Telegraph Cove
Stubbs Island Whale Watching is located in Telegraph Cove, B.C. on the North end of Vancouver Island.
Telegraph Cove was first settled in the early part of this century. It got the name it did because it was the terminal for one of the telegraph stations that ran from Victoria to the North end of Vancouver Island. When messages arrived, the telegraph operator would get in a little row boat and row across the water to Alert Bay to deliver a message to the community there because there wasn't a community to speak of in Telegraph cove.
Over time, more people began inhabiting Telegraph Cove. The Japanese began salting fish there. In the early 1920's, Fred Wastell--who had grown up in Alert Bay--came across and built a sawmill in Telegraph Cove. After cutting lots of wood they built houses, the old wooden boardwalk and many of the buildings that are there today.
The sawmill ran until the mid 1980's using basically the same equipment they installed when they got started back in the 1920's. The only thing that changed over the years was that they went from steam engines to diesels in the 1950's.
Getting here is easy!
By Car
Driving times to Telegraph Cove via Highway 19 are as follows:
- From Port Hardy - 1-1.25 hours
- From Nanaimo - Around 4 hours
- From Campbell River - 2 to 2.5 hours
Telegraph Cove is only 11 kilometers from Hwy. 19 via the Beaver Cove Road.
Island Coach Lines provides bus service from Victoria through to Port Hardy. 604-385-4411
BC Ferry Connections
- Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) to Departure Bay (Nanaimo)
- Tswwassen to Duke Point
- Prince Rupert to Port Hardy (summer)
Port Hardy Airport
- Pacific Coastal Airlines has daily flights from Vancouver to Port Hardy
(Vancouver number is 604-273-8666)