Driving into Sooke today from Victoria, you’d be shocked to come around the corner and down the hill at Coopers Cove to see a sight like the one pictured above.
Instead of hundreds of drying concrete pipes, today there is a restaurant, and further up on the left, the Shell Station and Daniel’s Market. On the right, in the distance, is Ellen Lewers Farmhouse.
Sooke-area history is rooted in industry, with rainforest, minerals, seafood – and water – responsible for most of the region’s early economy.
This c1912 image shows the construction yard at Coopers Cove, where thousands of four-foot diameter, four-foot length concrete pipe sections were produced, later to be laid on a 27-mile route between Sooke Lake and Humpback Reservoir to serve Greater Victoria's water needs.
When the construction plant was built in 1911, barge loads of gravel and cement were brought in by tugboat. Since there was no electricity in Sooke at the time, the concrete for the pipes was mixed using steam-powered boilers.
While electrical power was carried to Victoria from the hydroelectric plant at Jordan River, it was not until 1929 that electricity was diverted through a substation at Milne’s Landing, making power available in Sooke.
Steel pipes carried water from the Humpback Reservoir for distribution throughout Victoria. The enormous enterprise meant many employment opportunities, and it is believed that 400 men were employed from 1911 to 1915.
Since the 1970s, a different system has transported Sooke Lake water to Goldstream; it was decided it would be more efficient to bore a tunnel rather than use the above-grade concrete flowline. The five-and-one-half-mile Kapoor Tunnel now carries the water, and the old flowline lies abandoned.
The CRD now manages Sooke Lake water, and water availability continues to be of paramount importance today.
Elida Peers, Historian
Sooke Region Museum
