A little known heritage gem that is hidden right in plain sight is benefitting from funding for B.C. Heritage Properties announced this spring.

Cole Island is located at the head of Esquimalt Harbour.  This tiny place holds a lot of history. When the Royal Navy first located the Pacific Fleet in Esquimalt, Cole Island was identified as a safe location for an ammunition depot.  The first building, a powder magazine, was completed in 1859.  A total of sixteen buildings had been constructed by the time the Royal Navy left the coast in 1905.  Five years later the island depot was transferred to the new Canadian Navy.

By world war two the island was a surplus facility. Over the years, essentially derelict, Cole Island fell into decay.  While the Esquimalt navy base continues as a busy military facility, and nearby Fort Rodd Hill became a National Historic Site, the island languished, a target for vandals and scroungers after bricks and roofing slates.

But being surrounded by water has provided some measure of protection, and, while easily visible from shore nearby, the heavily-treed site is to an extent hidden and a bit of a mystery.

The site passed from federal to provincial hands several years ago, and the Heritage Branch has struggled to cope with the handful of moldering buildings that remain.  Other provincial heritage sites, open to the public, make more pressing demands on scare heritage dollars.

However, in the latest round of funding for provincial Heritage Properties, $25,000 was allocated for Cole Island.  The funding is going to the Friends of Cole Island who have taken the historic place under their wing.  Established four years ago, the Friends are dedicated to preventing further vandalism, preserving the heritage buildings, making the site safe for visitors, and having the island recognized as a marine park.

The new funding will be devoted to maintenance issues.  The Heritage Branch has also made an application under the recently-announced federal cost-sharing program for National Historic Sites (Cole Island was included in a 2006 NHS dedication that recognized the Esquimalt Naval Base as a National Historic District).  If successful, that funding will be dedicated to preserving the existing buildings essentially as ruins, stabilized to prevent further decay.

Cole Island is a short paddle from several launching spots and can be visited at any time. Visitors are advised, however, that there are hazards and due care should be taken.

Funding will give a great boost to a volunteer group that has befriended one of B.C.’s most important sites of military history.

» The Friends of Cole Island Society

The Royal Navy played a large role in the life of Colonial Vancouver Island, both for charting coastal waters and protection against enemies (Russia and the United States at different times) and for its influence on the social life in the Colony. Its Pacific Base was moved from Valparaiso, Chile, to Esquimalt in 1865. Six years earlier the little island, 400 feet long by 200 feet wide, at the western end of Esquimalt Harbour had been chosen as the site of the naval ammunition depot.
» Coal Island (www.maureenduffus.com)

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PHOTO: CHRISTINA MARSHALL