80th Anniversary

TeReview Wednesday, July 29,1992 — 4

Historic Tod Inlet has healed itself from industrial past

by Valerie Tamburri
Special to The Review

As you stand beneath the
branches of the giant western red
cedar growing out of a four-foot
tall cement casement, you feel the
overwhelming presence of the
land and among the rustling of
the leaves you can imagine faint

The solitude in this inlet
arouses a sense of wonder that
grows from bearing witness to a
place once bustling with people
and industry and now aban-
doned.

So rich in resources and so
beautiful, Tod Inlet has captured
the minds and imaginations of
people for centunes.

This narrow inlet contains a

DOCK and tracks with Chinese workers.

—

Courtesy of the B.C.

large shell midden near the mouth
of the creek and five known
archaeological sites.

One of these suggests that it
once was continually occupied for
as long as a thousand years by the
coastal Salish people and probably
contains an abundance of artifacts
and perhaps even human remains.

To local native Indian people,
Tod Inlet is “Sneetquilth,” the

Museum.

Congratulations to
The Review on it’s

SOth Anniversary

place of the blue grouse. For the
Tsartlip band, the inlet has pro-
found significance as a spiritual
Sife.

It was here that young Native
dancers came to bathe and be at
peace with the Great Spirit.

The first European reaction to
the inlet was not spiritual. It was
seen as an Opportunity to amass a
fortune.

In 1870, John Greig discovered
lime at Tod Inlet. Lime is an
essential ingredient in the making
of cement. The land was sold a
number of times until Robert But-
chart arrived and started the Van-
couver Portland Cement Company
in 1904.

Within six years houses were
built for employees and their fami-
lies. Bunk houses were built for 50
Hindu laborers who worked at the
mill. Many of them were coal
firemen on the boilers that sup-
plied the steam to drive the
machinery.

In a clearing surrounded by —
Douglas Fir and Bigleaf Maple

they gathered in a prayer to cre-
mate their dead.

There also was a village along
Tod Creek that housed 80 Chinese
workers. These workers loaded the
tock by hand into steel cars on a

track from where it was pushed to
the rock crusher.

Although few of the Chinese
workers names are recorded, one
will always be remembered. He
was called Sing, the boss of the
Chinese crew, and he did what few
people have ever done.

One day he noticed that the
explosives to be used in blasting in
the lime pit had been set too close
to the fire. He grabbed the explo-
sives and rushed them away from
the workers. They exploded and he
was killed. His bravery saved the
lives of others.

Cement from Tod Inlet was
critical to development of the West
Coast. It was used to build the
Victoria Harbour’s Canadian

‘Continued on Page 5

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Ss The Sidney Review

80th Anniversary

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