The Comox Valley and Courtenay Visitor Centres give visitors the keys to the city with the mapped and detailed Courtenay Riverway Heritage Walk and Downtown Courtenay Heritage Walk brochures, both free of charge. Step right up and let's go. The self-guided, 16-stop Riverway walk spans a range of discovery including history, culture, urban charm and Courtenay's gracious, graceful lifestyle. Estimated time is one hour.
Courtenay History
The tour begins with historical footnotes. The First Nations have been here for thousands of years. The K'omox settled along the Courtenay and nearby Comox waterways. The Pentlatch lived up river, and fostered a fishery. European settlers arrived to embrace the valley's climate and agricultural potential in the 1860s. Blacksmith shops, stables, grocery stores and restaurants followed.
E&N Railway
In 1914, the E&N railway arrived in town, linking the community to Nanaimo and Victoria. The railway transported agricultural produce, freight, mail and passengers. Courtenay was optimistic enough to incorporate as a city in 1915, and a wave of returning soldiers from the battlefields of World War I brought new enterprise to the young city. The collapse of the coal mining era in nearby Cumberland and arrival of the E&N Railway consolidated its future as commercial centre for the Comox Valley.
First Stop Prehistory
First stop is the Courtenay & District Museum & Palaeontology Centre. Initially built as a post office, it was revitalized as Courtenay's museum in 2000. The interior reveals the Courtenay and Puntledge River area as a realm rich in prehistoric marine life circa 80 million years ago.
Fossil Hunting Tours
Skeletons of fearsome marine reptiles and fossils speak of an astonishing past. The museum offers guided fossil-hunting tours twice daily in summer. Where else can a tourist come home with an 80-million-year-old souvenir?
Courtenay's Riverway Walk
Courtenay's Riverway Walk lies along the old Comox Logging and Railway Grade. Now it's the showplace for the city's clean and green outdoors, a promenade for walkers, joggers and rollerbladers soaking in local atmosphere. Bring some imagination because many of the structures described in the brochure and on interpretive signs are long gone. The Riverway was a historic lifeline to the world. The commercial life of the fledgling city was easy to see in the collage of wharves, mills, ship-building and machine shops. The 1938 custom-designed family home of Geoffrey and Kathleen Kirk survived time as the Old House restaurant. Today it's part of the luxury, all-suites Old House Hotel & Spa complex.
Courtenay Marina
The Courtenay Marina opens up to the estuary, a home for marine animals and birds including bald eagles, Great Blue herons and waterfowl. In winter, expect up to 3,000 Trumpeter Swans on the rich wetland farms on the river's east side. With 2.13m/7ft wing spans, the spectacular swans are pure extravaganza. Bring a camera and powerful zoom lens.
Wildlife Watching
In 1992, Courtenay revitalized the lagoon near the mouth of the Courtenay River as a fish and waterfowl habitat. Its observation deck is the place to take in the bird life, scenery and play of late afternoon light on the estuary.
Courtenay Airpark
The Heritage tour forms a circle route around the Courtenay Airpark, offering a visit to the "Two Spot" locomotive at the Comox Valley Visitors Centre. The historic locomotive retired in 1945. Train buffs can't stay away.