Cortes Marketplace
Recreation & Travel - Guides, Tours, Visitors Info
Float Houses, Fossils, and a Ferry
Opened in June 2026
We are always changing our feature exhibits!
MAIN GALLERY
Summer: 10 am–4 pm Tuesday–Sunday
Fall/Winter/Spring: 12 pm–4 pm Friday and Saturday
A new exhibit, Float Houses, Fossils, and a Ferry, in the Museum’s main gallery, opened in June, 2025
Exploring the Heart of Cortes Island: Community and Resilience
Join us as we celebrate the amazing persistence of islanders in their quest to bring ferry service to Cortes. Exhibits include letters from our archival collection, newspaper articles, photographs, and poetry. We highlight Dan Campbell, our MLA in the ’60s, for his valuable contribution to the campaign's success, and we also celebrate the joyful festivities marking the arrival of the Cortes Queen in 1969.
Also new this year is a special corner devoted to fossils, complete with an illustrated explanation by curator Christian Gronau detailing how various fossils came to be in our area.
WILD CORTES – MUSEUM'S NATURAL HISTORY CENTRE
Wild Cortes is located at Linnaea Farm Education Centre, 1255 Seaford Rd.
Fall/Winter/Spring hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 pm–4 pm
Summer hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 12 pm–4 pm
New exhibition Island as our Teacher opened on July 3, 2026
New exhibition at Wild Cortes curated by the Cortes Island School, the newest partner in the Cortes Wild! partnership.
At Cortes Island School, the land is our teacher. Come enjoy student artwork and studies from each class and experience the magic of the Fairy Forest, the medicine of cedar and local plants, the playful vision of driftwood villages, and the power of the island animals in the style of Lisa Gibbons with ?ay?a?u??m links. Discover what the land has to teach when we learn to listen.
Wild Cortes' animal and bird exhibits are one of only two natural history exhibits in Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands. The other is in the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. Guests are “blown away” by our exhibits and find their time in the venue “a captivating experience.”
Researchers are welcome to work with the study skins created by Laurel Bohart, our curator/taxidermist.
Wild Cortes also features fascinating taxidermy exhibits, costumes and masks for dress-up, a puzzle of Cortes watersheds, and so much more!
Opened in June 2026
We are always changing our feature exhibits!
MAIN GALLERY
Summer: 10 am–4 pm Tuesday–Sunday
Fall/Winter/Spring: 12 pm–4 pm Friday and Saturday
A new exhibit, Float Houses, Fossils, and a Ferry, in the Museum’s main gallery, opened in June, 2025
Exploring the Heart of Cortes Island: Community and Resilience
Join us as we celebrate the amazing persistence of islanders in their quest to bring ferry service to Cortes. Exhibits include letters from our archival collection, newspaper articles, photographs, and poetry. We highlight Dan Campbell, our MLA in the ’60s, for his valuable contribution to the campaign's success, and we also celebrate the joyful festivities marking the arrival of the Cortes Queen in 1969.
Also new this year is a special corner devoted to fossils, complete with an illustrated explanation by curator Christian Gronau detailing how various fossils came to be in our area.
WILD CORTES – MUSEUM'S NATURAL HISTORY CENTRE
Wild Cortes is located at Linnaea Farm Education Centre, 1255 Seaford Rd.
Fall/Winter/Spring hours: Friday and Saturday, 12 pm–4 pm
Summer hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 12 pm–4 pm
New exhibition Island as our Teacher opened on July 3, 2026
New exhibition at Wild Cortes curated by the Cortes Island School, the newest partner in the Cortes Wild! partnership.
At Cortes Island School, the land is our teacher. Come enjoy student artwork and studies from each class and experience the magic of the Fairy Forest, the medicine of cedar and local plants, the playful vision of driftwood villages, and the power of the island animals in the style of Lisa Gibbons with ?ay?a?u??m links. Discover what the land has to teach when we learn to listen.
Wild Cortes' animal and bird exhibits are one of only two natural history exhibits in Vancouver Island and the surrounding islands. The other is in the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. Guests are “blown away” by our exhibits and find their time in the venue “a captivating experience.”
Researchers are welcome to work with the study skins created by Laurel Bohart, our curator/taxidermist.
Wild Cortes also features fascinating taxidermy exhibits, costumes and masks for dress-up, a puzzle of Cortes watersheds, and so much more!
From the Ground Up: Cortes Island dwellings and their histories – exhibition opening