Eik Street / Eik Cedar
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Eik Street
This property was part of the original homestead of Johan (John) Eik who arrived in Clayoquot Sound aboard his own sailing sloop. This was not John’s first visit to the area, however. After leaving his homeland of Norway in 1891, at age 22, he landed in New York and travelled to Seattle where he worked on halibut schooners fishing as far north as the Bering Sea. On one voyage the schooner sought shelter in Clayoquot Sound and John decided he would someday return.
Eik pre-empted 152 acres in 1896. At first, he had a cabin on a low plateau near the water’s edge. It provided a good anchorage, fresh water, and flat ground for a garden. A few years later, he built a float house on the waterfront. In 1903. he returned briefly to Seattle to marry his Norwegian bride, Serianna (Annie) Flovik. The couple eventually had two children, Amelia and Hubert.
John was active in the fishing industry and the family often move the floathouse to Kennedy Cove during the fishing season to be closer to John’s work.
In 1913, John built a two-storey house up the hill. The main timbers came from trees on the property. Then the family built several buildings near the beach , from which they ran the Fernwood Chicken Far, supplying many of the early settlers with eggs and chickens.
Eik Cedar
When John pre-empted this property in 1896 this western red cedar was already about 700 years old. In March 2001, it was slated for removal after being declared a “danger tree” potentially hazardous to new development on the property.
A local protest began and two people lived high in the branches for over a month while alternative solutions were debated. In the end, the Tofino Natural Heritage Society was formed and hired a structural engineer to design and install the tree’s unique brace.
