Pender Islands Historical Timeline

On July 16, the Pender Islands Museum opens in the historic Roe House at Roesland in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

The BC Provincial Disc Golf Tournament returns to Pender with over 100 competitors.

“Currents“, a time-share development around Otter Bay Marina, is built on the former herring saltery location in Hayashi Cove.

Morning Bay Vineyard, now the Sea Star Vineyards and Farm Estate, opens as Pender’s first winery.

A 39-hectare nature reserve known as Loretta’s Wood, encompassing most of Mount Menzies, is transferred from the Islands Trust Fund to the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

Hope Bay Centre re-opens with a restaurant, shops, gallery, services, and offices.

Poets Cove Resort opens on South Pender’s Bedwell Harbour.

Greenburn Lake and adjacent properties on South Pender are acquired for inclusion in the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve.

The Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, Canada’s 40th National Park, is created. On Pender, it includes Mount Norman Park, Beaumont Marine Park, Prior Centennial Campground (formerly a BC Provincial Park), Pacific Marine Legacy Lands at Roe Lake and Roesland, and a portion of Mount Menzies.

“Hope Bay Rising Holdings Ltd.”, a group of islanders, acquires the Hope Bay Store property. A new business complex opens in 2004.

The Bedwell Harbour Resort on South Pender Island is closed and demolished. Construction on Poets Cove Resort begins. Developers face controversy and fines for destroying ancient Coast Salish village and cemetery sites.

Parks Canada offers the 1908 Roe family home at Roesland to the Museum Society on the condition that the society will bring the building up to standards for public use as a museum. The Bert and Irene Roe house up the laneway is derelict and later demolished.

New Pender Island Community Hall opens on land donated by Karl Hamson in the mid-1990s. The women of Pender carve three “welcome poles“ for the new hall, working under the mentorship of Ts’msyen master carver, storyteller, and educator Victor Reece.

A 100-year time capsule is installed at the Pender Cemetery by the Pender Islands Museum Society with 106 sponsors, to be opened July 1, 2100.

Tru Value Foods expands significantly, moving to its current location at the Driftwood Centre.

Brooks Point on South Pender is acquired by the Capital Regional District (CRD) as a conservation area.

Land at Gowlland Point land is purchased by the CRD for a future Regional Park.

Dragonfly Child Care and Family Resource Centre at the school opens as a licensed day care.

The Hope Bay Store complex is destroyed by fire in the early hours of Sunday, February 23rd.

The Davidsons sell Roesland to the Pacific Marine Heritage Legacy Lands program. The lands will later form part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve in 2003.

St. Peter’s Anglican Church, built in 1915, is moved to a larger parcel on Canal Road where there is space for a parish hall and parking.

A relay tower is erected at the top of North Pender to extend cell phone use.

With major community support, the Medicine Beach property is acquired by the Islands Trust and Pender Islands Conservancy Association (PICA).

Tru Value Foods, a full-service grocery, opens at the Driftwood Centre, replacing “The Grocery Store“ which was in what is today’s Pender Pharmacy location.

The Newcomers Club is created to acquaint newcomers with elements of island life and to make new friends.