Howe Sound - Industry and Towns

Industry and Towns

Squamish is a minor deepwater port. It was the original southern terminus of the BCR in the days when it was the Pacific Great Eastern, and had a busy ferry terminal where travellers would disembark from ferries and steamers bringing them in from Vancouver harbour. In the 1960s what was then called the Squamish Highway was finally pushed through from Vancouver. This made the former steamer service unnecessary. Once a thriving forestry town, with recent cutbacks in logging along with the closure and dismantling of a major sawmill in 2004, Squamish has become a tourist destination and a commuter community for workers in nearby Whistler and Vancouver. The recent closure of the Woodfibre pulp mill in 2006 signals an end to the resource based economy here. Squamish is a world centre for rock climbing, with the 1500' bulk of the Stawamus Chief, a huge rock formation always busy with climbers, along with other formations overlooking downtown and the head of Howe Sound. In addition,the strong winds and flat waters at the upper end of Howe Sound have made Squamish a mecca for windsurfers, kite boarders and keelboat sailors.

Just south of town along Highway 99 is Shannon Falls, a popular tourist attraction and provincial park, and Darrell Bay, which is the ferry dock for service to the pulp mill at Woodfibre, across the sound. Woodfibre has no road access. From the early 1900s until 1973 there was a small company town surrounding the mill where most employees lived. By 1975 all employees had relocated, mostly to Squamish, and the town was dismantled. Over the next 30 years the mill slowly expanded into the former townsite, but it closed in early 2006.

Porteau Cove is a provincial campsite and also a location for scuba diving, as artificial reefs have been sunk in the area. The bluffs above the highway in this area are one of the main avalanche hazards to both the highway and the rail line, which are squeezed together between the foot of the bluffs and the shoreline.

Furry Creek is the location of a new upscale golf course and resort development. Proposals have called for a new highway from Vancouver via the Capilano River watershed would emerge on Highway 99 at Furry Creek. However, the fact that this route traverses the Lower Mainland's Capilano watershed creates nearly insurmountable political obstacles to its construction.

Lions Bay is a small residential community, incorporated as a village, climbing the mountainside from Howe Sound up to the west peak of the pair of summits known as The Lions, which overlook Vancouver on the other side.

Near Squamish is Britannia Beach, the former gold and copper mining town and port with some highway-based eateries and stores. Its name does not come directly from associations with Britain, but from the MV Britannia, the old Vancouver-Squamish steamer (A new MV Britannia built in 1983 is in use as a tourboat based in Coal Harbour, Vancouver). Today the mine mill site is the popular Britannia Mine Museum, with mine shaft tours, gold panning etc. The prominent multi-story mine building underwent a restoration with the replacement of hundreds of window panes. The former mine site is also frequently used as a shooting site for a variety of TV and movie productions, most notably the popular X-Files TV series.

Horseshoe Bay is a residential and commercial district of Vancouver on the southern edge of the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The highway clings to the cliffside above the BC Ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay. Restaurants, tourist shops and galleries, a pub or two and recreational marinas are also situated in the community. Ferries from Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver go to Departure Bay in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, Bowen Island, and Langdale on the Sunshine Coast, which is the ferry terminal for the southern Sunshine Coast.

The peninsula southwest of Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver terminates at Whytecliffe, an upscale residential area and public park, which is the southern point of Howe Sound's east shore. South of here is the entrance of English Bay and Burrard Inlet. Also in the vicinity of Howe Sound's mouth, at Point Atkinson is Lighthouse Park.

Just north of Langdale is Port Mellon, another pulp and paper mill somewhat larger than Woodfibre. Port Mellon, which, unlike Woodfibre, produces paper and pulp (and is serviced by road from Gibsons/Langdale) is one of the oldest operating mills in B.C. Woodfibre's closure included measures securing the fibre supply for Port Mellon, making its future considerably more secure.

At the southwest "corner" of Howe Sound, just a few kilometres south of the Langdale Ferry terminal is the town of Gibsons. Gibsons is perhaps best known as the locale for the immensely popular former CBC Television series The Beachcombers. The restaurant featured in the series, "Molly's Reach", remains open for business today.