Dewdney

Area description

Dewdney is a small community east of Hatzic. It lies beside Nicomen Slough, which separates it from Nicomen Island, and for the early settlers this was a geographic obstacle that blocked the way to any road travel farther east.

The CPR decided to bypass the Island altogether and laid its rails along the north side of the slough. However, the Dewdney settlement was eventually connected at the turn of the century, when bridges were built at each end of Nicomen Island. Dewdney Peak and the Douglas Forest rise up in the background, but the area outside the small commercial centre is pastoral land where farming still goes on. As with other riverside towns, sawmills too have been important to the local economy.

There is no record of any Indigenous village at Dewdney, though no doubt it was a fishing area for the Indigenous people. It was known as Johnston’s Landing until April 1892, when it was incorporated as the municipality of Dewdney. It was so named in honour of Edgar Dewdney, who was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of BC in the same month as the incorporation. Unfortunately the financial scene worsened with the flood of 1894 and proved unfavourable, so Dewdney was dis-incorporated in 1906.