Second Beach and the public shore

Walking paths, grassy lawns, and playgrounds run along the sand, and a pool with warm water operates nearby. In the early twentieth century, the city created a bathing area here: it brought in more than four thousand cubic meters of sand and installed protection from the waves. Later, a large saltwater pool was added beside the shore, and then it was replaced by the current one. In this way, this stretch along the bay gradually became a place for swimming and a long day in the park.

The name “Second Beach” follows the city's count along the shore: English Bay Beach at the park entrance is called First Beach, and the next one after it is Second Beach. Before this count existed, the Squamish called this shore Stait-wouk. The name referred to a substance gathered at a small stream that flowed into the bay here.

Squamish leader Andy Paull, who helped the city archivist preserve old names, said that this kind of white earth could not be found anywhere else nearby. According to him, it was taken from the stream, perhaps directly from its bed, rolled into pieces the size of a loaf of bread, and placed by the fire. After firing, the earth turned white; it was ground up and applied to mountain-goat-wool blankets. An old record calls it pipe clay; later researchers suggest that it may have been diatomaceous earth, which absorbs grease well.

Such a blanket provided warmth, but it was also property. Among the Coast Salish, blankets displayed wealth, passed from hand to hand at weddings and naming ceremonies, and served as payment to people whose special knowledge was needed by a family. The white earth cleaned the wool and improved the finished item. Squamish weavers came to this stream for the material on which the value of long manual work depended; the shore itself was named for the material.

The city's planners turned the same stretch into a public place for swimming. In nineteen fourteen, the Vancouver Park Board ordered more than four thousand cubic meters of sand to be added here and a barrier to be installed to protect the bathing area from waves. Second Beach became the first shore within Stanley Park that the Board developed systematically. In nineteen thirty-two, a large saltwater pool was built nearby, and in nineteen ninety-six it was replaced by the current heated pool. This is why sand, paths, lawn, and playgrounds stand together here: each new public amenity was added to an already developed swimming place.

Along the modern shoreline, the former mouth of the stream can no longer be made out. A sign preserves the ordinal name—Second Beach. The old name preserves what was carried away from here: pieces of white earth for Squamish blankets.