Mañana reopens its doors
A few folks set up tables and displays on the docks to introduce themselves to boaters.
We enjoyed meeting and chatting with Mike Lawrence, the founder of Nanaimo’s Branch of Fishing For Fun, a nonprofit group that donates fishing gear and creates fishing opportunities for kids from low-income families. The goal is to give kids and their families the chance to get outdoors and spread the love of fishing, a love that can last a lifetime.
If you or someone you know has any fishing gear, crab pots etc (they mostly fish in lakes and rivers) that are sitting around not being used, please consider donating to them. You can message them directly on their official Vancouver Island Fishing For Fun Society Facebook group.
As you may know if you read our posts, we may have some great gear for them, but there seems to be something wrong with it, it just doesn’t seem to catch anything!!
Ladysmith’s only fuel and pump out dock there is shining new with easy access. The new docks are wide and secure, and the 1948 Bar and Bistro is renowned locally for fine cuisine and stunning ambience.
We had a seat for an early dinner at our server’s favourite table, shaded in the late afternoon sun with a view that is hard to beat.
The first Mañana Lodge was built and opened in 1948, and soon became a favourite waterfront location for weddings and family gatherings. The resort and marina changed hands and names over the next many decades, becoming Page Point Inn and more recently Raven Point Inn.
The harbour that the resort sits on was originally named Oyster Harbour, due to the abundance of the native Olympia oysters. The Stu’minus First Nation lived on the shores for thousands of years harvesting the oysters, clams and other sea life from the warm sheltered waters.
In 1900, the coal mining gentleman James Dunsmuir decided it should be called Ladysmith Harbour to honour the British Army’s campaign to end the Seige of Ladysmith in South Africa from 1899 to 1900. The Ladysmith in South Africa also had a connection with the coal industry as a distribution centre for the region’s mining operations.
When the local Ladysmith coal mines were opened, Dunsmuir didn’t want his employees living close to the mines. He planned a new townsite, and between 1899 and 2001 he undertook a huge relocation effort. Entire homes, shops, hotels and churches were dismantled around Esquimault and Nanaimo and brought by rail to where they were reassembled on new foundations.
Even the Temperance Hotel, the only hotel in town that refused to sell liquor, was part of the “instant town” plan, arriving on a flatbed rail car.
Sitting on the modern deck overlooking the harbour, it’s hard to imagine the industrial site it once was not so long ago.
More information about Mañana Resort is found in Salish Sea Pilot cruising guide.
