120 Years of BC History

Welcome to the Horseshoe Bay Inn, a cozy heritage hotel boasting a rich history, which over the turn of the century has had registered many notable travelers, from far away places.  Boasting names such as the Canadian Indian Poet, Pauline Johnson; a colorful Sea faring Captain, "Hell-Fire Peterson" and the crew from his sailing ship, Puako; and most notably, Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, who's signatures can be seen in our original 1900 hotel registry, currently displayed in the hotel lobby.
The Inn's first proprietor, Matthew Howe, was remembered as a stoutly built Norfolk man and a kindly chap.  With very little formal education, he  taught himself the principles of electricity and mechanics, and was sent to Chemainus from England,  to install and operate steam powered machinery for the local lumber mill.  He eventually left the mill, which then employed about twenty-five men, and today is still sprawled across the landscape of town and is still an important part of the logging legacy of MacMillan & Bloedel. When he first built the Croft and Severne's "Horseshoe Hotel", it was a posting house for horses and carriages, and a port of call for loggers and sailors.  According to one of the town's history books, a liquor license was granted in 1883, because, "there is no house of entertainment between Nanaimo and Maple Bay."  Matthew eventually acquired much property, became a landowner and farmer, and supplied the Inn with such succulent luxuries as venison, grouse, quail, pheasant, poultry, home-cured ham and bacon, and cream so thick, that a spoon could stand up in it. He employed his nephew Fred Chatters, who eventually moved to Nanaimo, to serve in the bar and his son Jack, worked as his father did, as a mechanic in the mill.  Loggers from the camps stayed in the Inn & filled with good beer, would stage wrestling bouts with a black bear chained to a tree out back, which today, still carries the marks from the chain that held him.
The hotel reached the height of it's glory under the management of Emily Collyer, who once held a post in the household of Queen Victoria.  Signed pictures of the Queen and photographs of British aristocracy adorned the wall of the Inn, and Emily's table was often visited by the "better families" of Europe, known as far as the Old Country for the excellence of it's cuisine and fine damask linens.  When Emily died, her son Arthur Collyer, who was a connoisseur of fine wines, became innkeeper.  Many a good cellar in the West, by his advise, was stocked with vintages, and it's likely that the ships putting into the Chemainus port for lumber, carried the sherries, ports and champagnes that Arthur sold to the discriminating.  His daughter currently resides in Victoria, and we very recently visited by her children, who immensely enjoyed being toured through our quaint and beautiful lobby, dining room and hotel rooms.
The Inn still has records of the proprietors who came into ownership after the Collyers, however, those stories will have to be revealed another time.  We are presently in the midst of planning a 120 year celebration for the Inn, so stayed tuned for more history and upcoming events.

Original story sources:
~Gwen Cash  (Described as Canada's first female general news reporter, worked for the Province, the Prince George Citizen, the Victoria Times-Colunist, and served for a period as head of public relations for the Victorian Empress Hotel.)
~Chemainus Archives