Flower Island is a small, uninhabited islet located about 250 feet (80 m) offshore from the southern end of Ten Mile Point, roughly 15 miles (24 km) south-southeast of Sidney and 4 miles (6 km) east-northeast of Victoria, British Columbia. Ten Mile Point is a peninsula forming the eastern shore of Cadboro Bay on Vancouver Island. The island was originally labeled as Flower Island on British Admiralty charts in 1864, though the significance of the name is now unknown. In 1934, it was renamed Evans Island, but in 1975, the original name was restored, as it was well-known and commonly used locally. The name “Ten Mile Point” derives from a headland on the eastern shore of the peninsula, located 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) by sea from Esquimalt Harbour, the former headquarters of the Pacific Station of the British Royal Navy from 1865 to 1905. The peninsula’s end is known as Cadboro Point, which extends eastward at low tide for 600 feet (180 m) to an islet with a lighted navigation aid in the Ten Mile Point Ecological Reserve. Cadboro Bay is named after the Hudson’s Bay Company schooner, Cadborough. The peninsula is formed by rocks of the Wrangellia terrane, which underlies most of Vancouver Island. This terrane consists of Devonian volcanic arc-related basalt and sedimentary rocks that accreted to the North American continental margin in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous period. Wrangellian rocks are also found on the Gulf Islands and along the mainland coast. The peninsula’s bedrock is part of the Island Intrusions, a Middle Jurassic belt of northwesterly aligned batholiths and stocks, primarily composed of diorite, quartz diorite, and granodiorite, with smaller amounts of gabbro, tonalite, and granite. Most of the bedrock is covered by glacial till, deposited after the retreat of the Cordilleran ice sheet during the Fraser Glaciation in the Pleistocene epoch.

The Songhees First Nation, or Lekwungen, are a Coast Salish people who historically inhabited the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, Discovery Island, and the western coast of San Juan Island. Archaeological evidence indicates they were preceded by an ancient group. In the mid-1800s, stone mounds near Cadboro Bay confirmed the area’s significance as a settlement for this earlier group that disappeared without a trace. By the late 1830s, when James Douglas explored the coastline, the Sungayka, a band of the Songhees, resided there. Central to the Sungayka settlement was a stockade, designed to protect against tribes that attacked at night, killing men and boys and enslaving women and children. In 1843, the Hudson’s Bay Company built Fort Victoria at the present-day Inner Harbor. In 1849, Vancouver Island’s lands were granted to the company, provided they were opened to settlement as a Crown colony. Before titling any lands, it was necessary to settle native proprietary rights by negotiating agreements or treaties. The task fell to James Douglas, chief factor of the company and, from September 1851, governor of the colony, resulting in the Songhees, Klallam, Sooke, and Saanich treaties. The Songhees people comprised many families, each possessing a portion of the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island. The lands around Cadboro Bay were family territories of the Chilcowitch and Chekonein, whose principal village was on the bay’s shores. In 1850, these families were induced to sign a treaty transferring their land rights and were relocated to about 90 acres (36 ha) at Fort Victoria, held in trust by the Crown as the Songish Reserve. In 1859, efforts began to remove the Songhees from the reserve; however, Governor Douglas instead leased unoccupied portions and used the proceeds to improve their social and moral condition. This arrangement succeeded until Douglas retired in 1864. Disputes over the legality of the leases led to their cancellation, and the Songhees were moved to 163 acres (66 ha) on Esquimalt Harbor.

The peninsula has many secluded beaches and coves that were used for boat landings by rum-runners traveling to the United States shortly after Prohibition took effect on January 17, 1920. Whiskey distilled in Canada was smuggled from Victoria on boats with false bottoms or hidden beneath fish bins. These boats anchored offshore at designated areas, waiting for buyers to toss aboard bundles of large-denomination bills bound by elastic bands. They then loaded their liquor orders onto high-speed boats headed for Seattle. One infamous western rum-runner was Roy Olmstead, who became the biggest bootlegger and one of the most well-known figures in Pacific Northwest history. He began as a police officer, learning the business of importing illegal liquor while making arrests. His own arrest got him fired from the police force, prompting him to turn to bootlegging full-time. Eventually, he became one of the largest employers in Puget Sound, with a fleet of vessels, warehouses, accountants, salesmen, legal counsel, and messengers. Olmstead shipped Canadian whisky from a distillery in Victoria across Haro Strait to D’Arcy Island, where it was stashed for later transfer to other vessels. The business of rum-running peaked in 1924 when Bureau of Prohibition agents, local police, and the Coast Guard mobilized to stop the smuggling. In October 1924, Canadian customs officials seized the Eva B, one of Olmstead’s rum-running launches, arresting three men and confiscating 784 cases of liquor. During interrogation, the crew implicated Roy Olmstead and his gang. On November 17th, 1924, police arrested Olmstead, his wife Elise, 15 house guests, and seized all the organization’s records. Prohibition agents also confiscated five automobiles, a King County Sheriff’s squad car, a boat known as the Three Deuces, and 240 cases of contraband liquor. In the early 20th century, Ten Mile Point became a summer retreat and gradually developed into a suburb of Victoria. Read more here and here. Explore more of Flower Island and Ten Mile Point here: