Telegraph Cove is rising from the ashes.
Cleanup of the historic boardwalk on the North Island is well underway and rebuilding of the wharf and other structures destroyed in a devastating New Year’s Eve fire is scheduled to start this month.
Several buildings are expected to be complete in time for the summer season, says the general contractor.
Stuart Abernathy, of Port McNeill-based Abernathy Contracting, said Gordie and Marilyn Graham, who have owned the resort at Telegraph Cove for 45 years, are keen to get it operating again, and are employing North Island engineers, surveyors and tradespeople in the rebuild and using lumber cut and milled in the area.
Abernathy, who started work on Friday, has two barges on site — one with a crane that is lifting out piles of scorched lumber and other debris — as well as a tugboat and other machinery. About 10 workers were on the site Tuesday. “We’re off to a flying start and the work’s going well,” said Abernathy. “We will be starting with the [boardwalk] and then go from there to the buildings.”
He said a new sewage-treatment plant and building for the boardwalk’s electrical distribution system will be first on the list, followed by offices for whale- and bear-watching companies. The Whale Interpretive Centre and pub and restaurant buildings will follow, but might not be completed or fully operational until spring or summer of 2026.
Abernathy said food trucks are planned for this summer to provide food options for visitors. The resort accommodations were not affected by the fire, they’ll be available this summer, and bookings are being taken now.
Along with the resort’s houses and hotel, the general store, forest campground and marina will be open.
The fire destroyed the whale centre, Old Saltery Pub, Killer Whale Café, Wastell Manor heritage house, Prince of Whales offices and staff housing, and a portion of the boardwalk.
About a third of the massive pier that supported the buildings and made the resort such a popular place was destroyed by the blaze.
The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined, but it was thought to be “something electrical,” said Abernathy. In an interview with CHEK News in February, Gordie Graham said the fire started in a corner of the pub, possibly as a result of rodents compromising the wiring.
The contractor said about half the pilings supporting the wharf and boardwalk will have to be replaced. The new pilings will be pounded into the seabed “until they meet resistance from bedrock,” said Abernathy.
He said a mill in Port Hardy has been cutting joists and decking slabs from yellow cedar logs. “This is all full dimensional lumber, not like you buy at the lumber store,” said Abernathy. “And yellow cedar is good in a marine environment.”
Mary Borrowman, manager of the Whale Interpretive Centre who was visiting the cleanup site on Tuesday, said she was inspired by the rebuilding work underway. “The whole North Island is behind this and the community spirit we’re seeing really gives you hope,” she said. “It’s not an easy task, but it’s not an impossible task.”
Her husband, Jim Borrowman, spent years collecting specimens that were on display at the centre, which began in 2002 and housed skeletons of a resident killer whale, Bigg’s killer whale, humpback whale, minke whale, grey whale, a 20-metre fin whale and an extremely rare Cuvier’s beaked whale.
All were lost to the fire.
Borrowman said remnants of skeletons can still be seen in the rubble, but it’s too early to say if anything can be salvaged.
She doesn’t expect the whale centre to reopen this summer, but said it will have a presence at the site. “We lost the building, but we haven’t lost the soul of the centre,” said Borrowman.
Luckily, three of the centre’s skeletons — a Risso’s dolphin, a Dall’s porpoise and a pygmy sperm whale — were all either on loan or being articulated elsewhere when the fire razed the waterfront.
Borrowman said major museums and collectors, including the Royal 小蓝视频 Museum, have been offering help.
“You would be amazed at how many boxes are hiding in closets out there,” said Borrowman. “We’ve got a lot of feelers out there … people are so generous and we will collect as we go along.”
The Whale Interpretive Centre helped to put Telegraph Cove on the world map as the village, once just a remote telegraph station, evolved into a fishing and forestry community and a tourism destination.
Telegraph Cove has few year-round inhabitants and draws seasonal workers and visitors in the spring and summer as a jumping-off point for kayak tours and whale watching, due to its location on Johnstone Strait and its proximity to Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, a critical habitat for northern resident killer whales.
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