Illahie - North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada - Remains of Settlements on Waymarking.com

In 1884, English pioneer John Dean arrived in the Victoria area. He purchased 100 acres of land on Mount Newton in 1895, on which he later built a cabin in 1909. This first cabin only measured 10 feet by 20 feet, and consisted of a single combined kitchen, living room, and bedroom. On July 23, 1910, he named the site Illahie - a Chinook word meaning country, land, earth and soil - out of respect for the indigenous people of the area.

In 1915, Dean built a new cabin, incorporating the old cabin into it as its kitchen. The second Illahie was much larger, and Dean also planted fruit trees and vegetables. He even had two wells from which he could obtain his water.

In 1921, Dean donated 80 acres of his property to the provincial government to become parkland. This land became John Dean Provincial Park, the first donated provincial park in the province's history. Dean died in 1943 and Illahie fell into disrepair, so the cabin was torn down in 1957. The neighbouring pioneers around Dean's property later donated their homestead parcels as park, too, bringing the entire park to its present size of 426.5 acres.

There are still a number of remaining items that show the past existence of Illahie. At the cabin site, loose bricks and stones can still be seen beside where the cabin stood. Nearby, a stone retaining wall holds back the hillside from where Dean likely had his garden. Down the trail to the north, you can an old wood-stave culvert under what would have been a main access trail to Illahie.

In addition, modern sign posts and information signs provide visitors with some of the history of this site.

Terrain: Parking: N 48° 36.825 W 123° 26.817 Recommended access: Not Listed

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.