Early Cartography of Gabriola

"Several early charts of the area were compiled by the Spanish navy, the British navy, and the Hudson's Bay Company... Spanish naval officer [Dionisio] Alcalá Galiano's charts of Gabriola were drawn on his visit to Gabriola in 1792...Surprisingly, the earliest known nineteenth century map of Gabriola Island was published by the Russians in 1852."

Many thanks to local historian Nick Doe; from the slide show he shared with us of First Nations pertroglyphs of early tide or current tables, dazzling maritime art, and of course the maps themselves to his original research and detective work in Europe and the Basque involving a missing/overlooked map bearing on the origin of Gabriola's name, all made for an evening not to be missed. And, with consummate showmanship, he finally cleared-up the puzzle/politics behind the Russians publishing Hudson Bay maps before Hudson Bay did..

SHALE editor and Gabriola historian Nick Doe speaks on early naval map-making around Gabriola