Nicomen Island facts for kids
Nicomen Island is a cool island located in the Fraser Valley area of southwestern British Columbia. Imagine it like a big piece of land surrounded by water! To the north, across a narrow water channel called Nicomen Slough, you'll find Nicomen Mountain. To the south, across the mighty Fraser River, is Chilliwack Mountain. Another island, Skumalasph Island, is right next to it on the northeast side.
Some towns are partly on Nicomen Island. Dewdney is on the northwestern end. It's about 11 kilometres (7 mi) east of Mission by road. Deroche is on the northeastern end, about 29 kilometres (18 mi) west of Agassiz by road.
First Peoples of Nicomen Island
Many First Nations communities have lived on and around Nicomen Island for a very long time. The name Nicomen (Nickcöhrn-men) comes from the Halkomelem language. It can mean 'level part', 'place people travel to', 'place cut through by water', or 'near a big creek'.
The original peoples here might have met Spanish explorers in the 1790s. They definitely met fur traders about ten years later. Long ago, Haida warriors would often travel up the river in their large canoes. They would raid villages and take people captive.
When the first Fort Langley was built in 1827, the fur traders quickly realized something important. The local First Nations cared more about protecting themselves from these raids than about hunting for furs. Eventually, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fort fired cannons at a passing group of warriors. This stopped future raids, and the local people could live more peacefully.
In 1846, the HBC set up a special place to prepare fish near the Chilliwack River. This was across from the eastern end of Nicomen Island. Local people could bring many canoes full of salmon there. This fish plant operated for about ten years.
Early European Settlers
The northeastern part of the island, sometimes called "North Nicomen," was first settled by Joseph Deroche. The rest of the island, simply called "Nicomen," was settled by James Codville in the mid-1860s. Codville Landing was about 1.4 kilometres (0.9 mi) downstream from Deroche Landing, where McDonald Road is today.
James Codville sold food for animals to people traveling on the river. He also kept his own animals on his large 190-hectare (480-acre) property during winter. He even ran a hotel! From 1865 to 1866, he operated the first rural post office on the mainland of British Columbia. Later, the post office moved to the mouth of the Sumas River. In 1869, Samuel McDonald bought Codville's property.
By the 1880s, a few more farms started at the western end of the island. In 1892, only a small part of the island (6%) was used for growing crops. Most of it (72%) was woodland, and 22% was swamp or pasture. The island often flooded in the spring, which made it hard to grow crops. So, raising animals was more common. The flood in 1894 was extremely severe.
In 1892, an area from Norrish Creek to the Harrison River was supposed to become the Nicomen municipality. But this plan never really worked, and the municipality disappeared within a few years.
William Brown was the first official postmaster from 1890 to 1900. He was a blacksmith and a wheelwright, living at the western end near Dewdney. By 1895, Thomas Patton had opened a store, probably in the same area.
The first Nicomen Island school opened in 1890. It was in the middle of the island, southeast of Johnson Road on the Nicomen Island Trunk Road. The school building was also used for community events.
J.S. Ashley Cooper opened a store at McDonald Landing and was postmaster from 1900 to 1902. When he left, his brother Austin D. Cooper took over the store and was postmaster from 1903 to 1907. The store likely closed a year or two later.
In 1912, a Baptist church was built on the corner of McDiarmid Road. The school building was replaced with a new one in 1916.
To protect the island from floods, dikes were built. The dike on the Fraser River side was finished in 1923, and the dike on the slough side was built in 1929.
The Baptist church closed in the early 1940s. The building became a community hall in 1945, but it was torn down in the 1970s.
Over the years, the river's currents washed away large areas of land, especially around McDonald Landing. During the 1948 flood, the dikes broke. Many people and their animals had to leave the island. Some people were even rescued from their rooftops! Many farm animals were lost.
Nicomen Island Today
Today, about 35 kilometres (22 mi) of dikes protect the farms on Nicomen Island. However, some parts of the dikes are still not strong enough or are too low. This means a very big flood could still cause problems. In 2017, the government provided money to make the dikes wider and improve the water pumping system. Even with these upgrades, a flood as big as the one in 1894 could still go over the dikes. A report in 2015 estimated it would cost a lot of money, about $65 million, to upgrade the entire dike system to modern safety standards.
In 2017, there was a court case about the McDonald Landing Farms. The great-grandchildren of Samuel McDonald wanted a larger share of the farm's money after their father passed away in 2005. The British Columbia Court of Appeal decided against their claims.
By 2020, the old school building was empty and falling apart. It had been unused for more than ten years.
In 2021, there was an idea to create a 32-kilometre (20 mi) greenway, which is like a path or park, all around the island. This project was still in the early planning stages.
