Yuquot

 place with historical importance, hamlet, historic landmark, historical building, historic site

Yuquot, which means "where the wind blows in all directions", was a small summer settlement of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht people including its famous chief, Maquinna. Only one house now occupies the cove where 20 longhouses once housed 1500 Nuu-cha-Nulth people.

A trip to Friendly Cove puts visitors in touch with British Columbia’s earliest history, with many of its “firsts” -- first European contact; first beer brewed in BC; first European inhabitants; first ship built; first visit by a European woman; first European settlement; first gardens... and all at or near British Columbia’s first national historic site, established in 1923.

The church now serves as a cultural centre and museum. Inside, the two stained glass windows donated by the Spanish Government commemorates the Spanish fort settlement of San Miguel with its extensive gardens that existed at Yuquot from 1789 until 1795. Behind the altar and pulpit now stand two striking and colourful interior houseposts, with another two on either side of the archway entrance. In the choir loft are thirty or so photographic reproductions of the drawings of Thomas de Suria and Jose Cardero done while the two were in Yuquot in the late 1700s and donated in 2002 by the Spanish government. The originals remain in Barcelona.

Just past the one remaining house lies a large totem pole. Erected in 1929, it fell in high winds in 1994.

Farther north sits a small cove with a beach where John Meares built the first European ship launched in BC.

www.goldriver.ca/history/friendly-cove.php