Askbud       Home     Animals     Lakes & Rivers   Island Shores   Plants      Tourism

Holberg

Last      Next        Return To North Island Tourism

 
Holbergs first influx of settlers occurred around 1900 as immigrants began to buy plots of land for agricultural purposes in the community and other surrounding townships. The success of these early settlements was largely hampered by the lack of good agricultural land along with bad weather and rugged topography. Attempts to develop farming communities at Cape Scott, San Josef Bay, and Sea Otter Cove proved to be dependent on overland connections to Holberg, which would serve as the primary point of entry to these communities from the south and the township of Holberg grew in population.

In 1938, logging started to take off and soon after the first logging camp was built,  the Canadian military selected Holberg as the sight of a new radar base.  Holberg supported a military base with over 1000 residents during the 50s. Both forestry and military needs would combine to finally justify large scale road building in the region. By the 1970's, a paved road linked Holberg with Port Hardy. But the road came too late for those North Island settlers who were forced to endure seventy years of isolation. Cape Scott, San Josef Bay, and Sea Otter Cove had ceased to exist as viable communities. All that remained was the town of Holberg, which itself was on the decline. In 1991 the Radar base was finally closed down, the logging and forestry operations around Holberg had already been reduced big time. Today, Holberg is little more then a gas station and general store on the road to Cape Scott Provincial Park.

Vancouver Island North of Nanaimo remained unsettled by white immigrants up until around 1881. After the 1884 Land Titles Act, optimistic immigrants began to stake claims over plots in various regions of the North Island. The settlers could choose any vacant 160 acre plot , as outlined by government officials. The first group of immigrants to settle in the Holberg district were the Danes. The sight was named after Baron Ludwig Holberg, a figure from Danish literature. It was situated in section 5 of township 32. Four other townships to the Northwest were set aside for settlement as well. These sites would turn into the communities of Cape Scott, Sea Otter Cove and San Josef Bay.

At the time of initial settlement, Holberg was extremely isolated. Local travel was limited to short distances on forest footpaths. In 1896, the government completed a road connecting Port Hardy to the southern island. After 1896 Settlers could sail down Holberg Inlet to Coal Harbor and then clamber 45 km over a rugged pack trail to reach Port Hardy on the east coast. The coastal communities of Cape Scott, Sea Otter Cove and San Josef Bay lacking quality harbors for cargo vessels were pleased with this new shorter route to bring in supplies. Now the flow of goods was primarily overland to Coal Harbor from Port Hardy and then by ship to Holberg and finally north  on pack trails to the northern communities. At the turn of the century, the trails connecting these settlements were roughly hewn from the mountainous countryside, making them impassable by wagon.

The Promise of a Road
During the summer of 1909 a wagon road from Holberg to Cape Scott was started. A steam donkey engine was off-loaded at the new Holberg wharf and was used to clear logs from the roadway over the following years. In the fall of 1908 the first post office was established at Holberg. In 1910 the government began to install telegraph lines along the trails connecting Holberg, Cape Scott, San Josef Bay, Sea Otter Cove and Shushartie Bay.

The road building, telegraph installation and creation of post offices created jobs and brought an influx of hopeful settlers to the region. Settlement spread outwards form the roadway into the valleys surrounding Holberg and San Josef Bay.
The idyllic dream of an agricultural Eden at the northern tip of Vancouver Island never materialized. Immigrants were faced with too many obstacles from Mother Nature. Average rainfall is over 400 cm per year and winter storms frequently pound the coast with winds up to 150 km. By the late 30s, there were few families left and the land was being reclaimed by nature.

Large Scale logging operations began in the Holberg area in 1938 under the BC Pulp & Paper Co. Ltd. out of Vancouver. Hemlock, Spruce and Balsam were harvested from company land surrounding Holberg Inlet and transported by boom to a large BC Pulp & Paper mill at Port Alice, on the southeast arm of Quatsino Sound. In 1942 the first floating housing buildings were towed into camp. At this time Holberg had only a combined post office/general store that serviced the handful of trappers and settlers who still populated the region.

The company camp was built entirely on floating wooden structures. This construction method allowed segments to be constructed elsewhere and towed by tugboat into Holberg Inlet. Sections could be easily added or removed in response to the changing needs of this remote logging community.

By 1948, over 250 men, women and children lived in the Holberg camp, which at the time made it the largest floating town in the world. The camp was over a quarter of a mile long with 50 detached buildings. Electricity, hot water, fire hall, pool hall, store, blacksmith, carpenter, warehouse, cold storage and a large community hall with seating for 260 were all provided to residents courtesy of BC Pulp & paper. A camp superintendent took the place of a major. The nearest police detachment was two hours away in Port Hardy. Gradually the floating structures became dilapidated as the weather took its toll. Camp operations began to move ashore in the 1960?s with the building of new warehouses and bunkhouses for workers. The site of these structures was chosen near the post office on a tree farm license where little flat land existed.

The cold war threat of air attack from the USSR prompted the federal government to invest in construction of a radar installation base at Holberg in 1950. The station was declared operational on 25 April 1954. Up until the road to Port Hardy was completed in the 1970s, the station was only accessible by Navy ship. Various small navy vessels plied the waters up and down Holberg Inlet, transferring supplies and passengers to this military outpost. Still, the base managed to support a population of 850 people at its peek. This small community was tight knit. As many amenities as the government could justify were provided to residents, from a large community hall to a small library. In 1991, the base was closed.


The 20th century brought some permanent settlement to the region courtesy of forestry and the military. Transient workers have moved in and out of the region based on the growth of forestry, mining and military needs.  Roads were built linking Cape Scott and the San Josef Valley with Port Hardy through Holberg. Resource extraction and the staple trade proved to be the push for road building. Though the road now exists, the area remains sparsely populated.

Today, Holberg is a great place to set out on a west coast adventure. There numerous trails that head out in many directions, trails to Shushartie bay, san Joseph bay and cape Scott, and the kayaking from here will give you more than you could ever ask for. The potential for eco tourism in this area is immense and is just beginning but you just wait, this place will become a mecca when it gets known more, this could be a good thing for those who live there but it will bring in more people and Holberg will lose its privacy.

 

Ronnings Wilderness Garden can be found in the forests near Holberg, Vancouver Island. The gardens were started in 1910 by Brent Ronning who was attracted to the region by its beauty and of a promise by the government to build a road that would connect Port Hardy to Cape Scott. The road was never built and many settlers pulled up stakes and left the area, but not Brent Ronning, he continued to live on the property until the early 1960s.

Brent Ronning cleared over 5 acres of land and planted a beautiful wilderness garden on these acres. He created this garden from seeds and clones of exotic plants and trees that  he ordered from all around the world.

He earned his living working as a fisherman and trapper, even sometimes as a camp cook. But his passion was his garden which later became known as Ronnings Garden. As the years past, the garden continued to grow in size and variety. Often people would stop in to visit while on route to Cape Scott or Raft Cove just to marvel at the garden.

In the 1970s, Brent passed away and the garden was left unattended, years of neglect allowed the west coast brush and trees to grow over the gardens. Eventually the hundreds of flowers shriveled away and Ronnings Garden almost disappeared. Some of the locals relished what was happening to the garden and took up the challenge to bring the gardens back to health again. Now the gardens are beautiful again, the trails are all cleared and Brent's legacy is thriving. Check the gardens out when you visit here and think of the work that was put in to create this wonder. Some of the locals, after seeing this treasure beginning to decay, stepped up and began to bring the gardens back to life. Some of the highlights of Ronnings Garden is the twisted Monkey Trees. The trees mark the entrance to Brent Ronnings home. The trails are cleared and meander throughout the historic homestead.

On the way into Holberg, on the east side of Kains Lake, there is an old Cedar tree snag covered in shoes. It is known as the Shoe Tree, it was started by hikers who placed their worn out boots and shoes after hiking  to Cape Scott.

Search Askbud        

Last      Next        Return To North Island Tourism

Contact information                      Visit  Buds Blog