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2205 Otter Point Road |
British Columbia Tourism Region : Vancouver Island
Description From Owner:
- French Beach Park - After James George French, who settled here around 1890.
- A pioneer conservationist, he maintained wildlife protection areas in the Victoria and Sheringham Point areas. He was a brother of Sir John French, later Earl of Ypres, the British Commander-in Chief during the first part of World War I.
- Grant Rocks - After Captain Walter Colquhoun Grant of the 2nd Dragoons (Scots Greys), who arrived on Vancouver Island in 1849 as the first independent colonist.
- With him he brought eight men to work on his farm. He also brought impedimenta such as carriage harness and cricket sets, only to find that there were no carriages on Vancouver Island and that the VIBC men at Fort Victoria did not play cricket.
- Finding that the BIBC owned all the good land around Victoria, Grant established his farm at Sooke and built a sawmill here. In 1853, admitting failure, he returned to England. He died eight years later, serving in the Indian Mutiny.
- Although Grant had a very attractive personality, he lacked a business sense.
- He was the first of many hundreds of young gentlemen from the British Isles who came out to British Columbia with scant knowledge of what they would find here and eventually lost a good deal of money.
- He planted the first broom (Cytisus scuparius) to grow on Vancouver Island.
- Jordan River - Named by the Spaniards after Alejandro Jordan, the chaplain who accompanied Lieutenant Francisco Eliza to Nootka in 1790 and remained there for some time.
- Leech River - After Peter John Leech, who arrived in British Columbia as a corporal in the Royal Engineers in 1858 but remained here after his detachment was disbanded.
- He was 'astronomer' with the Vancouver Island Exploration Expedition of 1864, which found gold on this stream. The resulting gold rush soon petered out. Leech later became city engineer of Victoria. He died in 1899.
- Mount Maguire - After Lieutenant Rochfort Maguire, HMS Herald, in local waters in 1846-7.
- Milnes Landing - ). Takes its name from Edward Milne, who opened a grocery store here in 1893.
- Sooke - Takes its name from the Sooke band of Straits Salish Indians.
- 'A most warlike and hardy race,' they were nearly annihilated in a combined attack of the Cowichans, Clallums, and Nitinats launched about 1848.
- The derivation of Sooke is unknown. It was early spelled 'Soke' and pronounced 'soak.'
- With permission from G.P.V and Helen B. Akrigg 1997 British Columbia Place Names. UBC Press.
Address of this page: http://bc.ruralroutes.com/sooke
