On Saturday September 3, we saw the latest installment – literally! – in the fascinating story of Cortes Island’s Granite and Fossils.

Christian Gronau's 20+ year project, documenting the glacial erratics that contain Lower Cretaceous (130,000,000 years old) Buchia fossils (a bivalve), has come a long way. The Cortes Island Museum's front porch (at 957 Beasley Road) houses fossils #2 and #4 and now fossil #144(!), spanning nearly the entire project history.

It took a while, but the provenance of these erratics has been established: the glaciers brought them all the way from the Potato Range in the Chilcotin, through Tatlayoko Lake, down the Homathko River, down Bute Inlet, all the way to Cortes Island (and some of the neighbouring islands), a journey of a little over 200 km.

Thank you, Christian, for your incredible work and thank you to all those who helped in your quest (with a special acknowledgement of fossil finder extraordinary, Barry Saxifrage)!

Come and check out these remarkable fossils and learn more about the project with the photos and stories binder available on the Museum's front porch during our open hours.

The Museum, 957 Beasley Road, is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm, until the end of September, then Friday and Saturday, noon to 4 pm, starting from October.

Wild Cortes, Cortes Island Museum's Natural History Centre located at Linnaea Farm, 1255 Seaford Road, is open Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 4 pm, until the end of September, then Friday and Saturday, noon to 4 pm, starting in October.