The Keats Island Story  (Cont'd)

In the early years, the camp's only accommodations were tents. Now there are neat white cottages and other facilities up on the meadow. Many interested folk from cities nearby were being lured to the island haven. Cottage sprung up around the wooded shores. Keats Island seemed such a fine place for children that Mr. J. Aird from the Presbyterian Church bought 160 acres from homesteader Johnson on the easterly side of the island. This was offered to Mr. Aird's church at an acre a year for ten years.

The camp started in 1930 but closed down in 1945. The United Church bought the land from Eastbourne Estates. In 1940 they opened a camp where Harry White homesteaded. The Church of England also ran a camp on Keats Island before building Estevan on Gambier.

The old settlers were gradually moving away. In 1959, a seventy-eight acre section was purchased by the Provincial Government for a marine park. This was the site of the MacDonald farm. Mr.MacDonald was one of the original island settlers. The old farmhouse and the remains of the orchard still stand on the site.

In the early days Capt. Bridman's sternwheeler, Meramaid, made regular calls to Gibsons. There were no regular passenger services for the islander until Captain Marney brought in the Saturna. When the population of the island began to expand, Union Steamships started a run. They brought visitors to Gibsons and the Howe Sound area from 1900 to 1950. Now the channels surrounding the Admiral's island are busy with the traffic of private yachts, government ferries and fishing fleets.

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