6.4.52

1912-1914 -- Porpoise Bay and Sechelt's second school

The building on the left was used by Japanese fishermen for repairing their boats and nets. It was known as the Yamamoto Boat Works and was where Basil Joe and his brother Philip had built the first gas boat owned by the Sechelt Indian Band. Later Mr. Henry John Mills and one of his sons pulled down the structure for its lumber. In the spring of 1913 it became Sechelt's second school until a new one was built at the other end of the foot bridge in 1914. B. C. Public Works Report April 1, 1912 to March 31, 1913 stated "One bridge, Porpoise Bay and Sechelt _ mile from Sechelt: 375 feet long Cost $166.95." Dr. Fred Inglis' medical inspection of the school for the period ending June 1914 said the building conditions were "poor and draughty; heating poor" and he reported there were no sanitary closets. Poise Island, site of tree burials, on the right in the photograph was known as Skeleton, Dead Man's and Cook's Island. A few human bones and the cedar platforms or boxes which once held them were still visible about 1920. The tall tree leaning slightly towards the building marked the rock bluff near the wharf. At this time the original Porpoise Bay wharf ran parallel to the rock bluff. The second wharf, built by the government in the 1920s, started on the shoreline about where the old boat repair building stood earlier.

Photograph #151 by Charles Bradbury See also oversize photograph 6.15.63