Chase River, known in the Hulquminum language as ''Kulwulton'', is a river on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, discharging into 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 ...

at the south end of Nanaimo Harbour. It is the namesake of the city of

Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. As of the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census, it had a population of 99,863, and it is known as "The Harbour City." The city was previously known as the "H ...

's neighbourhood of Chase River.

River's course

The source of Chase River is on the south-west side of Mount Benson. From there it travels in an eastwardly direction towards Nanaimo, where it goes through Colliery Dam Park and the neighbourhoods of Harewood and Chase River before emptying into Nanaimo Harbour in the Nanaimo River estuary.

History

In the winter of 1852–53, a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

shepherd A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...

, Peter Brown, was killed by two natives, one from Cowichan the other from Snuneymuxw. The Snuneymuxw man, hearing that the governor and troops would be hunting him, fled. He was easily tracked and captured because of the fresh-falling snow making his tracks easy to find and follow. The ''"chase"'' ended at this river. They were tried on the ship ''

SS Beaver ''Beaver'' was a steamship originally owned and operated by the Hudson’s Bay Company. She was the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America, and made remote parts of the west coast of Canada accessible for maritim ...

'' on 17 January 1853 and hung the same day at Execution Point on

Douglas Island Douglas Island is a tidal island in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the city and borough of Juneau, just west of downtown Juneau and east of Admiralty Island. It is separated from mainland Juneau by the Gastineau Channel, and contains the ...

. Execution Point got its name from those hangings. It was renamed in 1960 to Gallows Point and Douglas Island was renamed Protection Island.

Colliery Dam Park

In 1910-1911, a series of dams were built by the along the river by the Western Fuel Company to supply water to the miners for coal washing. As a secondary use, homes near the water pipeline were allowed to use the water for domestic purposes. Eventually, most of the water for South Harewood received its water from this source. The city of Nanaimo turned this area into a park with swimming, walking trails, and picnicking.

Chase River Fault

The Chase River Fault, a

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

tectonic fault line bisects the park, along the path of the Chase River and the reservoirs that make up the Colliery Dam. Evidence of the fault in the form of striking fissure crevasses and chasms can be seen in several locations within and around the park. One such chasm known to locals simply as ''The Abyss'', located 1 kilometre from Upper Colliery Dam, has become a popular destination for tourists, hikers, and geologists.

References

External links