Phyllis Reeve's Site

A Bute Inlet Cortes Museum Project

Judith M Williams: curator

 Naming and Claiming: the Creation of Bute Inlet

{Captions for photos follow the text below.}

Aim:            To create a visual, textual, cartographic and artifact installation in the Cortes Island Museum. It will focus on geographic, ethnographic, ecological, pre-history and historic materials regarding the Northwest Coast fjord known as Bute Inlet. The installation, and attendant talks and panels, aim to inform and inspire viewers with an understanding, appreciation and respect for a great wilderness, resource and mountaineering region of British Columbia.

Rational: Bute Inlet is one of the longest and certainly the steepest sided of the mainland inlets which run into the interior of British Columbia. The inlet is over forty-eight miles long and an average of two and one half miles in width. Its depth varies from 1,000 to 2200 feet. During periods of the extreme weather conditions Bute is known for, the inlet waters have surfaced great swaths and balls of Bute Wax, a unique lipid which continues to fascinate and baffle scientists.

Home to the Salish speaking Homalco people who lived in villages at Pi7pknech   (Orford River) and at Xwemalhlwu (Swift Water) at the mouth of the Homathko River, Bute Inlet received its present name in 1792 when Captain George Vancouver wished to honour botanist John Stuart, the Third Earl of Bute, who had been Prime Minister of Britain and tutor to King George III. Spanish Captains Galiano and Valdes detailed their parallel surveying and naming of the inlet in A Spanish Voyage to Vancouver and the North-west Coast of North America.

The four main inlet rivers, the Orford, Southgate, Teaquahan and the Homathko, are fed by streams from abundant snow and ice fields. At the head of the Homathko Valley, Mount Waddington, ( Xwe7xwkw), at over 13,000 feet, is the highest mountain completely in BC. The mountains of the inlet are considered world-class mountaineering locations and the entire inlet is rich in salmonid, timber and mineral resources. The Teaquahan River still contains remnants of one of the remaining coastal Steelhead runs.

The Homathko Valley was the site of the only major native/incomer skirmish in the history of the province. What is referred to as the “Chilcotin War” occurred when Alfred Waddington began building a road up the valley to interior gold fields in 1863/64. 

Although not extensively studied, the mainland inlets are thought to be one of the main ecological “engines” of coastal waters. Bute Inlet has recently become the locus for discussion about the positive and negative effects of “run of the river” hydro projects on such remote water systems. Ecological, engineering and ethnographic studies are underway to ascertain the effect of such development on river dwelling fish, Grizzlies, spawning salmon and on endangered bird species such as the Marbled Murrelet which nest at the end of the inlet. It is hoped that this installation of Bute Inlet material will help provide background information to aid in the discovery of a respectful plan for the future of this magnificent wilderness and marine site.

For more historical background see. High Slack: Waddington’s Gold Road and the Bute Inlet Massacre of 1864, Judith Williams, New Star Books, Vancouver, 1995.

#1 Naming and Claiming the Creation of Bute Inlet, Cortes Mus
#2 Naming and Claiming map
#3 map
#4Mt Waddington photo and text
#5 A. Schnarr protype propeller for river air boat
#6 Naming and Claiming gen view
#7 Bute Exhibition
#8 Rasmussen diary table
#9 Mt Waddington spire
#10 Bute Settlers
#11 Bute settler and Schnarr family
#12 Homalco- Chruchouse memorabilia
#13 Bench and Jesus hands from collapsed Church at Churchouse
#14 platter and Jesus hand
#15 vitrines
#16 Bute Wax
#17 Len Parker
#18 The Lab - Water Colour
#19 Lab- introduction to Water Colour
#20 Water Colour
#21 Water Colour detail
#22 Lab desk and Ms. Glacier Museum
#23 Lab - water collection cabinet
#24 Cabinet - side view
#25 water and Bute Wax -Cabinet detail
#26 Water detail
#27 Water Colour - water paintings
#28 Likeness - desk-book and photos
#29 Likeness - desk and book

See Judith's Water/Colours work-in-progress at www.islandsinstitute.com