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Promoted to be an idyllic settlement, a Danish-Canadian community was established about 6 km (3.7 mi) east of the cape at the head of Hansen Lagoon in 1897. Supplies were landed about 4 km (2.5 mi) farther east at Fisherman's Bay/Cove, Nissen Bight. The trail linking the lagoon and the bay was upgraded to a wagon road. At the bay, Nels C. Nelson ran the co-op general store, and was the inaugural postmaster 1899–1909. A community hall and newspaper also served the population of about 90. The tidal flats at the lagoon were reclaimed with dykes. Smashed by storms on completion, the dykes were rebuilt.
Unsuitable boats limited worthwhile fishing. Excessive trapping, and cougars moving into the area, eliminated the plentiful game. The big cats also attacked domestic cattle. The community sloop Floyberg, which carried marketable produce to Shushartie and returned with supplies, was shipwrecked in 1899. From 1895, Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service (CP) (formerly Canadian Navigation) ran a monthly service to Cape Scott, which by 1898, included a Quatsino port of call. Based on typical sea conditions, freight and passengers probably disembarked onto rowboats at the final destination, located somewhere near the cape. This arrangement likely precluded the loading of significant freight for the return journey. In 1909, the cape leg of this service ceased.
The government reneged on its promise to build a road from Quatsino Sound. That decision shattered the opportunity to ship out farming produce, eliminating the ongoing viability of the settlement. By 1909, the harsh environment had dwindled the population, leaving only two residents. New waves of Danish immigrants mainly settled about 17 km (11 mi) south along the San Josef Valley, at San Josef Bay or at Sea Otter Cove, immediately north. This valley is largely outside today's park. From 1910, the nearest significant transportation link was the CP ferry service to Holberg, a destination for cattle drives. During the following decade, a private launch made a weekly Shushartie–Fisherman's Bay freight run, but capacity was limited.
Experiment Bight, Cape Scott, 2009
A number of new arrivals settled at the original location, but from 1914, World War I enlistments decimated all communities. The installation of government telephone lines along the trails connecting Holberg to Cape Scott, San Josef Bay, Sea Otter Cove and Shushartie, was completed in 1915.
Within and adjacent to the park boundaries are privately owned lots. This includes the river mouth property at the former settlement of Strandby about 23 km (14 mi) northeast of the cape. About 8 km (5 mi) farther northeast is a First Nations reserve at the former village of Nahwitti, on Cape Sutil. During the early 1900s, the small launch making the Shushartie–Fisherman's Bay mail run included stops at Nahwitti and Strandby. By 1921, only one elderly bachelor remained at the former, and a married couple at the latter.
At Fisherman's Bay, Theodore Frederiksen was one of the first settlers, and one of the last to leave, when the government acquired his property for the radar station in 1942. His wife had died young, and his two sons had drowned at sea. At the head of the lagoon, Alfred Spencer was the final resident. During the trolling season, he supplied fishermen from a general store within his cabin. Flowers, vegetables, fruit trees, and meadows surrounded the keen gardener's residence. He was the final postmaster 1923–1942, leaving in the mid-1950s. By the 1960s, San Josef Bay was equally abandoned.
Collapsed buildings, rusty farming implements, neglected wells, random fenceposts, and some gravesite monuments, are all that remain of those earlier attempts to settle this unforgiving environment.
Cape Scott - A Glimpse into the Past
The All But Forgotten Past
The Dykes
Danish Determination
