Saysutshun (Newcastle Island Marine) Provincial Park, formerly known as Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park, is a provincial park located on Newcastle Island, a small island off the coast of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.

History Saysutshun Island has been used by the Coast Salish peoples as a seasonal fishing site for thousands of years.

European explorers, including members of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), initially assumed the island was uninhabited. Owing to the abundant fish population, they established a herring industry in the region, constructing salteries and fisheries on the northwestern coast of the island.

Ki’et’sa’kun, a Snuneymuxw man, told the English about coal on the island, and they gave him the nickname "Coal Tyee" as a result. Coal mining became the primary industry in Nanaimo in the late nineteenth century. The HBC, aware of the importance of coal, named this island for Newcastle upon Tyne, an English area of coal production.

While mining for coal, the island's sandstone was found to be of exceptional quality and was soon quarried for other uses: construction of buildings in cities across Canada and other countries. Many companies competed for leases of land for access to cut the Newcastle Island stone.

The timber industry also sought this stone to use as pulp stones to grind tree fibres into pulp for paper-making. While industrial uses predominated for years, the Canadian Pacific Railway envisioned the island as a tourist and resort destination. After a decrease in popularity with competition from other sites and a decline in train passenger travel, the railroad sold the island to the city of Nanaimo. They eventually sold it to the BC Government, who adapted it as a marine park.

Before European contact

The Snuneymuxw, the Nanaimo branch of the Coast Salish linguistic group, had two villages on Saysutshun Island. Saysetsen, located on the east side of the island facing nearby Protection Island near Midden Bay, had easy access to the herring that spawned in the Gap during late winter and early spring. The Snuneymuxw traditionally harvested herring using hardwood sticks inlaid with sharp whalebone teeth along one side, which were struck into the water to spear ten to twelve fish at a time, allowing canoes to be filled quickly.

They lived at Saysetsen seasonally, from January to April, in order to catch the spawning herring. Later they moved to a seasonal village at Gabriola Island, where they would stay until early August. They traversed the Strait of Georgia to the mouth of the Fraser River, where they stayed until the end of August in order to catch spawning sockeye and humpback salmon. Next, they returned to Vancouver Island for the chum salmon run. In January, they would begin the cycle again on Saysutshun Island. Clotsun, the other village, had a name meaning Protector.

The Snuneymuxw placed their deceased in trees, where birds and animals would gradually strip the bodies. In the 19th century, there was a popular belief that they had buried their dead in chests in caves on Newcastle Island.

Coal industry at Newcastle Island and Nanaimo

English officials of the Hudson's Bay Company named the island Newcastle after the discovery of coal here in 1849. It was named for the noted mining town of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. The discovery of coal here gave the British a source on the west coast of North America for fuel for their steamships and later railroads. Mining was established at Fort Rupert in 1830, but the quality of coal at Newcastle Island was superior and superseded it.

Native chief Ki’et’sa’kun is credited with telling the English about coal in 1849–1850. He was said to have seen a blacksmith in Fort Victoria using coal in his fire. Ki’et’sa’kun told the man he knew of a site with abundant coal. He was given a bottle of rum and free gun repair if he could bring proof of his claim back to Fort Victoria. In April 1850, approximately fifteen months after he first spoke to the blacksmith, Ki’et’sa’kun returned with a canoe full of coal. Joseph McKay, a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, was told and was sent to investigate. This coal proved to be superior to the coal being mined at Fort Rupert.

The British did not establish a mine on Newcastle Island until 1852. When the first mine was sunk there, workers produced 50 tons of coal in one day. In honour of Ki’et’sa’kun's find, the English called him 'Coal Tyee', meaning Great Coal Chief. McKay Point was named for Joseph McKay.

The two mines on Newcastle Island were called the Fitzwilliam and the Newcastle mines. The Newcastle Mine was open from 1853 to 1856 and was along the Newcastle seam. The Fitzwilliam Mine, located along the Douglas seam, was worked from 1872 to 1882. Both seams ran across the island and to Nanaimo. Coal was also found in a seam that extended to Protection Island.

In the month of September 1852 alone, 480 barrels of coal collected from surface seams were shipped from Newcastle Island to Victoria; that year's total production was 200 tons. In the beginning, native Snuneymuxw and European (mostly British) miners from Fort Rupert worked the mines but, by 1854, miners were recruited from England. They lived in Nanaimo with their families and worked 14-day shifts in camps on Newcastle Island.

In 1862, the Hudson's Bay Company sold their coalfields, including Newcastle Island, to the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company. This was shortly before workers struck over the continuing poor conditions of the Nanaimo and Newcastle Island mines. There were no routine safety checks of the mines, and workers believed that unskilled labour endangered all the men. The new Vancouver company discriminated against First Nations and Chinese people in wages: pay for white persons ranged from $1.75 – $3.75/day (many may have had skilled experience in mining), Natives were paid $1.25 – $1.50/day, and Chinese $1.12/day.

Accidents occurred with fatalities among workers. Worker William Beck died in a mine collapse on 10 June 1874. A gas explosion in the Fitzwilliam Mine, on 15 September 1876, resulted in the deaths of three men. This was the first Nanaimo mine to have fatalities from an explosion.

Mine tunnels were constructed beneath the Gap from Newcastle Island to Protection Island, and from Protection Island to Gabriola Island. Miners were said to be able to tell time by distinguishing the sounds of different steamships, whose passage sounded in the mine walls.

Sandstone industry

Sandstone quarrying began on Newcastle Island in 1869 when Joseph Emery from the United States Mint in San Francisco went looking for good quality sandstone for their new building. Finding the stone on Newcastle to be of the desired quality, he signed a five-year lease with the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company to cut stone for the building. It was an appealing white-grey colour; it was easy to remove large blocks because its joints and fractures were few and far between; and it was strong and held up well against weathering because of unusually numerous quartz grains.

The first shipment to San Francisco occurred in the mid-1870s and continued throughout the five years to make the grand total of 8,000 tons of sandstone removed from Newcastle Island. This stone was used for the building's six columns along the front. They are long and in diameter. The San Francisco Mint has survived two major earthquakes. The San Francisco Mint is no longer in use as an office building and is designated as a National Historic Landmark and museum.

The U.S. Mint was planned to have eight columns, but two were lost in a shipwreck. A three-masted barque built in Medford, Massachusetts in 1855, the Zephyr arrived at Newcastle Island on 31 January 1872, to transport two of the eight sandstone pillars to San Francisco for the new building. It left Departure Bay at 10:00 a.m. on 12 February in stormy weather. The following Monday at 3:30 in the morning, it hit bottom at Mayne Island. Captain Hepson and mate James Stewart drowned, but the rest of the crew made it ashore safely. The Zephyr is commemorated on Newcastle Island with an exhibit about the ship that includes one of the sandstone columns recovered from the wrecked Zephyr.

Other companies acquired leases on the island to cut its sandstone, which was quarried until 1932. Structures in British Columbia built with Newcastle sandstone include: the BC Penitentiary in New Westminster; both the Nanaimo Post Office and the Court House; the British North American Bank of Vancouver; and both the St. John's Church and the Odd Fellows Hall in Victoria.

Industry

Pulp-stone quarrying The immense forestry industry on the West Coast processed timber in numerous mills, including some to produce paper and pulp. Pulp stones were used to grind the wood chips into pulp. In 1923, the McDonald Cut-Stone Company was founded to profit from the pulp-stone industry. To cut the stone they would first use plaster of Paris to level the cutting area, then use the cutting machines that would rotate slowly to cut a deep, diameter stone in just 45 minutes. After the circular cut had been made, small charges of gunpowder would be placed in holes drilled at the base of the stone to break it free. A derrick would lift the free stone before the final cuts were made, and a lathe could complete the smoothing process. The finished product would be high with a diameter.

This was a successful business on Newcastle Island until 1932. At that time, the company moved operations to Gabriola Island. Later in the 20th century, the industry converted to the use of artificial stones. These could be made relatively cheaply and would last four to five years, in contrast to the three to twenty-month-use period of sandstone.

Herring salteries In the early 20th century, the influence of Asian immigrants, the majority being Japanese, and their salteries off the coast of Nanaimo was already well established. The major buyers for the salted herring and salmon were from Japan, Hong Kong, and China. Herring season went from December to February every year, but in the 1920s, the season was extended to include September, November, and October. The salmon season began in July and went until mid-August, which worked out well for the saltery owners because they could use the same facilities for both herring and salmon, seeing as they were caught at different times of the year.

In order to catch the herring, the Japanese had a way of fishing called seining. Seining involved the use of two identical sister ships, one strengthened on the port side and the other on the starboard. They would then surround the school of herring with a net and then close it up.

On 12 July 1912, four of the salteries on Newcastle Island burnt down, totalling over $21,000 worth of damage. The salteries were owned by Mr. Oburi, Mr. Mase, Mr. Shinobu, and Mr. Makino, all of whom were issei (first-generation Japanese-Canadians). The salteries were quickly rebuilt, but the cause of the fires was unknown and arson was suspected.

In 1918, T. Matsuyama and the Ode brothers got together and started the Nanaimo Shipyards Limited. Nanaimo Shipyards Limited was a shipbuilding and repair shop located on Newcastle Island. The company gained popularity and was growing rapidly. In 1939, the main shed was and by 1941, the company owned 16 boats and 4.18 acres (17,000 m2) of the island. All this was taken from them in 1941, at the start of World War II, along with Mr. Tanaka's and Mr. Kasho's salteries, when the Japanese-Canadians were sent to the Interior of British Columbia to be placed in internment camps.

Peter Kakua the Kanaka