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Share your ferry stories

However many times a week, month, or year we find ourselves in the ferry line-up to board the Queen of Capilano, and whatever the reasons for our trip, we are aware that the ferry - specifically, the car ferry- plays a significant role in island life

However many times a week, month, or year we find ourselves in the ferry line-up to board the Queen of Capilano, and whatever the reasons for our trip, we are aware that the ferry - specifically, the car ferry- plays a significant role in island life today.

Sixty years ago, however, the use of personal motor vehicles was not so common. The Sannie fleet and various steamships picked up and deposited only passengers to and from Bowen Island. The few private cars and taxis operating on the island were transported here on scows.

Since car ferries began serving the Bowen Island - West Vancouver route, water taxi companies such as the Bowen-owned Cormorant Marine (now in its 33rd year of operation), as well as other off-island enterprises, have also provided service to and from the mainland.

The 2011 summer exhibit at the Bowen Island Community Museum will feature the history of the first car ferry to Bowen Island, and we invite you to contribute your photographs and memories to this exhibit.

Did you live on or visit Bowen Island when the car ferry was introduced? Do you know someone who did? Did you experience the change in its changing social and infrastructural landscape as it transitioned from being a passenger-only accessible island, still largely a summer colony, to a place where more and more people decided to settle to become island residents?

We would love to hear your memories and impressions so that we can assemble a more complete picture of the car ferry's role in shaping Bowen Island's ongoing history.

The 1958 Black Ball pamphlet pictured here contains the schedule for the MV Bainbridge's Bowen Island - Horseshoe Bay run in its first year as a car ferry, when the Snug Cove car ramp was completed two years after the launch of the Bainbridge on this route. The fare for passengers was $0.50 one way and $0.90 round-trip; automobiles boarded for $1.50 one way or $3 round-trip.

The ship made daily five round-trips, from Horseshoe Bay to Snug Cove and back again, and in the time between those trips, the ship would also serve the Horseshoe Bay - Sechelt run.

The exhibit will also explore related themes, such as shifting conceptions of the cultural identity of "Bowen Island", the closure of the Union Steamships in Hotel in 1962 as the island became increasingly residential, housing development, and more.

"This is a most desirable area in which to live," an unnamed author writes in a 1976 letter to the editor of the Undercurrent, "and, as the available land in the mainland is filled, the next place is Bowen island."

As population continues to increase on the island, will, the author continues, "[t]he wretched new puritans... prevail"? Will "Bowen Island...become a dormitory suburb like Burnaby"?

Has it?

If you have any memories, photos, or ephemera to share, please contact us by phone at (604) 947-2655, by e-mail at bihistorians@telus.net, or drop by the Museum & Archives at 1014 Miller Road on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. It is best to call ahead for an appointment first.

The summer exhibit will open in mid-May with an afternoon gathering with refreshments.

We'll keep you posted about the details.

Heather Joan Tam, Museum Curator