the Sechelt Peninsula, whose isthmus is at the town of Sechelt at ...

of the Pacific Ocean, near the mouth of

Narrows Inlet Narrows Inlet formerly Narrows Arm is a fjord branching east from Sechelt Inlet in British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountai ...

. It is accessible by boat or seaplane. Since the mid-1960s, the location has been home to a number of notable artists.

Ecology

Storm Bay is in the Coastal Douglas-fir Biogeoclimactic Zone of British Columbia, which consists of wet, mossy, dense

temperate rain forest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American Paci ...

History

shíshálh nation

Storm Bay has been inhabited by the shíshálh (or Sechelt) nation, specifically the téwánkw sub-group of ?álhtulich, stl'ixwim, and skúpa (Sechelt, Narrows, and Salmon Inlets), for around eight millennia. Existing

shell middens A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofac ...

indicate ancient and long-term human habitation.

Early twentieth century

Storm Bay was logged intensively and homesteaded early in the twentieth century. In 1907, the Sechelt Brick & Tile Company Limited built a small brickworks in Storm Bay which closed after two years due to the poor quality of the clay. The Canadian government built a large brick plant in 1921 as a "returned men's project"; it too was short-lived.

1960s and 1970s to present day

Many people loosely associated with the

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

movement

settled A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

in Storm Bay during the late 1960s and early 1970s, including the notable artists

Kate Craig Kate Craig (September 15, 1947 – July 23, 2002) was a Canadian video and performance artist. She was a founding member of the artist-run centre the Western Front, where she supported the video and performance works of many artists while produc ...

(who died in Storm Bay in 2002,)

David Rimmer __NOTOC__ David Rimmer (20 January 1942 – 26 January 2023) was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and university instructor. His works came to prominence in the Underground Film community in the 1970s. In 2011, he was awarded a Governor General ...

Karen Jamieson Karen Jamieson (born July 10, 1946) is a Canadian dancer, choreographer, and mentor located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is the founder and artistic director of Karen Jamieson Dance Company, a non-profit contemporary dance company ...

Hank Bull Hank Bull D.F.A. (born 1949) is a Canadian artist, curator, organizer and arts administrator. Life and work Hank Bull was born in Calgary, Alberta. HIs father was an Anglican minister and his mother a weaver. He was raised in Ontario and Nova Sc ...

, and

Glenn Lewis Glennon Ricketts Jr. (born March 13, 1975), professionally known as Glenn Lewis, is a Canadian neo soul singer–songwriter. Lewis earned a Grammy Award nomination in 2004 and has also won a Juno Award out of a total of six nominations. Early li ...

. In 1980 a Royal Canadian Mounted Police member from the

Sechelt Sechelt (, Shishalh language chat'lich) is a district municipality located on the lower Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Approximately 50 km northwest of Vancouver, it is accessible from mainland British Columbia by a 40-minute ferry tr ...

detachment could name only Storm Bay when asked about extant communes in the Sunshine Coast region. Its inhabitants however eschew the word commune, and refer to Storm Bay as a neighbourhood.

References