Englishman River is a river in the eastern side of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

, Canada. It starts on the eastern slopes of the Beaufort Range, originating from tiny Jewel Lake and flowing in an easterly direction for , entering the

Strait of Georgia The Strait of Georgia (french: Détroit de Géorgie) or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and the extreme northwestern mainland coast ...

Parksville, British Columbia Parksville is a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2021 Census, Parksville's population was 13,642, representing a 9.5% increase over the 2016 Census. Parksville is well known for its large, sandy beaches at Park ...

. It is an important watershed providing habitat for various species of

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Onco ...

and community water to the residents of Parksville and surrounding area. The Englishman River watershed includes Arrowsmith Lake, Hidden Lake, Fishtail Lake, Rowbotham Lake, Healy Lake,

Shelton Lake Shelton Lake is a lake located on Vancouver Island at the head of South Englishman River north west of Nanaimo Lakes. Fishing Wild populations of native coastal cutthroat trout The coastal cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii clarkii''), ...

, and Rhododendron Lake. Englishman River Falls Provincial Park is a popular tourist destination approximately upstream from the mouth of the

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

. It is famed for its two picturesque

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ...

s and treed campsites. The park was created on December 20, 1940, in an effort to protect the

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

and its associated

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

along the river in the vicinity of the waterfalls. A dammed reservoir on the Englishman is a source of water for

. It has been called Englishman River since at least 1883 to commemorate an unknown Englishman who drowned trying to cross.

South Englishman River

The Englishman's south fork begins at Shelton (Echo) Lake and shortly after exiting the north end of that lake enters Healy (Panther) Lake. The river then exits the far end of the lake and flows northeast to where it merges with the main fork of the Englishman.

History

According to a local legend,

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

in the area found the

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

of a

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

man near the waterfalls, thus giving the river its current name; the river was given its name because "an Englishman was drowned while attempting to cross."'' Victoria Colonist'', December 1949, ''Islander'', p. 10 Spanish mapmakers originally named it the "Rio de Grullas," presumably because of the large number of

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos I ...

s living at its estuary (''grulla'' being Spanish for "crane").

References

{{Authority control Rivers of Vancouver Island Mid Vancouver Island