The District of Metchosin is a municipality and community in Greater Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is a coastal community adjacent to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Metchosin is part of the Western Communities and one of the 13 regional municipalities. The origin of its name is a Straits Salish word, smets-shosin, meaning "place of stinking fish" or "place smelling of fish oil."

History

Following the establishment of farms by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company in the Victoria area, independent settlers entered the Metchosin area. In 1851, Captain Cooper bought land on the shores of Witty’s Lagoon, that became the first farm in Metchosin, called Bilston Farm and farmed by Thomas Blinkhorn. Other settlers followed and cleared the arable land. In 1861, Race Rocks Lighthouse was built. In the early 1880s, two quarantine stations were built by the federal government, first on Albert Head in 1883 and then William Head, which inspected and controlled all people entering Canada for infectious diseases. Starting in 1924, Bentinck Island was used as a leper colony. As medical procedures progressed, the leper colony was closed in 1956, and in 1958, the quarantine station at William Head was converted into a minimum-security prison. The station at Albert Head became part of CFB Esquimalt. In 1984, the Municipality of the District of Metchosin was incorporated, mainly to protect its rural character from the encroaching suburban sprawl.

Geography

Climate

Metchosin has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb) in parts caused by the rain shadow and to the east of the strait of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but keeping some oceanic characteristics (Cfb). Sligo, Ireland has very close temperatures with only a slightly warmer summer. The biggest difference is in the summer drying, common of the Pacific Northwest.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Metchosin had a population of 5,067 living in 1,856 of its 1,938 total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of 4,708. With a land area of 69.57 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

Ethnicity

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Metchosin included:

Parks