The old cement supports for the boat owners’ wharf, built about 1946. David R. Gray photograph.
500 BCE Indigenous people are associated with what is called the Marpole Culture living at SṈIDȻEȽ.
820 CE–mid-1800s Indigenous people of the cultural group called the Gulf of Georgia Culture continue to live here in small family-based villages.
1850 About this time, the last village at SṈIDȻEȽ is abandoned, probably due to raiding by northern peoples. Indigenous people move to what is now Tsartlip Reserve land.
1852 Treaties with Saanich First Nations signed by British Columbia’s first governor, Sir James Douglas.
1858 Captain Richards of the steam sloop HMS Plumper renames the area Tod Creek.
1859 Thomas Sellick pre-empts land at Tod Inlet.
1861 Bishop George Hills purchases land at Tod Inlet from Sellick.
1866 Bishop Hills sells land at Tod Inlet to Thomas Pritchard.
1869 John Greig purchases land at Tod Inlet from Prichard after discovering lime.
1884 Greig transfers property to his sons.
1885 Joseph Wriglesworth is listed as a lime merchant.
1887 Wriglesworth begins career as lime burner with Greig. Wholesale lime first advertised by the Saanich Lime Company.
1889 Peter Fernie is a lime burner and farmer on 60 acres of land at Tod Inlet.
1890 The Saanich Lime Company is incorporated.
1891 Census lists Fernie as “Manager of Lime Kiln.”
1892 Wriglesworth owns 225 acres of land at Tod Inlet.
1895 Lime Kiln Road appears for the first time on a map. CPR cement plant established at False Creek in Vancouver.
1899 BC Portland Cement Company purchases the CPR cement works at Vancouver.
1900 Announcement of the new Tod Inlet cement works.
1902 Butchart visits Victoria and acquires Wriglesworth quarry and old Fernie farm.
1904 Butchart establishes Vancouver Portland Cement Company; work commences on the cement plant.
1905 Cement mill begins to operate; first cement sent to market. Report of the Minister of Mines. Beatrice and three scows purchased. First tourist excursion to cement plant advertised. Butchart family takes up residence.
1906 Sikhs come to work in the quarry in the spring. Houses are built in the village, though some families are still in tents in the winter. Parsells buy large rowboat.
1906–1907 Plant expansion; new equipment is unloaded onto the wharf.
1907 Sikh cremation ceremony in April.
1908 Foreman Sing dies in an explosion. Plant closes temporarily.
1909 First listing of Tod Inlet in a Vancouver Island directory—“200 Orientals located here.”
1910 Marmion purchased. BC Telephone Company installs phone in Tod Inlet.
1911 BC Electric puts grade through for new interurban train. Canada census records Tod Inlet population: Sikhs have left for Golden, Ocean Falls, Vancouver. Spray coal shipments.
1912 Brentwood Steam Plant completed. Leona purchased.
1913 BC Electric interurban train’s first run. The Tsartlip Reserve boundaries established by the McKenna-McBride Commission. Matsqui purchased. Plant production max. 500,000 barrels, $1 million. Ship Bamberton built.
1914 WWI begins. 300 employed at Tod Inlet. Bunkhouse is used by Red Cross during WWI.
1915 Leona lost. Recession, production decreases, deposits near exhaustion.
1916 Heavy winter snow. Bamberton plant temporarily closes. Mrs. Butchart’s garden well established, with about 18,000 visitors in 1916.
1917 “Small army” of Chinese gardeners working. Sunken Garden costs $65,000 in 1917.
1918 WWI ends. Norman Parsell on steam shovel in upper quarry (Wallace Drive). Vancouver Portland Cement Company and Associated Cement Company amalgamate to BC Cement Company. Marmion sold.
1920 The Butchart Gardens are expanded. Teco purchased.
1920s Sam Whittaker holds land at Willis Point.
1921 Tod Inlet cement plant shuts down. Plant continues to make tiles and flower pots.
1925 Shean arrives in BC.
1926 First air photo of Tod Inlet: three houses still visible in Chinese village. Upper quarry by Wallace Drive still dry.
1926–1927 Ice on the inlet in winter; kids skate around buoy and back.
1927 First cottages built at Willis Point.
1928 R.P. Butchart awarded Freedom of the City.
1929 Island King purchased in Britain and arrives at Tod Inlet. Lime Kiln Road renamed Benvenuto Avenue.
1930 Kangaroo to Tod Inlet for boating and fishing.
1930s Coach Lines initiates bus service to Tod Inlet as part of West Saanich route.
1930 or 1931 Fire burns area northeast of Tod Inlet village.
1931 Upper quarry flooded.
1932 Last Chinese workers at tile plant.
1935 Photo of Teco at wharf taken by Alex Gray. Shean sold. Movie Stampede produced.
1936 Teco sold. Small boathouse towed to Tod Inlet. Movie Stampede in Victoria theatres.
1937 Ice and snow on the inlet.
About 1938 Scrap iron from cement plant shipped to Japan.
1939 The Butcharts give the Butchart Gardens to their grandson, Ian Ross. Start of WWII.
1940–1943 War preparation exercises by Power Boat Squadrons and home guard effort at Tod Inlet.
1941 Squakquoi first moored in Tod Inlet.
1941–1943 Power Boat Squadrons organized by the navy.
1943 R.P. Butchart dies in Victoria.
1944 Island King sold. WWII ends.
1945–1950 Local logging under way.
1946 Lots at Willis Point subdivided. Tod Inlet Power Boat Owners’ Association started.
1947 Wharf and ways constructed.
1950 Jennie Butchart dies in Victoria.
1950–1952 BC Cement Company buys Hunter to transport men to Bamberton.
1952 Tod Inlet Post Office closes in October. Bamberton sold.
About 1953 Tile plant shuts down.
1955 Hunter operates daily to Bamberton until about 1965. Coach Lines bus service to Tod Inlet ends. First exploration of the Chinese midden above Tod Creek.
1958 All houses in Tod Inlet still standing and occupied.
1960s Area by Tod Creek still used as garbage dump.
1963–1967 I collect artifacts from the Chinese area.
1965 The small wooden boathouse sinks.
1966 Squakquoi sold. Gate installed at end of Benvenuto Avenue.
1967 Tod Inlet houses still standing in April. Security fence around the cement plant installed.
1968 Aerial photo shows some houses. Laundry building (formerly Tong’s house) still standing.
1968–1970 I continue to collect artifacts.
1970s Houses burned by local fire department. The first subdivided land at Willis Point sold to private landowners.
1973 Cement plant still has four stacks.
About 1975 Genstar development proposals.
1978 Three plant chimneys down by December. Tile plant gone; post office building still standing. Only remnant of bunkhouse is the foundation. Continued plans for development; my letters to Victoria Daily Colonist and government. Tod Inlet Power Boat Owners’ Association using old cookhouse as clubhouse.
1979 Plant buildings still up. J. Hunter at wharf.
1980s Most of the cement plant buildings destroyed. Tod Creek watershed enhancement. Genstar continues with proposals.
1983 Tod Creek Water Enhancement Society releases salmon fry into Tod Creek.
1990 Hartland landfill leachate diverted from Tod Creek. FAMA development at Tod Inlet proposed. Information walk and rally at Tod Inlet in September.
1994 Tod Inlet area preserved as part of Commonwealth Legacy. The last of the cement plant buildings destroyed.
1995 Gowlland Tod Provincial Park established.
1996 Management plan for Gowlland Tod Provincial Park published. Archaeology studies initiated.
1997 Ian Ross, owner of Butchart Gardens, dies.
1998 Cement company barn/stable destroyed.
2000 Marine life survey in Tod Inlet. SeaChange Society begins environmental enhancement projects.
2001 My interviews with Tsartlip Elders about Tod Inlet history and cultural importance.
2004 The Butchart Gardens celebrates their centenary and are designated a National Historic Site.
2010 My films Searching for the Sikhs of Tod Inlet and Beyond the Gardens’ Wall produced.
2015 New fishway constructed on Tod Creek.
2016 Tod Inlet designation as Historic Place.
2017 Canada 150 project, Canada C3, visits Tod Inlet. New sand/gravel beach installed.