Sechelt is located on the Sunshine Coast and is home to the first self-governing Indigenous
nation in Canada -- the Shishalh First Nations -- the original inhabitants of the
Sunshine Coast.1 The Shishalh Nation home stretches between Queens Reach in Jervis Inlet and Howe Sound. Traditionally, there were four main settlements at Kalpilin (Pender Harbour), Ts'unay
(Deserted Bay), Xenichen (Jervis Inlet), and Tewankw near Porpoise Bay.2
The first European settlements were established in the 1860s. Prior to that, men such
as Captain George Henry Richards, on the Plumper, came to the region in order to prepare more detailed charts of the area in support of [a] safer coastal navigation. With the arrival of Europeans, so came the arrival of smallpox which ravaged the
Indigenous groups around Sechelt in 1862.3
The first private landowner in Sechelt was John Scales, a retired military man. The
land that he was allotted was over 150 acres -- way above the limit the Land Office
meant to grant. The amount that Scales received is the extent of the present day village
of Sechelt. In 1895, Sechelt began to grow as a commercial centre due to Herbert Whitaker's construction
of general stores and hotels. In the later years, rental cabins, a wharf, a tea room,
and a post office were built.4
1. Sechelt, Sechelt-Downtown: Business Association.