Back in the early 1900s, logs were dumped from a railway pier right into Sooke Harbour, as shown in this 1915 photo given to us by Eddy George.
Early in the century, it was considered that there would be a land boom up the DeMamiel Valley and forces were set in motion with this objective in mind. Not only was a standard gauge railway, called the Sylvania, laid seven miles up into the valley, but a four-storey hotel was built in 1912 to house the expected rush of potential land purchasers. This hotel was built on the headland that rises up on the west bank of the Sooke River where it flows into the harbour.
Following on west of the Sooke River bridge, the gravel road swerved towards the water at what is now Belvista. At the point where the road climbed upward again, almost up to Drennan, the Sylvania Rail line, which had skirted around the west side of the saltwater swamp, terminated on the wharf, as we see in this image. Loading up its flatdecks in the Robinson Road area and wending eastward near Helgesen Road, the steam locomotive ended its journey by dumping its logs into the harbour.
Many of the logs were towed to the nearby Charters Sawmill, where they were milled into lumber which would be barged to various points on the waterfront, such as Glenairley in East Sooke. Other substantial buildings constructed in that time period included the original Holy Trinity Anglican Church in 1912.
A number of local folks got employment on the Sylvania line, including brothers Harry, Louis and Eddy George, and Jim Elliott, Gustave Planes and Frank Lidstone. One of the chores was cutting the cordwood needed to fuel the Climax steam locomotive.
History, of course, does not always follow its expected course, and with the advent of the First World War in 1914, the expected land boom did not materialize and the logging railway ceased operating.
The magnificent four-storey hotel on the headland, initially called Sooke Harbour Hotel and later named the Belvedere, became a centre for a different clientele, which according to rumour, was sometimes connected to rum running. While managed in 1919 by Major George Nicholson, in 1927 it came under the management of the Robillard brothers, Raoul and Andre. Sadly, in 1934, the hotel burned to the ground.
Elida Peers is the historian with Sooke Region Museum.
