Cabins and accommodations are now open, and a small kitchen in the resort’s general store is offering a smaller menu while the pub and restaurant remain closed
Telegraph Cove is back in business this summer — albeit with scaled-down offerings — as work continues to restore buildings damaged in a New Year’s Eve fire.
Rebuilding began in March in the wake of the early-morning blaze that destroyed the historic boardwalk, whale museum, pub, restaurant and offices for whale-watching, kayak and bear tours.
Cabins and accommodations are now open, and a small kitchen in the resort’s general store is offering a smaller menu while the pub and restaurant remain closed, said front desk assistant Rachel Sansone.
Tours for whale-watching, bear viewing and kayaking are being offered from the resort’s front desk area while tour offices remain under construction.
The rebuilding process is expected to be completed by next summer, said Sansone, adding that while the resort had a slower-than-usual June, it’s looking at a busy summer season of bookings.
The fire destroyed the Whale Interpretive Centre, Old Saltery Pub, Killer Whale Cafe, Wastell Manor heritage house, Prince of Whales offices and staff housing and a portion of the boardwalk.
The museum, which housed the largest hanging collection of marine mammal skeletons in Western Canada, lost nearly its entire collection in the fire, although two of its skeletons — a Risso’s dolphin and a pygmy sperm whale — were on Salt Spring Island at the time.
The whale museum will have a small presence on the boardwalk this summer, with a 600-square-foot heavy-duty tent housing a small display, said Mary Borrowman, director, treasurer and manager of the centre.
The museum has been running interpretive talks for tour groups out of Borrowman’s home, with a virtual tour of the collection before it was lost.
Borrowman said the tent is expected to be installed on the boardwalk by mid-July and will house skeletons of the pygmy sperm whale, Risso’s dolphin and a Dall’s porpoise, as well as some small skulls and other bones.
She said the construction crew has been working tirelessly to rebuild Telegraph Cove, and the progress is visible every day.
The whale museum has received financial support from individuals and organizations, including Borrowman’s daughter, who raised roughly $15,000 in pledges when she ran the Vancouver marathon, she said.
It has also received donated skulls as well as a dead juvenile Bryde’s whale that washed ashore in May in Port McNeill, far from its normal range in tropical and subtropical waters.
A former milling and cannery village, Telegraph Cove has a handful of year-round inhabitants. In the spring and summer, it draws seasonal workers and visitors as a jumping-off point for kayak tours and whale-watching due to its location on Johnstone Strait and proximity to Robson Bight Ecological Reserve.
Dave Summers, Regional District of Mount Waddington director for the area, said everyone across the north Island breathed a “big sigh of relief” when Telegraph Cove reopened in May for the summer season.
The village draws visitors to the region, who then spend their money elsewhere on groceries, gas and motels, he said.
“When they’re busy, the north Island is busy,” he said.
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