Hardy Bay land scam helped to build community

Original article published in the North Island Gazette February 23, 2012

Until the early 1900s, Port Hardy was a small community situated on the opposite side of the bay, across from present day Port Hardy.
The population was more or less stable, with a few families that operated a small hotel and a couple of stores.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s the government was trying to encourage settlement on the coast, and pre-emptions were offered to homesteaders who agreed to make improvements, which usually included clearing a portion of the land and building a house.
Many locations around the North Island were settled by homesteaders during this period.
Much immigration to Canada was happening during this time, and it was not uncommon for people to move to a new location, sight unseen.
In early 1912 the Hardy Bay Lands Company Ltd. was incorporated in Victoria.  The company reported it had 1000 shares and $100,000 in capital.

Its purpose was to promote the sale of land in Hardy Bay across Canada and throughout the United Kingdom through advertisements, brochures, and billboards.
Unfortunately, the advertising used to lure settlers to the North Island was highly speculative and misleading.

The Daily Colonist, July 28, 1912

Some time earlier, in order to protect future interests, James Dunsmuir (former Premier of BC and heir to the Dunsmuir mining empire), had filed a notice of intent to build a railway from the Comox/Cumberland area to Port Hardy.  Dunsmuir didn't actually intend to build the railway, he just wanted to lock up the rights to build the railway in case natural resource development on the North Island started to develop on a larger scale.
Armed with this information, the Hardy Bay Lands Company advertised properties which featured rolling farmland, rolling hills, a rail line and a sea terminal - a far cry from reality in the rugged outpost community.
People who purchased lots believed they were buying property in a bustling community.  Lots were advertised for between $125 and $145 and were available for $40 down.  Land was said to be "The finest area of farm land on Vancouver Island, especially for dairy purposes."

Victoria Daily Colonist newspaper - March 19, 1912

Prospective buyers were told the announced construction of a new railway to the North end of the island was imminent, and that land values would rise significantly in a short period of time.
The company even published a dubious newspaper - The Hardy Bay News - in 1913/14.  It contained many world events interspersed with tidbits of local news, including the story of a local woman who fell 20 ft from a dock onto the rocky beach at low tide, miraculously sustaining no serious injuries.
Many families spent their life savings to purchase a lot, then booked passage on a steamer to Port Hardy with what livestock and farm implements they would afford, with the intent of starting a new life full of opportunity.
Unfortunately when they arrived they found a small community with little more than a store and hotel, and a vast forest wilderness.  Some of the properties were actually subtidal, the are a surveyed being under water at low tide.
By 1914 the company had disappeared, along with its assets.  No one ever successfully sued the Hardy Bay Lands Company.
Many of the settlers who arrived took one look at the 'town' and got right back on the steamer back to Vancouver or Victoria.  Many had to sell their livestock to Alexander Lyon to pay for their passage back.
A number of families opted to stay.  They obtained crown pre-emptions and cleared land to farm.  A number of these families ended up in the area around Kains Lake.
The families of Alfred Moon and Peter Sandcock arrived in the spring of 1913.  After finding that the land they had purchased from the Hardy Bay Lands Company was non-existent, they secured 156 hectares at the mouth of the Tsulquate River.  The horses they brought for farming ended up being used to haul freight and mail over the path between Hardy Bay and Coal Harbour on Quatsino Sound.
The Port Hardy family history book, "A Dream Come True," noted that a widow, Mrs. Fenton, arrived as a part of the land scam with her children.
The family stayed, but unfortunately was beset with tragedy.  One son was killed in a logging accident, another was lost at sea on a trip to Seymour Inlet, a third died after falling off his boat during a drinking binge at Rivers Inlet, and a fourth died of a heart attack.
The Hardy Bay lands scam did have the effect of contributing to an increase in the population of Hardy Bay.  By 1919 there were 23 families and a number of single men living in the community.