Cruisin Fever to Alaska: A Happy or Sad Affair?

Cannery Ruins

Abandoned Village - Queens Cove

Before leaving Walters Cove, our sailboat friends and their two little girls came into port and tied-up behind us. It was a special treat to see them again; I played with the girls while their parents shopped at the grocery store – no doubt I was working out grandma withdrawals. We said goodbye and left Kyuquot Sound/Inlet, once again cruising along the coast among rocky islets, reaching the next Inlet of Esperanza. We anchored in Queen Cove, where a wrecked fish-boat and concrete ruins of an old cannery lie near the shore. A cove just around the corner called Queens Cove is the site of an abandoned Native community. As we approached the village by dinghy, we could see a church steeple through the trees and six houses along the shore. We hiked to the old mission church and discovered it to be mostly in ruins, only the steeple stood tall atop the rubble. The houses held personal items that were left behind, including kitchen wares, children’s toys, and even some family photographs still hung on the walls. The beach seemed to speak to us as well revealing activities of the past: an old dugout canoe lay next to an aluminum skiff, the carving of a canoe paddle left unfinished, and fishing nets yet to be completed. The village was formerly occupied by members of the Ehattesaht Band; it was recorded in 1979 that Chief David John’s grandfather, Chief Clakhoi, lived to be 115 years old in Queens Cove. The abandoned homes appeared to be from the 1960’s and 70’s and the two large generators we found stood silent. We also saw evidence of a water system (a capped well) provided by the Provincial Government. We surmise that the Natives left because there was no longer an economic reason for them to stay. But why did they leave so many things behind? Perhaps there wasn’t space to take everything with them, or perhaps they wanted to leave a remembrance behind. Natives seem to have a long history of being mobile which continues even to this day.