BC Hydro is in discussions about selling land on Nelson Island to shíshálh Nation, after determining the area is surplus to the corporation’s needs.
Part of that property includes the last home of Harry Roberts – one of the early Roberts Creek settlers, who is often credited with naming the Sunshine Coast.
Sunray Cabin is a log house built by Roberts between 1929 and 1937, and was named for the unique cedar framing of the windows that looked like the rays of the sun. It has also been called the House of 10,000 Faces for the many panes of glass that once adorned it. But now, the cabin is in disrepair.
Since 1990, it has been leased by Margaret Pearson of Davis Bay as a summer getaway for family and friends. For years, she advocated to include Sunray Cabin in the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) regional park next to the cabin site.
On July 12, Pearson was notified her lease would be terminated effective Oct. 31, 2021. A letter from BC Hydro said she could remove building improvements from the property by that date, after providing notice to the company.
According to BC Hydro, the company has owned the 338-acre parcel since 1980, when it was purchased to build a transmission line right-of-way from the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver Island. Cape Cockburn has an active hydro substation and cable landing at the southwest tip of Nelson Island. Land on Nelson Island was divided into 35 parcels and a park dedication in 1977, a 2014 SCRD staff report said.
“BC Hydro has to look out for what’s in the best interest of our ratepayers, and we determined this property as surplus to our needs,” Ted Olynyk, BC Hydro’s manager of community relations for Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, told Coast Reporter in August. “So it’s something we would be disposing of. We no longer need the property, but it is being returned to the local First Nation.
“It’s the location of a former village site, so I think there’s strong interest by the shíshálh Nation.”
As a Crown corporation, BC Hydro has to follow a procedure to dispose of surplus property. First, the land must be offered to other Crown agencies, then to the local First Nations. It would then go to the local government to see if there’s interest at that level.
BC Hydro needs to secure the statutory rights of way for the transmission line and access roads, and will need to retain water lot tenures for continued access to the infrastructure. As of Aug. 31, Olynyk said the sale was not complete, and terms of an agreement would be confidential.
When asked about the land transfer, hiwus (Chief) Warren Paull said shíshálh Nation will issue a press release in the near future.
Olynyk said if there was a desire by the community to move the cabin, “they could certainly approach us to move it over to the parkland, but that’s something that the community would have to cover the costs for.”
But Margaret Pearson says the cabin is “too far gone” to be moved. The cement footprint and large fireplace could become a picnic site, she told Coast Reporter.
“They’ve done a lot of work on it to keep it up,” Yolanda Mortensen, Roberts’ daughter, said of Pearson and her family. “But it’s gotten to the point where the logs and the corners, where they join, are getting rotten. It’s kind of beyond repair.”
Mortensen lived in Sunray Cabin from when she was four years old until she was married. Now, she would like to see the cabin return back to the earth, similar to what is done with totem poles, though she thinks passersby will disturb the site and leave trash behind.
Over the years, Pearson has collected signatures of people who visited the cabin site and would like to see the area become a park – an idea once considered by the SCRD.
In November 2014, a staff report to the SCRD indicated interest in dedicating several lots on Nelson Island for park purposes, after BC Hydro informed the SCRD the cabin may be considered surplus to the organization’s needs. The report pointed out that an SCRD park, Roberts Homesite Park, exists directly adjacent to the lot the cabin sits on. Staff said shíshálh Nation was consulted about the cabin in 2013, and “in December 2013 Chief and Council indicated it did not oppose the SCRD’s efforts to create a park in the area. It is expected that BC Hydro and the SCRD will wish to re-visit this consultation.”
According to the SCRD’s records, Sunray Cabin did not appear on any following agendas or committee reports. Olynyk said there have been ongoing discussions with the SCRD to let them know what is going on with the surplus process.
As of Aug. 31, no one had officially applied to BC Hydro to move the cabin, Olynyk said.
Pearson still plans to return to the cabin before her lease is up.
“I’m planning to go and stay for a few days and say goodbye,” she said.
As for Mortensen, “It’s just the end of the line,” she said of her childhood home. “It’s like living and dying – it’s not there forever.”
