Deer
Harbor is said to have been named by its first permanent settler,
Louis
Cayou, for the many canoe-loads of deer meat he hauled from here to
Victoria. A Kentucky born Frenchman, Cayou, then 25 had arrived in
British Columbia just as its Caribou Gold Rush was fizzling out.
Hudson's Bay Company hired him and three others as hunters and sent them
to
Orcas
Island to procure venison for the company.
The
three hunters establishing a small encampment on the inner bay
where there
was plenty of fresh water and grass for grazing animals. In 1858
the
name Deer Harbor first officially appeared on British Admiralty charts. |