Removal of Ripple Rock National Historic Event

Campbell River, British Columbia
Removal of Ripple Rock © Not needed
Removal of Ripple Rock
© Not needed
Removal of Ripple Rock © Not neededRemoval of Ripple Rock © Not needed
Address : Highway 19, Menzies Bay/Seymour Narrows, Campbell River, British Columbia

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 2008-01-28

Other Name(s):
  • Removal of Ripple Rock  (Designation Name)
Research Report Number: 2007-56, 2007-56-A

Importance: Culmination of 17 years of a difficult and unique engineering project that initially appeared to be almost insurmountable

Plaque(s)


No plaque in place, recommended location: Menzies Bay / Seymour Narrows Highway 19, Campbell River, British Columbia

The removal of the navigational hazard known as Ripple Rock in 1958 was the culmination of 17 years of planning and three well thought-out approaches to a difficult and unique engineering project. Over the years, this underwater obstruction in Seymour Narrows, a crucial West Coast transportation corridor, had damaged or sunk 14 large vessels and at least 100 smaller ones, leading to the loss of 114 lives. The Ripple Rock explosion, one of the largest manufactured non-nuclear explosions to that time, generated shock waves that provided useful geological information concerning the earth's crust between here and Alberta.