People uprooted from Sechelt (6)

Sechelt (ch’átlich), on the Sunshine Coast, was established by non-Indigenous settlers in 1894. A hotel and store were developed near the shíshálh Nation settlement in the 1890s. By the 1910s, there were at least two hotels, a series of stores, two wharves—one at Trail Bay, the other on Porpoise Bay in Sechelt Inlet—and a group of revenue cottages. There were also two sawmills, five logging camps, and a steamship company. Primary access to Sechelt was by water.

By the early 1900s, Jiro (Jim) Konishi was living in Sechelt working various jobs. In 1912, he married Hanayo (Hana) and bought land in West Porpoise Bay, Sechelt. They built a farm which supplied milk and vegetables to other locals. They had five children, and their youngest son, Sanji, maintained a rabbit farm. In 1938, Jiro opened a store called the Settler’s Supply House in Selma Park.