Hornby Island of British Columbia, Canada, is a Northern Gulf Island parallel with Vancouver Island's Comox Valley.
A small community of 958 residents (as of the 2011 census) is distributed across the island. The island is culturally distinctive as it was the site of a large immigration of American draft dodgers during the Vietnam War, and many of these people still live on the island. In recent years the island has become a major tourist destination and its population easily quadruples in size during the summer months. Though tourism is a primary source of income for Hornby, it has led to some water supply shortages. Most people reach the island by taking a BC Ferry to Denman Island from Buckley Bay on Vancouver Island, and then a 30-car ferry to Hornby.
The primary destinations on Hornby are Tribune Bay Provincial Park, Helliwell Provincial Park, Ford Cove, Heron Rocks and Whaling Station Bay. The island is also a popular mountain biking destination, with a variety of designated trails in Mount Geoffrey Regional Nature Park, Mount Geoffrey Escarpment Provincial Park and Crown Land. The total land area is 29.92 square kilometres (11.55 sq mi).
Read more about Hornby Island: Island Geology and History, Vegetation and Soils, Fossils
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“The shifting islands! who would not be willing that his house should be undermined by such a foe! The inhabitant of an island can tell what currents formed the land which he cultivates; and his earth is still being created or destroyed. There before his door, perchance, still empties the stream which brought down the material of his farm ages before, and is still bringing it down or washing it away,—the graceful, gentle robber!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)