This book brings to light the fascinating story of a community and place: Tod Inlet, near Victoria, BC. From the original inhabitants from the Tsartlip First Nation to the lost community of immigrant workers from China and India, from a company town to the development of parkland, the wealth of history in this rich area reflects much of the history of the entire province. The story of Tod Inlet and its communities spans from Vancouver Island to the BC coast north to Ocean Falls, south to California, and east to Golden, BC.

David Gray draws from from interviews with elders of the Tsartlip First Nation, descendants of the Chinese and Sikh workers, and the local community, and from archives held in Victoria and Ottawa. This detailed, illustrated book by an award-winning filmmaker tells the whole story of the natural area, the archaeological sites, the community of Tod Inlet, the Vancouver Portland Cement Company and cement plant (an industrial first), and the development of the Butchart Gardens.

David R. Gray is a Fitzhenry and Whiteside author.

David R. Gray's profile page

Nancy J. Turner is an ethnobotanist, and Distinguished Professor Emerita, School of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria, Canada. She has worked with First Nations elders and cultural specialists in northwestern North America for over 50 years, helping to document, retain and promote their traditional knowledge of plants and environments, including Indigenous foods, materials and traditional medicines. Her two-volume book, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge (July, 2014; McGill-Queen’s University Press), integrates her long term research. She has authored or co-authored/co-edited 30 other books, including: Plants of Haida Gwaii; The Earth’s Blanket; “Keeping It Living” (with Doug Deur); Saanich Ethnobotany (with Richard Hebda), and Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples, and over 150 book chapters and papers. Her latest edited book is Plants, People and Places: the Roles of Ethnobotany and Ethnoecology in Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights in Canada and Beyond (2020). She has received a number of awards for her work, including membership in Order of British Columbia (1999) and the Order of Canada (2009), honorary degrees from University of British Columbia, University of Northern British Columbia and Vancouver Island and Simon Fraser Universities.

Nancy J. Turner's profile page

Robert D. Turner has been researching, photographing and writing about transportation history for over forty years. His photos have been widely published and he has written hundreds of articles and reviews. The Klondike Gold Rush Steamers is his eighteenth book. Turner has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Canadian Railroad Historical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the American Association for State and Local History’s Award of Merit. A retired heritage consultant and a curator emeritus at the Royal British Columbia Museum, Turner has travelled widely around the world photographing The Last Steam Railways and early industries while documenting the people, places and stories of this disappearing history and culture. He lives in Victoria, BC.

Robert D. Turner's profile page

"One should read Gray's book not only to bring depth to a space they visit or think of fondly, but, as importantly, to understand the history of who we are and have been, to remember a once thriving community that no longer exists, and challenging truths we are all connected to as British Columbians." “Jacquelyn Miller, for BC Studies

With Deep and Sheltered Waters: The History of Tod Inlet, David Gray provides an account, both expansive and personal, of one of Vancouver Island's most iconic yet misunderstood places . . . an ecological success story as well as a detailed study of the rise and fall of a working community."?Matthew Downey, for the Ormsby Review