"Portuguese Joe" Silvey was an early pioneer who squatted in Stanley Park in the 1860's. He married the granddaughter of Chief Kiapilano and ran a saloon in Gastown that rivaled Gassy Jack's. He also rented gill nets up and down the coast to natives and wore his wife's clothes. (BCA)
He eventually moved north along the coast to the mouth of Skookumchuk where he founded Egmont in 1880. Many descendants of his eleven children continue to live in the area. (CVA)
Across the harbor from his cabin site there is a quietude in the fishing village that one often finds lurking in old photographs. Little moves in this evacuation. Smoke curls upwards from shack chimneys but there is no sign of ownership. Boats list and bob or not at all.
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