Sheringham Point is the site of a historic lighthouse on the southern shore of Vancouver Island, overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 26 miles (42 km) west-southwest of Victoria and 7 miles (11 km) southeast of Jordon River, British Columbia. The point is between Otter Point to the east and Point No Point to the west. It was originally named Punta de San Eusebio in 1790 by Manuel Quimper, who sailed the Princesa Real into the Strait of Juan de Fuca with officers López de Haro and Juan Carrasco. In 1846 Captain Henry Kellett of HMS Herald renamed it for Commander William L. Sheringham, known for his naval surveys aboard the Hudson’s Bay Company Beaver. Vancouver Island is the main component of the Insular Belt, a geological region on the northwestern coast of North America. The island’s geology consists mostly of rocks from the Wrangellia terrane, formed during the Jurassic period near the equator. The terrane migrated and accreted to the North American continent by the Cretaceous period. Erosion-resistant pillow basalt forms Sheringham Point, part of the Metchosin Volcanics that underlie most of southern Vancouver Island and are estimated at about 13,000 feet (4,000 m) thick.
Sheringham Point and the coastal fringe between Sooke Inlet to the east and Jordan River to the west is the traditional territory of the T’sou-ke, or Sooke, a Coast Salish people comprising several First Nations along the coast of British Columbia, Puget Sound and northwestern Oregon. In about 1846 the Sooke were nearly annihilated in a combined attack by the Cowichans, Klallums, and Ditinahts. The survivors contacted Europeans relatively early through association with the Hudson’s Bay Company and are signatories to the Douglas Treaties. In 1849 the London office of the Hudson’s Bay Company outlined general principles authorizing James Douglas in Victoria to negotiate treaties with Coast Salish tribes of southern Vancouver Island. Douglas never called these agreements treaties, using instead such terms as “purchases” or “deeds of conveyance”. In spring 1850 he concluded nine agreements covering Victoria, Metchosin and Sooke; two more in 1851 at Fort Rupert; two covering the Saanich Peninsula in 1852; and one at Nanaimo in 1854. The T’sou-ke Nation was left with two reserves around Sooke Basin totaling 165 acres (67 ha).
On the night of February 26th 1862 the sailing ship Anna Barnard, bound from San Francisco to Sooke, was approaching Vancouver Island in winter darkness. Captain Olmstead could hear pounding surf, but thick fog prevented the crew from seeing shore and the ship struck rocks near Cape Flattery. Two crewmen died, but the captain and seven remaining men were rescued by the Makah and transported first to Nitinaht, then to Victoria, by canoe. In 1891 a lighthouse was built at Carmanah Point to mark the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. In 1906 SS Valencia, bound from San Francisco to Seattle, missed the entrance and shortly before midnight on January 22nd struck a reef near Pachena Point. The official death toll was 136; only 37 men survived. Although Carmanah Point Lighthouse marked the northern entrance, many nautical miles of darkness remained before ships entering from the north would see the light at Race Rocks. This dark void disappeared in 1912 with the establishment of Sheringham Point Lighthouse. In 2010, after almost 100 years of service, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans declared the light station and surrounding lands surplus. Today the Sheringham Point Lighthouse Preservation Society and Capital Regional District are working together to restore the station and create a public park. Read more here and here. Explore more of Sheringham Point and the Strait of Juan de Fuca here: