Wednesday, 18 May 2016
Tuesday, 10 May 2016
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Tuesday, 3 May 2016
STAWAMUS CHIEF: GRANITE SENTINEL
The Stawamus Chief, the second largest freestanding piece of
granite in the world, has made Squamish one of the top rock climbing
destinations in North America.
This magestic peak is said to have been one of
the last areas of dry ground during a time of tremendous flooding in the
Squamish area.
Many cultures have a flood myth in their oral history and
the Coast Salish people of Squamish are no exception. They tell of a time when
all the world save the highest peaks were submerged and only one of their
nation survived. Warned in a vision, a warrior of the Squamish nation escaped
to safety atop Mount Chuckigh (Mount Garibaldi) as the waters rose.
After the flood, a magestic eagle came to him with a gift of
salmon to tell him that the world below was again hospitable and ready for his
return. He climbed down the mountain and returned to find his village covered
by a layer of silt.
All his people had perished, but the gods gave him another
gift, a second survivor of the flood, a beautiful woman who became his wife.
For their gift of generosity they had shown, the couple took the eagle as their
chief totem and have honored it through generations of Coast Salish people.
