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Salt Spring Island is the largest, most populated, and most visited of the Gulf Islands chain, named by officers of the Hudson's Bay Company for the cold and briny saltwater springs on the north end of the island.
Saltspring has been a seasonal home of the Coast Salish First Nations since the time of European settlement, and evidence suggests that permanent settlements existed for centuries prior to that, on the south coast of the island where the Tsawout Band Reserve is located today. The Wsanec people of the Saanich, British Columbia Peninsula and the Cowichan people from the Cowichan Valley frequented the island's shores and harvested its resources.
The island was explored by the Spanish and British in the 1700s, and settled in the 1850s by early pioneers who had abandoned their Fraser River gold rush hopes. A group of 9 Negro slaves, who had purchased their liberty in the United States, arrived at Vesuvius in 1857.
Further black settlers, mainly from California, were followed by European immigrants from Portugal and Scandinavia, and British and Hawaiian (Kanakas) settlers originally recruited by the Hudson's Bay Company.
Is the island named Saltspring or Salt Spring? The Oxford Dictionary of Canadian Place Names indicates it was called Salt Spring Island by the Hudson's Bay Company in the early 1800s. In 1910 the name was changed to Saltspring by the Geographic Board of Canada, which often fused multiple-word place names. So, officially it is one word, but local usage tends to prefer two words, although it is not unanimous. Canada Post accepts both spellings of the name.
Saltspring Island is the most densely populated of the Gulf Islands and is also home to the biggest Gulf Island provincial campground, Ruckle Provincial Park. The island's shoreline is varied and beautiful, offering rocky shores, tidal pools to explore, shell beaches for beachcombing, and a wide variety of sandy beaches. Of the 22 ocean beaches, 4 are designated for swimming.
The rugged and mountainous southern end of the island is dominated by Mount Tuam and Mount Bruce, separated from the equally mountainous mid-island region by the Fulford Valley, located between Fulford Harbour and Burgoyne Bay. The north end of the island has a lower elevation, with rolling pastures, deciduous forests and the majority of residential developments, mainly around the village of Ganges.
Ganges was named for HMS Ganges, wich was stationed there between 1857 and 1861. HMS Ganges was a 2nd rate, 2,284 tons, 84 gun warship of the British Royal Navy.
Saltspring is 18 miles (29 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide, with 83 miles (133 km) of shoreline (182 square kilometres). The island attracts visitors and prospective residents with its mild climate and annual sunshine in excess of 2,000 hours. The population of the island is 10,000.
Saltspring Island is located in the sheltered waters of the Southern Gulf Islands of British Columbia. Because of its close proximity to Vancouver Island, Saltspring is the most accessible of the Gulf chain of islands, with the most frequent ferry sailings on three routes to three ferry terminals. BC Ferries links Fulford Harbour with Swartz Bay (near Sidney), and also links Vesuvius to Crofton on Vancouver Island. There is a BC Ferries dock in nearby Long Harbour with links to both Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island and Tsawwassen, on the BC mainland. Floatplanes also link the village of Ganges to Vancouver and Seattle.
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