A Fair Isle Indeed – Bowen Island British ColumbiaBy Barbara WiltshireThere are few places left in North America where almost nobody locks their doors, everybody knows your name, and when you need milk, you walk to the village. Bowen Island British Columbia is such a place.
It’s a place where people dare to wake up and decide to become artists or singers or writers. Indeed the annual ‘Sun Market’ craft fair, not only attracts tourists but serves as a local place to display the local crafts created during the long rainy winters.
Could the peace and tranquility of this island change…certainly.
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In a frenzied and harried world there are few places to be found where almost an entire community knows your name and the names of your children and entrance to the island closes at 10pm. This special place is Bowen Island, and sits just a 20 minute ferry ride from mainland British Columbia’s Horseshoe Bay in the calm waters of Howe Sound. The island boasts 2 grocery stores, a butcher, 2 hairdressers, a building supply center, several restaurants and shops, schools and dozens of B & B establishments as camping and hotels are non-existant. You also won’t find a Big Mac, Burger King or any other western franchise ikon and you won’t find any stop lights. You could arrive at this Tom Sawyer like island and never go off although more than half of the island population does for either school or work.
The population of Bowen Island at last count was pegged at around 3,000, but that number dramatically swells when the ‘summer people’ arrive in July to re-inhabit the many cottages owned for generations by returning vacationers. Once dubbed, ‘Happy Isle’, Bowen Island was, in it’s golden days, a day-trip destination for party seeking Vancouverites. Island businesses still boast the original Union Steamship Company logo at the local marina and chandlery.
Now the census places Bowen Island with the distinction of having more children under the age of 5, per capital adult than any place else in B.C. The party days now center around such festivities as the annual ‘Dog Days’ celebration on the boardwalk which lines up all the island muts for spirited contests.
On an island where kids freely roam, the annual Bowfest celebration in August is easily the main event with more residents in the opening parade than watching it..jpg)
It takes a special personality to brave the rigours of an island paradise. For starters, life on Bowen Island is dependent on an hourly ferry arrival from the mainland…both to bring supplies and to transport exiting workers and highschool students off. The first ferry leaves Bowen Island at 5:35am and the last ferry leaves at 10.05pm, although residents have been known to give lagging visitors an earlier final departure time just for the sake of peace and quiet. It is a marine community where sailing, kayaking and incoming and departing ferries co-exist in a busy Snug Cove bay.
But once adapted to a life with a moat separating one from real life, the rewards are tangible. You’ll think it impossible, but it’s an island where a person could advertise in the local Undercurrent newspaper that a $20 bill was found at Pebbly Beach and could the owner please call to claim. It’s an ‘I’ll pay you tomorrow’ kind of place. It’s a place where everyone has their favorite beach and they may or may not want to tell you where that is. It’s a place where you are considered a newcomer for at least 20 years.
Local realtors are in a boom period with the upcoming 2010 Olympics in Whistler,which is about an hour away. Property prices are soaring, new developments and even a golf course are in the works.
Long time residents in some cases fear the inevitable changes and the local municipal government struggles to maintain the fragile island structure. But for now paradise can be found on the quiet shores of Bowen Island British Columbia.