East Thurlow Island is an island in

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, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is part of the

Discovery Islands The Discovery Islands are a group of islands located at the northern end of the Salish Sea and the eastern end of Johnstone Strait, between Vancouver Island and the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. Most of these islands have very fe ...

, an archipelago between

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

and the mainland, whose waters connect the Strait of Georgia with

Johnstone Strait , image = Pacific Ranges over Johnstone Strait.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Johnstone Strait backdropped by the Vancouver Island Ranges , image_bathymetry = Carte baie Knight ...

and

Queen Charlotte Strait , image = Canadian pilot, near Port Hardy BC.jpg , alt = , caption = A pilot boat plies Queen Charlotte Strait near Port Hardy , image_bathymetry = Locmap-QCS-Hecate-Dixon.png , alt_bathymetry = ...

. East Thurlow Island is located north of Vancouver Island, south of the mainland, northwest of Sonora Island, and east of West Thurlow Island. East Thurlow Island is located within Electoral Area C of the

Strathcona Regional District The Strathcona Regional District is a regional district in British Columbia, Canada. It was created on February 15, 2008, encompassing the northern and western portions of the former Regional District of Comox-Strathcona. The partition left ...

. East Thurlow Island is separated from the mainland by

Cordero Channel , image = Dent Rapids.jpg , image_size = 260px , alt = , caption = Dent Rapids, which flows east to west between the mainland coast and Sonora Island , image_bathymetry = Locmap-CorderoChannel ...

, from Vancouver Island by Johnstone Strait, and from Sonora Island by Nodales Channel. East and West Thurlow Islands are separated by Mayne Passage. The junction of Johnstone Strait and

Discovery Passage , image = Discovery Passage.jpg , image_size = 250px , caption = Looking south from between Vancouver Island and Sonora Island , image_bathymetry = Locmap-DiscoveryPassage.png , caption_bathymetry = , loc ...

lies just south of East Thurlow Island. The island received its present name in 1792, after

Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, PC, KC (9 December 1731 – 12 September 1806), was a British lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1765 to 1778 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Thurlow. He served as Lo ...

, Lord Chancellor of England. It was later discovered that Thurlow consists of two islands, and the narrow passage between them was given the name Blind Channel, perhaps because Captain Vancouver had missed it. We can forgive him this oversight, for many a mariner has since roared past and wondered later where the turn-off was. The channel was later renamed Mayne Passage, but the community which formed on the east end of West Thurlow Island was stuck with the name Blind Channel. By 1910 Thurlow Island Lumber Company sawmill was established at Blind Channel, and the B. C. Directory lists nine lumbermen, six woodsmen, a blacksmith, and the mill manager. Notches in the sides of big old stumps scattered here and there remind us today of the labouring woodsmen with bucksaws, and the wide shoes of workhorses attest to the method of delivery to the mill. By 1918, the population had grown to 120, with Union Steam Ship freight and passenger boats stopping regularly, and for the next few decades the area bustled with activity. Blind Channel was home to a

cannery Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although ...

, a

shingle mill Shingle may refer to: Construction *Roof shingles or wall shingles, including: **Wood shingle ***Shake (shingle), a wooden shingle that is split from a bolt, with a more rustic appearance than a sawed shingle *** Quercus imbricaria, or shingle oa ...

, and two large

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub. The majority of towns and cities in ...

s. The area continued to attract people looking for opportunity and an independent way of life, with the population peaking in the 1940s. In the 1930s, nine bootleggers were competing in Blind Channel at one point, mostly providing their own distillations with a very high alcohol content, if not the most refined flavour. For those who preferred the taste and guaranteed safety of the approved product, two of them specialized in government booze.

References

External links

Thurlow Islands
BCGIS {{Authority control Islands of the Discovery Islands South Coast of British Columbia