caddy

Affectionately known as "Caddy"  after have been
seen in Cadboro Bay immediately north of
Oak Bay, sightings of large serpentine marine animals
have been reported off the waters of Vancouver Island since the early 1930's. Descriptions of Caddy have been remarkably similar for generations.
More.........

  

oaktreeThe "Oak" in Oak Bay

 This is, after all, "Oak" Bay, so one would only expect the district to bear an abundance of the large, stately deciduous trees. And it's the distinctively characteristic Garry oak from which the community takes its name.

 The Garry oak is the single oak species native to Western Canada. Its range in this country is limited to the southern tip of Vancouver Island, the Island's east coast as far north as Comox, the Gulf Islands, and a very few in two isolated groves on the Lower Mainland.

 The huge, gnarled trees, with their contorted limbs and massive crowns are prevalent along Beach Drive through Uplands and Cadboro Bay. Many struggle out of rocky areas to stretch a look at the sea.
In the winter, stripped of their foliage, they stand silhouetted like long-limbed giants ready to grab anyone who enters their forest.

 Some local trees are at least 400-years-old and grow to
110-feet in height, with almost the same spread. Their main trunks can be up to 50-inches in diameter. Oak Bay's famous "Sloan Oak" at 1069 Beach Drive is one giant with a heritage. A plaque in front recalls the memory of the Hon. Gordon Sloan, jurist and forester.

 And if you see a Garry oak snaking along the grass, with no apparent attention of vertical growth, don't be alarmed, it's perfectly normal.

 The "Reclining Oaks" of Oak Bay are so named because the trees grow on their sides in a reclining position. A beautiful specimen is at 3375 Midland Road.

 An interesting story, though unverified, tells of the naming of these reclining trees as "Treaty Oaks". Apparently, the Indian tribes used this area to sign treaties. Part of the ceremony was to bend over a Garry oak sapling and place a stone on the trunk to hold it in place. If the tree continued to grow from this bent position, the treaty was upheld.

 Other heritage trees in Oak Bay are the large sequoia (redwood) at Oak Bay Senior Secondary School, grown from a seed planted in 1862 by French settler Alexis Casanave.

 The cherry tree growing at the Tod house is even older. It was planted by John Tod in 1858.

 English oaks, Quercus robur, were widely planted by settlers. Of these, more than 240 "Coronation Oaks" from Windsor Park were planted in 1937 to commemorate the coronation of King George VI.

 Oak Bay is also home to heritage tree areas, including one at the Jones Estate, 599 Island Road. Originally the home of Dr. Oswald Meredith Jones, a ship's surgeon on H.M.S. Warspite, who came to B.C. in 1891, the gardens are full of many native and exotic plants and trees. The large stone house was designed jointly by Victoria architects Francis Rattenbury and Samuel Macture. Heritage trees include blue Atlas and deodar cedars, several forms of Lawson cypress, Monterey cypress, yellow cedar, Norway spruce, pecan, English walnut, Portuguese laurel and black locust, which were all introduced to the area, plus natives like Garry oaks.