page_title: Courtenay, British Columbia
section_title: Early settlers
hierarchical_section_title: Courtenay, British Columbia / History / Early settlers
caption_attribution_description: English: Joseph McPhee, pioneer settler in the Courtenay area, owned the land that became the present town centre of Courtenay BC
context_page_description: Courtenay is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the largest community and only city in the area commonly known as the Comox Valley, and the seat of the Comox Valley Regional District, which replaced the Comox-Strathcona Regional District. Courtenay is 4 km west of the town of Comox, 7 km northeast of the village of Cumberland, 5 km northwest of the unincorporated settlement of Royston, and 108 km northwest of Nanaimo. Along with Nanaimo and Victoria, it is home to The Canadian Scottish Regiment, a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces.
context_section_description: By the middle of the 19th century, European and American settlements had sprung up in the Vancouver area and on southern Vancouver Island. In 1837, the Hudson Bay Company steamship Beaver began to search the south and east coasts of Vancouver Island for suitable locations for new trading posts, and subsequently set up a post overlooking the Courtenay River estuary, calling it "Komoux".
  HMS Constance, commanded by Captain Courtenay, was a frequent visitor to the area. In 1848, the river flowing through the Koumax valley was informally named the Courtenay River by the sailors of HMS Constance after their captain. In 1857, Captain George Richards of HMS Plumper was tasked with undertaking a complete survey of the coastline of Vancouver Island, and was given authority to name local landmarks. When he arrived in the area, he confirmed the name of the river as the Courtenay.
  In 1853 Sir James Douglas, governor of Vancouver Island, took a journey up the coast of Vancouver Island aboard SS Beaver, and recognized the area's agricultural potential. In 1861, Lieutenant Richard Mayne of the Royal Navy visited the area and wrote of the rich agricultural prospects of the area, saying it had taken him a day and a half to walk over the land "through which a plough might be driven from end to end". That same year Governor Douglas issued a land and settlement proclamation for the Koumox Valley, intending to divert new settlers away from the Victoria area as well as from the newly discovered Cariboo gold fields. He offered land in the valley for $1 per acre and free transportation to the area.
  Although some unofficial settlers had arrived in previous years, the first government-approved settlers arrived in 1862 aboard HMS Grappler. The majority of the settlers staked out farm lots on the flat and fertile "prairies" on the east side of the river, and a small village sprung up on the east bank of the river to supply their needs. The Courtenay Hotel, also known as Courtenay House, became the focal point of a village that included a general store, a small bank, a barber, and livery barns. However, it was not an ideal location, since the river regularly burst its banks due to king tides or spring run-off, flooding the entire village.
  In 1864, Robert Brown, leading the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition, discovered coal deposits in the Comox Valley, but these went unexploited for two decades. 
  In 1874, a new settler to the area, Joseph McPhee, won the contract to build a bridge that connected the regularly flooded flats on the east side of the river to higher ground on the west side of the river. When the bridge was finished, McPhee and business partner Reginald Pidcock bought up 10 acres (4.0 ha) of land on the western side of the river immediately adjacent to the new bridge. McPhee built a store beside the bridge, while Pidcock built the Courtenay River's first commercial enterprise, a saw mill. 
  In 1888 Robert Dunsmuir established a mine in nearby Union, later renamed Cumberland, which brought an influx of settlers, and Chinese and Japanese immigrants. McPhee and Pidcock recognized the economic potential of a townsite on the western bank of the river, which would be closer to the mines. They hired a surveyor, George Drabble, to survey and subdivide their land into town lots, which they quickly sold to businessmen and homeowners. The townsite on the much drier west side of the river, called for a time "New Courtenay", quickly developed. Many of the stores and businesses centred on what was originally called Union Street (now 5th Street), which ascended from McPhee's bridge.
caption: Joseph McPhee
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