Stanley Park is one of the most popular areas in Vancouver, perhaps even one of the most famous public parks in the world. It’s home to many attractions, both natural and human-made, and one of its best-known landmarks is Siwash Rock.
Formed by volcanic activities approximately 32 million years ago, the rock is a basalt sea stack standing off the Vancouver coastline, about 15 to 18 meters (49 to 59 feet) tall. Due to its shape, it has also been known among local mariners as Nine Pin Rock.
Siwash Rock is featured in one of the chapters of E. Pauline Johnson’s Legends of Vancouver, an essential book on local folklore published in 1911. “I saw it first in the slanting light of a redly setting August sun,” she wrote, “the little tuft of green shrubbery that crests its summit was black against the crimson of sea and sky, and its colossal base of grey stone gleamed like flaming polished granite.”
The indigenous Suquamish legend has it that Siwash Rock was once a man—named Skalsh according to the plaque beside it—who was turned into stone by a mythical entity called Q’uas the Transformer as a reward for unselfishness.
