Clo-oose is the site of an abandoned village of the Ditidaht First Nation on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, above a beach 0.25 miles (0.4 km) west of the Cheewhat River mouth, about 20 miles (32 km) west-northwest of Port Renfrew and 19 miles (31 km) southeast of Bamfield, British Columbia. The Cheewhat River supports an important sockeye salmon run into Cheewhat Lake. The Nuu-chah-nulth have lived in the area for more than 4,000 years, with a traditional territory stretching along most of the island’s west coast and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the Makah lands on the Olympic Peninsula. Tradition holds that people from Tatoosh Island, off Cape Flattery in Washington, fought with the Ozette from Cape Alava and were forced to abandon their home. They crossed the Strait to the Jordan River and eventually became the Ditidaht—a Nuu-chah-nulth tribe. The term ‘Ditidaht’ translates as ‘people of diitiida,’ a reference to a historic village at the mouth of the Jordan River in what is now Pacheedaht territory. Oral tradition recounts a shared history between the Ditidaht and Pacheedaht, followed by a westward migration of the Ditidaht. After conflicts with the Clallam, Sooke, and Saanich tribes, they moved further west and established villages at Cullite, Carmanah, Clo-oose, Whyac, and Tsuquanah. The Ditidaht sustained themselves primarily from the sea—salmon, smelt, halibut, groundfish, mussels, barnacles, and sea urchins—supplemented by marine mammals, deer, elk, roots, fruits, and berries. They built fish weirs made from yew and slats of western red cedar, bound with Sitka spruce root. Whales were hunted from dugout canoes using bone lances, grass lines, and later, iron harpoons. The Ditidaht maintained villages at Whyac and Qua-ba-diwa (near Carmanah). During journeys between these settlements, Clo-oose served as a canoe landing in rough weather; its name means ‘camping place.’ Ditidaht territory extends from Bonilla Point in the east to Pachena Point in the west. Its eastern boundary aligns with the Pacheedaht at Port Renfrew, with whom the Ditidaht share close cultural and linguistic ties, while the Huu-ay-aht reside to the west at Anacla in Pachena Bay.

Like other Indigenous peoples in North America who lacked immunity to European diseases, the Ditidaht suffered massive depopulation during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. At least eight epidemic diseases—including smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhoid fever—were introduced to the Pacific Northwest during the first century after European arrival, decimating native communities. A major smallpox epidemic reached the Ditidaht in 1782–83, possibly introduced by Spanish explorers, several years before their first contact with British fur traders in 1788. Another outbreak in the early 1850s proved equally devastating, forcing the abandonment of several villages and weakening social cohesion. Internecine warfare, spurred by the influx of European arms and the fur trade, further reduced their numbers. In 1855, traders Peter Francis and William E. Banfield estimated the Ditidaht population at about 800. Four years later, Governor James Douglas appointed Banfield government agent for Vancouver Island’s southwest coast. Banfield’s subsequent census of indigenous adult males listed 200 Ditidaht men, underscoring the dramatic decline. By the 1890s, pressures on the Ditidaht extended to cultural assimilation. Methodist mission schools were established in Whyac and Clo-oose, and many Ditidaht children were sent to the Alberni Indian Residential School (1890–1973). By the mid-20th century, most remaining Ditidaht lived at Clo-oose or in nearby Whyac—about 1 mile (1.6 km) northwest at the outlet of Nitinat Lake on Nitinat Narrows. In 1964, most Ditidaht relocated to the Malachan Indian Reserve near the head of Nitinat Lake, where the Department of Indian Affairs had built a new village called Malachan. The combined impact of disease, warfare, and forced assimilation significantly altered Ditidaht society, leaving a legacy of loss that continues to affect the community today.

Clo-oose is on the West Coast Trail, originally called the Dominion Lifesaving Trail, a backpacking trail of 47 miles (75 km) following the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island. It was built in 1907 to facilitate the rescue of shipwrecked survivors along the coast, part of the treacherous Graveyard of the Pacific. The West Coast Trail passes through the traditional territory of the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht, Huu-ay-aht, and Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. Native trails used for trade and travel existed in the area before European settlement. European use of the trail area was originally to facilitate the construction and maintenance of a telegraph line between Victoria and Cape Beale. The Dominion Lifesaving Trail was constructed because of the hundreds of shipwrecks that occurred along this coast in the late 1800s. Skagit was a 3 masted barkentine of 506 tons that wrecked on the reef in front of Clo-oose. This sailing ship was 156 feet (48 m) long and built in Port Ludlow, Washington in 1883, and primarily used to transport lumber down the coast to San Francisco. The Skagit was sailing north from San Francisco in ballast to Port Gamble, Washington to load lumber. The crew ran into a storm and grossly misjudged their position. They sighted the light at Cape Flattery and believed it to be the light from the Umatilla lightship off Cape Alava and proceeded north instead of turning into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The storm drove the Skagit onto the reef at 4 am on October 25th, 1906. The impact of the ship hitting the rocks was so powerful that it instantly killed the captain and cook. The remaining 8 crew members escaped by scrambling over the bow at daybreak and clawing their way to shore. They found help and shelter at Clo-oose and were later brought to Victoria. All that remains of the wreck today is one of the Skagit’s anchors on the beach marking the spot where the wreck occurred. Read more here and here. Explore more of Clo-oose and Cheewhat River here: