Cougar Annie's Garden: History

In 1915, Ada Annie Rae-Arthur moved with her husband, Willie Rae-Arthur to Boat Basin, at the northern reaches of Clayoquot Sound, 34 miles north of Tofino, on Vancouver Island's West Coast.

Upon arrival she began to clear a five-acre garden on a tract of pre-empted land in the rainforest. Here she raised her family and gradually established her nursery business. She opened a tiny general store in her house, catering to the sparse population of Hesquiat Harbour, and later a post office.

For nearly fifty years the post office kept going from her home, with Cougar Annie at the helm; she was not only the postmistress but the main, and often the only, customer. Cougar Annie's house still remains in her garden, slowly collapsing now, slowly returning to the native earth.

Of all her enterprises, the nursery business was the one she cared for most, for it enabled her to garden, and gardening was her lifeblood. The garden was Cougar Annie's work, her recreation, her burden, her controlling passion for nearly seventy years.

She planted with a liberal hand; anything and everything she could obtain. To this day, over a hundred varieties of imported trees and shrubs survive, many unusual and exotic species, and a vast array of perennials and bulbs continue to bloom. She was famed for her dahlias, her gladioli and her day lilies.

Even traces of her orchard survive; a few apple and pear and plum trees still bear fruit But now that the fences have come down, bears wander freely in the garden, climbing the trees and wreaking havoc. The fragile, gnarled branches, now hung with mosses and old man’s beard, break easily, and some of the trees are barely alive.

At the time of Cougar Annie's death in 1985, she was nearly ninety-seven. Her garden seemed sure to die with her. It was radically overgrown; the forest was encroaching. But against all the odds, the garden has been reclaimed; a labour of love and great effort, a heartlifting story of rebirth and resurrection.

For the past fifteen years, Peter Buckland has dedicated himself to preserving the gardens and the legacy of Cougar Annie. Day in and day out in all weathers he worked to bring the garden back to light and life, and his efforts have enabled the garden to bloom once again in the wilderness. Peter has now established the non-profit Boat Basin Foundation, and is donating the 117-acre property including the garden to the Foundation.

The Boat Basin Foundation has established the Temperate Rainforest Field Study Centre and Cougar Annie's Garden Club. The Foundation is dedicated to promoting education and understanding of this remote part of the West Coast, as well as preserving the garden for future generations.

As Peter C. Newman wrote in the Foreword to the first edition of Cougar Annie’s Garden: "Until recently the garden has been a window to the past, but now it looks ahead. New life has come to this magic bush garden." And so the garden looks now to the future, welcoming new initiatives and ideas, a living symbol of creative survival and renewal on the West Coast.