Pioneers persevered at Strandby

Originally published in the North Island Gazette March 22, 2006.

With the construction of the North Coast Trail many people have been introduced to the beautiful rugged wilderness of the North end of Vancouver Island.

Most will not realize that in the early part of the twentieth century, almost every cove along this part of the coast was inhabited by rugged individuals who lived in near total isolation under trying conditions.

The North Coast of the Island was at one time home to the Nahwetti First Nation, and is today claimed as the traditional territory of both the Quatsino and the Tlatlasikwala First Nations.

A surveyor's report from November 1892 identifies 'Cache Creek' as the watershed to the East of the Cape Scott area.  Apparently fishermen would cache belongings in this cove while they made their way offshore to their fishing grounds. Gold and fool's gold were both found on the banks of an adjacent "Irony Creek," and on the beach.

Soren Christainsen was the first to homestead at the mouth of Cache Creek in the 1890s.  His sister Marie arrived in 1903 and helped him to take care of his home.  Soren Hill is named for this early settler.

In 1905 Harry Shuttleworth homesteaded to the west of Cache Creek.  He married Christiansen's sister in 1908.  The Shuttleworths farmed and raised 30 head of cattle which were pastured under the large old growth trees of the rainforest.

The year 1911 was a busy one in Cache Creek.  James Sim pre-empted a quarter section, and he and his wife Jesse and their twin babies walked all of their belongings along a trail to their homestead.  Harry Shuttleworth's brother Robert, his wife Sarah, and their five children also arrived.  A friend of the Shuttleworths, Tom Lockwood, also arrived with his family.

In December of that year the Sim's home burned down and the family lost everything.  Locals helped them to build another house, but the possessions which the family had brought with them from Scotland were all lost.

In March 1911 a post office was established with Harry Shuttleworth as postmaster, but the community was not allowed to use the name Cache Creek, because there was already a Cache Creek in BC.  Marie (Christiansen) Shuttleworth suggested that the community be named after Strandby, the town of her childhood on the North East shore of Denmark.

In 1912 another three families arrived in the area, and the following year a school opened in the Sim's residence.

A small store also operated in the community.  Strandby had approximately 14 families as permanent residents at the is time, and a trail was constructed from Strandby to Nahwitti.  With no steamer service and no road to connect it to other communities on the North Island, life in Strandby was difficult.  Settlers were stuck in the wilderness for months at a time, and had to rely on their ingenuity to survive.

With the outbreak of the Great War many people left their homesteads to enlist or to join the war effort.  

Strandby existed until 1921, but the population steadily dwindled.  Soren Christiansen died in 1915 and was buried on the hill overlooking the bay.

James Sim lived on "The Stump Ranch" until 1938, and afterward continued to visit the area.

Marie and Henry Shuttleworth lived in Strandby until their deaths in 1938 and 1941. They are buried in the Anglican cemetery in Alert Bay.

In 1947 the Hydrographic Service recommended identifying the location of the now abandoned town site as Stranby, for the old townsite and post office.

The name stuck until local historian Ruth Botel noted the discrepancy in spelling, and in 2005 the name was officially changed back to Strandby.