Comox (English: ) is a town on the southern coast of the Comox Peninsula in the Strait of Georgia on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Thousands of years ago, the warm dry summers, mild winters, fertile soil, and abundant sea life attracted First Nations, who called the area kw'umuxws (Kwakʼwala, the adopted language of the Kʼómoks, for plentiful).
When the area was opened for settlement in the mid-19th century, it quickly attracted farmers, a lumber industry and a fishing industry. For over fifty years, the village remained isolated from the outside world other than by ship until roads and a railway were built into the area during the First World War. The installation of an air force base near the village during the Second World War brought new prosperity to the area, and in recent years, Comox attracts tourists for its fishing; local wildlife; year-round golf; and proximity to the Mount Washington ski area, the Forbidden Plateau, and Strathcona Provincial Park. The town is also home to a Royal Canadian Air Force base CFB Comox, an airport for military and commercial airline use and the Sea Cadet training facility HMCS Quadra. The mild climate has attracted many retirees to the area in the 21st century, which has resulted in a high rate of growth and a sharp increase in the median age of residents.
The town of Comox is in the Comox Valley. Other communities in the Comox Valley include Courtenay, Cumberland, and the unincorporated hamlets of Royston, Union Bay, Fanny Bay, Black Creek and Merville. The nearby Comox Glacier is visible from many parts of the town and is the area's signature landmark. It is close (17 km [11 mi]) to Denman Island in the Strait of Georgia.
Contents
History
Before arrival of Europeans
Archaeological evidence suggests there was an active Coast Salish fishing settlement at Comox for at least 4,000 years. Due to its gentle climate, fertile soil and abundant sea life, the Laich-kwil-tach conquerors of the area, and of the Kʼómoks, called the area kw'umuxws (Li'kwala for plentiful), which was eventually anglicized to Komoux and then to Comox.
At the time of first contact with Europeans, the Pentlatch Nation, who spoke the Island Comox dialect of the Comox Coast Salish language, occupied the shores of present-day Comox Bay (The last speaker of the Island Comox dialect died in 1995). Another Island Comox speaking Nation, the Kʼómoks, occupied settlements further north along the east coast of Vancouver Island, in the area of present-day Campbell River, including Quadra Island and several other Gulf Islands.
At the fishing village located at present-day Comox, the Pentlatch set out elaborate fishing weirs—nets on tidal flats tied to wooden stakes that would be covered at high tide but uncovered at low tide, allowing trapped fish to be removed. These wooden stakes can still be seen at low tide—local archaeologist Nancy Greene has estimated that up to 200,000 wooden stakes remain in the mud flats. Several of these wooden stakes were carbon dated, revealing the oldest to be made from a hemlock tree c.750 CE, while the youngest dated from around 1830. Some scientists estimate that the weirs could have supported a population of several thousand people. The Pentlatch also harvested the abundant shellfish in Comox Bay. Centuries of discarded shells resulted in a deep strata of shell fragments along the shoreline of present-day Comox now known as the Great Comox Midden.
By the 19th century, the Kʼómoks had been driven out of their lands by a particularly fierce group of Kwakwakaʼwakw, the Laich-kwil-tach, who raided other villages to capture slaves. The Kʼómoks migrated south to present-day Comox, where they allied with the resident Pentlatch against their common enemy. In 1862, a smallpox epidemic swept across Vancouver Island, killing an estimated 30% of First Nations people. A census of First Nations in the Comox Valley taken in 1876 revealed that the local First Nations population had dwindled to only 88 Kʼómoks and 21 Pentlatch.
Early European explorers
In 1579, Francis Drake, on his circumnavigation of the globe in the Golden Hind, found a good port somewhere along the northwest coast of North America and stayed for several months while restocking supplies and trading with the inhabitants of the area. He named the region New Albion—Latin for "New Britain". Drake's detailed logs—and the exact location of Nova Albion— were later lost in a 17th-century fire, but some historians believe Drake made a landing at Comox.
In 1791, a Spanish expedition led by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores produced a crude chart of the Strait of Georgia and possibly visited Comox. Captain George Vancouver arrived the following year, tasked by the British government with charting the northwest coast of North America. Vancouver, in concert with the Spanish expedition, entered the Courtenay River estuary between the present-day locations of Courtenay and Comox and charted the shoreline of Comox.
Nineteenth century: settlement
By the middle of the 19th century, European and American settlements had sprung up in the Vancouver area and on southern Vancouver Island. In 1837, the Hudson's Bay Company steamship Beaver began to search the south and east coasts of Vancouver Island for suitable locations for new trading posts, and subsequently set up a post in the area, calling it "Komoux".
HMS Constance, commanded by Captain Courtenay, was a frequent visitor to the area, and was one of the first ships to use Augusta Bay and a long sandy hook-shaped spit (now "the Goose Spit") for gunnery practice. In 1848, the river flowing through the Koumax valley was informally named the Courtenay River by British sailors after their captain. In 1857, Captain George Richards of HMS Plumper was tasked with undertaking a complete survey of the coastline of Vancouver Island, and was given authority to name local landmarks. When he arrived in the area, he confirmed the name as the Courtenay River.
In 1853 Sir James Douglas, then governor of Vancouver Island, took a journey up the coast of Vancouver Island aboard SS Beaver, and recognized the area's agricultural potential. In 1861, Lieutenant Richard Mayne of the Royal Navy visited the area and wrote of the rich agricultural prospects of the area, saying it had taken him a day and a half to walk on the land "through which a plough might be driven from end to end". That same year Governor Douglas issued a land and settlement proclamation for the Koumox Valley, intending to divert new settlers away from the Victoria area as well as from the newly discovered Cariboo gold fields. He offered land in the valley for $1 per acre and free transportation to the area.
Although some unofficial settlers had arrived in previous years, the first government-approved settlers arrived in 1862 aboard HMS Grappler. Scottish immigrant James Robb, age 44, and his son William realized that the shoreline along the former Kʼómoks fishing village and the Great Comox Midden was sheltered from the prevailing south east winds by the sandy hook of the Goose Spit, and would be the only place between the Courtenay River and the Spit suitable for landing supplies. Rather than claiming lots on the relatively flat and untreed "prairies" along the east side of the Courtenay River like the other settlers, Robb and his son preempted 106 ha (262 acres) of steep and heavily forested land along the shore of the bay, with the idea of clearing the land, building a dock and then selling town lots for the village that would inevitably spring up at the site.
Twentieth century
In the early years of the 20th century, technology began to arrive in the Comox Valley, starting in 1910 with telephone service. The same year, the Comox Logging and Railway Company was incorporated, and started moving steam-powered equipment to the area to exploit the stands of old growth Douglas fir lying between Comox and Campbell River. With sole access to these forests, the company quickly became the largest logging concern on Coastal British Columbia. Eventually the company had 450 employees who used six huge steam-powered logging machines, a dozen locomotives, and hundreds of miles of train track to move billions of board feet of logs down to the coast, where the timber was boomed and towed to the largest sawmilling operation in the British Empire at New Westminster. Also in 1910, the road from Nanaimo promised almost 60 years before was finally built, linking the Comox Valley to southern Vancouver Island. The first automobile owned by Walter Scott came to Comox in 1910 but at that time most of the roads were a hazard to navigate and most were primitive horse and buggy trails. Electricity arrived in nearby Courtenay in 1913 courtesy of a hydroelectric dam on the Puntledge River, but service was not extended to Comox until 1920. In 1914 the E&N Railway arrived in nearby Courtenay, and daily mail service to and from the outside world, now delivered by rail rather than ship, became quick and reliable. The influx of loggers and the attendant injuries clearly required a hospital, and in 1914, four nursing sisters from the order of St. Joseph in Toronto arrived to staff the new St. Joseph's Hospital, originally a re-purposed house with room for only ten patients, although it expanded rapidly in the following years.
With the advent of the First World War I in 1914, many local men wished to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force but had to travel out of the Valley in order to enlist. In response, the local 102nd Battalion was formed on November 5, 1915, drawing recruits from across northern British Columbia and eventually reaching a total strength of 3,863. Their training camp was at the Goose Spit, and through one of the coldest and snowiest winters in memory, shelter and clothing proved to be totally inadequate. Ironically, these trials better prepared the soldiers for the ordeals of trench warfare. On June 10, 1916, the men embarked on SS Princess Charlotte for their long journey to Europe. Ten days later in Halifax, they were transferred to RMS Empress of Britain for the voyage to England. They arrived in France on August 12, in time to participate in the closing days of the 1916 Somme campaign. From that time, they were involved in every major action by the Canadian Corps, resulting in a 62% casualty rate. Soldiers of the battalion were Mentioned in Dispatches twenty-six times, and were awarded one Victoria Cross, five Distinguished Service Medals, and two hundred and twenty-seven Military Crosses or Military Medals.
Twenty-first century
By the turn of the 21st century, although Comox Valley contained half of the agricultural land on Vancouver Island, jobs were moving away from other resource-based industries such as fishing and logging. The largest employers were now CFB 19 Wing Comox, the local school board, Mount Washington Alpine Resort and St. Joseph Hospital. Daily commercial jet service helped expand tourism and business opportunities in the town, and Comox's population, which had remained stagnant since the 1970s, increased by 6.5% from 2001 to 2006. Many of the newcomers were retirees, raising the town's median age from 42.1 to 46.2 in only 5 years.
In 2011, the 133-year-old Lorne Hotel, still an ongoing commercial enterprise and the oldest free-standing licensed hotel in British Columbia, was destroyed by fire.
Demographics
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Comox had a population of 14,806 living in 6,442 of its 6,672 total private dwellings, a change of 5.5% from its 2016 population of 14,028. With a land area of 16.87 km2 (6.51 sq mi), it had a population density of 877.7/km2 (2,273.1/sq mi) in 2021.
According to the federal 2021 census, the median age in 2016 was 52.5 years old with 49.6 for men and 55.2 for women. Median after-tax household income (2020) was $74,500.
Language
As of 2016, 12,440 gave English as their "mother tongue", followed by French, at 480.
Religion
According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Comox included:
Irreligion (8,415 persons or 58.7%)
Christianity (5,540 persons or 38.7%)
Buddhism (70 persons or 0.5%)
Judaism (40 persons or 0.3%)
Sikhism (35 persons or 0.2%)
Hinduism (25 persons or 0.2%)
Islam (10 persons or 0.1%)
Other (205 persons or 1.4%)
Climate
Comox has a warm-summer mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb). Due to its position on a small peninsula surrounded by the waters of the Strait of Georgia, Comox Bay and the Courtenay River estuary, Comox enjoys temperate weather year-round: summer temperatures average 22 °C (72 °F) and rarely reach 30 °C (86 °F), while winter temperatures rarely fall below freezing. Although annual precipitation averages 1,179 mm (46.4 in), almost 80% of this falls between October and March, mainly as rain rather than snow. The result is dry, sunny summers, and mild, wet winters.
The all time heat record for Comox is 38.0 °C (100.4 °F) which was set on June 27, 2021, at the Comox weather station.
Local attractions
The Filberg Festival, named for the park in which it is held, is an arts and crafts fair that takes place each summer on the BC Day long weekend. On the same weekend, Comox also holds "Nautical Days" in Comox Marina Park, featuring an arts and crafts festival, a parade, a classic car show, the "Build, Bail and Sail" amateur boat-building competition and live music.
Comox is host to two of the nine local museums in the Comox Valley. Comox Museum and Archives offers a glimpse into the history of the town of Comox. The Comox Air Force Museum commemorates the role and history of 19 Wing, and documents significant achievements in coastal military aviation history.
The Comox North-East Woods is a conservation area home to numerous walking and biking trails. It also includes the Lazo Marsh- North East Comox Wildlife Management Area.
Goose Spit Park is a sand spit formed by the Willemar Bluffs, which, along with Gartley Point enclose the Comox Harbour. The park features a diverse shoreline of both rocky and sandy beaches, offering views to the east and west. It is a popular destination for outdoor recreation, including paddle boarding, kayaking, and kiteboarding.
Health care
St. Joseph General Hospital (SJGH) was founded by four nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto in 1913, to provide the needed health care to the settlers of the Comox Valley and its active logging industry. Initially housed in a converted house with room for only 10 patients, it grew to 235 beds, 110 for acute care and 125 for complex care.
In 2017 the new north island hospital opened in Courtenay and subsequently St Joseph's hospital ceased to be an acute care facility. It still provides laboratory services and also houses "The Views", residential care and services to members of the community who can no longer live alone independently. The Views at St. Joseph's is owned and operated by the Providence Residential & Community Care (PRCC) Services Society. It is accountable to – and works in partnership with – our residents, patients, and their families, the Vancouver Island Health Authority, The B.C. Ministry of Health and the taxpayers of B.C. The Views at St. Joseph's operates under a Master Agreement between the Province of British Columbia and the Denominational Health Association. The agreement recognizes the rights of owners of denominational care facilities to own, manage and operate their respective facilities and carry out their respective religious missions. It obligates the owners to meet provincial standards and national accreditation for health care.
Education
The School District 71 Comox Valley operates public schools in Comox.
Elementary schools:
Airport Elementary
Aspen Park Elementary
Brooklyn Elementary
École Au Coeur de l'île (Francophone school)
École Robb Road Elementary (French immersion)
Secondary schools:
Highland Secondary School
(Some Comox students attend Mark R. Isfeld Senior Secondary School or Georges P. Vanier Secondary School in Courtenay)
Comox is also home to the private Christian school (K–12), the Phil and Jennie Gaglardi Academy.
The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique operates one Francophone primary and secondary school, École Au-coeur-de-l'île.
Post-secondary education
North Island College
Excel Career College
North Island Distance Education Society
Sprott Shaw College
Media
Comox Valley Record
Island Word
CFB Comox Totem Times
Radio
CKLR-FM – 97.3 MHz
CFCP-FM – 98.9 MHz
Television
Shaw TV – Cable 4
Notable people
These people either grew up in, or spent a significant portion of their life, in Comox:
Freedom of the Town
The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Comox.
Individuals
Wing commander James Francis "Stocky" Edwards : June 2007.
John Marinus: August 16, 2017.
Russ Arnott: October 5, 2022.
Military units
HMCS Quadra
19 Wing Comox