Island Guide
About
The Island
Eight kilometres of sand with a story far older than its name. This is where Savary begins — its origin, its people, and the century of summers that shaped the island we know today.
Áyhus
Long before it was charted or named, this island was known to the Tla’amin (ɤaʔamɩn) people as Áyhus — the double-headed serpent. In Tla’amin oral history, the island’s long, low form is the body of a great supernatural being that has rested along this coast since time out of memory.
For thousands of years the Coast Salish peoples travelled these waters, fishing the shoreline and gathering along its beaches. Their relationship with this place runs far deeper than any deed or survey — it predates written history itself.
We acknowledge that Savary Island (Áyhus) sits on the traditional, unceded territory of the Tla’amin Nation, whose connection to this land endures today. This page is offered in respect of that origin, and of the people who have always called these waters home.
The Island Named Savary
In 1792, Captain George Vancouver charted this stretch of coast and gave the island the name it still carries — Savary. Over the century that followed, word of its warm, shallow water and long white beaches drew visitors north from the growing cities of the coast.
By the early 1900s the Royal Savary Hotel had opened its doors, steamships were landing summer guests, and a scattering of cottages had taken root among the arbutus and fir. Families came for a season and found themselves returning for generations.
More than a hundred years on, much of that character remains — no paved roads, no power lines crossing the island, and a pace of life that has always moved a little slower. Savary is still, above all, a place people come back to.
