Muir Creek History

"an ideal park in jeopardy"

The T’Sou-ke First Nation traditionally

used the Muir Creek area as a ceremonial

site for winter dancing and for fish

smoking. The creek mouth provided

a safe harbor for their canoes. Gord

Planes, of T’Sou-ke (Sooke) First Nation,

has documented early use of this area.

Artifacts that have been found include

pottery, arrowheads and a canoe anchor.

Muir Creek was named for John

Muir, a Scottish miner, born in 1799 in

Ayrshire. John Muir came to Victoria

in 1850 as a Hudson’s Bay Company

employee and was one of the first settlers

in the Sooke area. He also developed the

largest privately owned fleet of ships in

and a member of the first Legislative

Assembly of British Columbia.

John Muir built the first steam

sawmill in the new colony and opened

a lumberyard in Victoria in 1860, which

operated until 1892. He also ran the John

Muir and Sons logging operation with

barracks for the employees situated near

the mouth of Muir Creek.

In 1955, a 67 metre cedar tree growing

at Muir Creek was selected for a

totem pole. It was towed by tugboat to

Victoria, then hauled along Douglas

Street to Beacon Hill Park where it was

carved by Mungo Martin (1881–1962),

a Kwakwa’ka’wakw chief and artist

from Alert Bay. The 39 metre high totem

pole was erected in Beacon Hill Park

and stands there today to be admired by

residents and tourists alike. The project

was partly financed through an issue of

shares with share certificates identifying

the pole as “THE WORLD’S TALLEST TOTEM.”

Shareholders’ names were placed on a

scroll at the base of the totem pole.

The southwestern corner of the vast

E&N Land Grant is located at the mouth

of Muir Creek. Since the days of the

Muirs, the Muir Creek property has been

logged by several companies: Anderson,

Elder logging, British Columbia Forest

Products, Butler Brothers, Malloch and

Mosley, and Timber West. Even though

giant trees were commercially logged

at Muir Creek into the 1970’s, no company

took trees from the lower reaches

of ancient trees. Technology now makes

logging these trees possible and a decision

has to be made to protect them.