Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Chapters: Gabriola Island, Saltspring Island, Pender Island, Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, Galiano Island, Mayne Island, Savary Island, Saturna Island, Valdes Island, Hornby Island, Kuper Island, Denman Island, South Thormanby Island, Haro Strait, Lasqueti Island, Discovery Island, Prevost Island, Helliwell Provincial Park, Sidney Island, James Island, Mitlenatch Island Nature Provincial Park, North Thormanby Island, Active Pass, Jedediah Island Marine Provincial Park, Discovery Island Marine Provincial Park, Thetis Island, Portland Island, Moresby Island, Trial Islands Ecological Reserve, Tribune Bay Provincial Park, Mount Warburton Pike, Boundary Pass, Bedwell Harbour Water Aerodrome, Wallace Island Marine Provincial Park, Mount Geoffrey Escarpment Provincial Park, Wakes Cove Provincial Park, Mayne Island Water Aerodrome, Port Washington Water Aerodrome, De Courcy Island, Parker Island, D'Arcy Island, Chatham Islands, Mount Geoffrey Regional Nature Park, Mudge Island, Ruxton Island, Penelakut, North Secretary Island, Belle Chain Islets, Protection Island, Sandy Island Marine Provincial Park, Piers Island, Dayman Island, Sansum Narrows, Sabine Channel Provincial Park, Trincomali Channel, Plumper Sound, Pioneer Pacific Camp, Buccaneer Bay Provincial Park, Squitty Bay Provincial Park, Lagoon Cove, British Columbia, Skull Islet, Fillongley Provincial Park, Whaleboat Island Marine Provincial Park, Boyle Point Provincial Park, Mansons Landing Provincial Park, Saturna, British Columbia, Main Lake Provincial Park. Excerpt: Gabriola Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia, in British Columbia (BC), Canada. Gabriola lies about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to which it is linked by ferry. It has a land area of about 57.6 square kilometres (22.2 sq mi) and a resident population of slightly more than 4,000. Gabriola has a mild climate, public beaches, and forested parks, as well as housing, roads, shopping centres, restaurants, a library, a school, and a museum. Its cultural life includes annual festivals related to art, gardens, music, boating, and fishing. Gabriola is part of the traditional territory of the Snunéymux, and the name of the nearby city, Nanaimo, is an anglicized form of their name. The earliest archeological record on Gabriola is a cave burial dated to about 1500 BCE, but sites on nearby Valdes Island and other Gulf Islands have been found to date to at least 3000 BCE, and similar sites might exist on Gabriola. The pre-contact population of Gabriola has been difficult to estimate, but in mid-Marpole times-between about 0 and 1000 CE-several thousand people lived in the village at False Narrows, the site of today's El Verano Drive. Archaeologists have found that infant mortality at that time was surprisingly low and that the population was well adapted to its environment. Other smaller villages on Gabriola were scattered around the coast. After contact, and perhaps as early as 1500 CE, the population of the Snunéymux declined drastically because of smallpox and other diseases brought to North America by Europeans. The island is famous for its petroglyphs, which are commonly asserted to be thousands of years old. The reality is that they are almost impossible to date. Because they are carved in relatively soft sandstone, they are eroding rapidly. The first European visit to Gabriola was by the Spanish schooner Santa Saturnina under J...
