Maple Bay Village to Imadene Cove
Octopus Point 48° 48' 00" N - 123° 34' 00" W
As Cowichan master carver Simon Charlie once said “The white man calls it Octopus Point”. TA Wood’s granddaughter Daphne Mutter said that they always called it Octopus Point after her mother speared an octopus there during one of their frequent picnics on the point.
Photo courtesy Ted Wood
Indian legend has it that a ferocious sea monster called “Shuh-shu-cum” (Open Mouth) once lived at the tip of the point. He would lie with his snout out of the water and when anyone tried to pass close to the point he would open his mouth and suck in the canoe with its passengers. No one knew what to do about “Shuh-shu-cum” but one brave had heard of a man called “Sum-al-quatz” who lived on the mainland and was said to have the strength of a thousand men. The brave decided to seek out “Sum-al-quatz” to ask for his help so he paddled across to Burgoyne Bay and walked across Saltspring Island where he borrowed a canoe and paddled to the mainland.
“Sum-al-quatz” agreed to help. He loaded a boulder into his sling and “let it fly”. But his aim was off and the boulder landed in Ladysmith. His second shot landed near Mayne Island. The third landed in Maple Bay and is now known as Paddy’s Milestone. “Sum-al-quatz” explained that he couldn’t get a good aim as Mount Maxwell (or “Hwmat’etsum” - Bent Over Place) was in the way.
They called to the mountain’s spirit and asked him to hunch down so that “Sum-al-quatz” could get a better aim. Mount Maxwell lay down on his belly and hunched his shoulders.
Mount Maxwell from Burgoyne Bay - Photo courtesy Top Brass
The next boulder cleared Mount Maxwell and hit “Shuh-shu-cum” on the snout. That put an end to “Shuh-shu-cum’s” snout and his sucking up of the canoes but it did not destroy him. He still lives in the deep waters and whenever you see swirls and eddies near Octopus Point you know that he is nearby.
(Sources: Agnes Thorne “The Monster of Octopus Point” in When the Rains Came and Other Legends of the Salish People as told to Dolby Bevan Turner, Orca Book Publishers, Victoria 1992.
Peter Rusland “The Legend of Octopus Point” (interview with Simon Charlie) Cowichan News Leader November 15, 2000 p.3.
BC Geographic Names database)