Mount Tzouhalem

Somenos marsh in the foreground

The mountain was originally named "Shkewetsen" (meaning "basking" or "warming in the sun") by the local First Nations. According to legend, the local inhabitants fled to the mountain to escape the rising waters of a great flood. When the waters subsided, a frog was seen warming itself in the sun on a large rock on the side of the mountain. The frog rock formation was called "Pip'oom" (meaning "little swelled-up one").

The mountain was renamed after a preeminent Quamichan chief who lived his final years on the side of the mountain after being banished by his own people.

Born of a Quamichan man and a Comiaken woman, Tzouhalem was trained to be a warrior by his grandmother. He was infamous for his combative and unruly behaviour. His fighting prowess probably helped establish Quamichan as the largest and wealthiest of the Cowichan villages.

In addition to defeating northern invaders near Maple Bay, in part by disguising warriors in canoes as women, Tzouhalem assumed command of the First Nations attacking Fort Victoria in 1844. Enraged by the fort's demands for compensation or punishment following the slaying of some ranging cattle, Tzouhalem's warriors peppered the fort with threats and musket balls for two days until its Chief Factor Roderick Finlayson arranged for demonstrations of the fort's nine-inch cannons. After the cannons destroyed a cedar-bark hut and a canoe, the parties negotiated compensation to resolve the dispute and Tzouhalem withdrew his forces.

Because of his frequent murders, Tzouhalem was at last banished by his fellow tribesmen, and took up residence in a cave on the side of Mount Tzouhalem. He had fourteen wives living with him, most of whom had been widowed by him. In 1859, when trying to gain another wife from Penelakut Island (Kuiper Island until 2010), he was killed by her or her husband. (Wikipedia)