People uprooted from Gabriola Island (1)

Gabriola Island, located on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, was established as non-Indigenous farmland in the 1850s and 1860s. After the Fraser River Gold Rush, miners started livestock and produce farms in Gabriola, which supplied Nanaimo. The Gabriola Millstone Quarry operated from 1887 to 1936, and the Gabriola Brickyard was built in the 1890s.

By 1911, eight Japanese Canadians lived on the island as loggers and fishers. In 1918, Yoshimatsu Schinde opened the Sunrise Sawmill in Silva Bay, and became a primary employer on the island. In 1925, the mill was destroyed by fire. In 1934, Kanshiro Koyama and the Haminakas ran a general store and a floating fish camp with living quarters on Silva Bay’s southwest shore. Other Japanese Canadians lived and worked on the adjoining Mudge and Valdes Islands.