The Alders Beach Resort welcomes a loyal clientele. Many have come every summer for decades to the 21 cabins beside Williams Beach in Merville, just south of the Oyster River. Some started coming before it was a resort. One celebrated both his third and his eightieth birthday on the property. Others identify themselves by their time at The Alders: they book the same cabin for the same week every summer.
“They introduce themselves with their cabin name and their week number,” says Sonoama Buchanan, who manages the property with her husband, Randall.
Three beaches, three distinct personalities
Like other historic resorts in the Comox Valley, including Bates Beach Oceanfront Resort and Kye Bay Cottages, the founders of The Alders had no idea they were creating a legacy.
“Walk around any of these properties and there’s a welcoming energy, like every family vacation left behind happy vibes”
“This place really gets under your skin,” says Buchanan. “People just love it here.”
Location is one obvious reason. Kye Bay, Bates Beach, and The Alders share a front row seat to the Strait of Georgia, but each one has a unique feel. Kye Bay boasts endless sandflats at low tide. Bates Beach looks out on the “Hump,” one of the best fishing spots in the area. And at The Alders, the snowy peaks of the Coast Range seem close enough to touch.
But it’s more than prime real estate. The old campsites, rooms, and cabins are soaked in happy memories. Walk around any of these properties and there’s a welcoming energy, like every family vacation left behind happy vibes along with the shells, polished rocks, and driftwood creatures they had to abandon at the end of their vacation.
And there have been many happy vacations over the years.
A refuge born from wildfire
The Alders started in the 1920s as a summer destination for families based out of Camp 3, a Comox Logging Company camp near Merville run by Bob Filberg. After wildfires burned the camp three times in four years—the last time the families barely escaped—Filberg decided to create a refuge for the summer fire season. He bought a piece of property on Williams Beach and invited loggers who had wives and children to build cabins on it.
By World War II, there were 34 cabins varying from lean-tos to Filberg’s own cozy summer house. After the war, Filberg sold the property to a returning veteran, Carl Severson. Carl and his wife, Ada, began the process of turning it into a resort, adding indoor plumbing and refrigerators to the cabins and converting the largest building into a dining room.
Their vision was ahead of its time: the property was remote and lacked electricity. The Seversons and subsequent owners struggled to make it profitable.
George Bates was more successful with his fishing camp, now called Bates Beach Oceanfront Resort. He bought a piece of property at the end of an abandoned section of Comox Logging Company railway line and started renting tent cabins and wooden boats to tourists in 1946. It would be years before there were electricity, phones, or even a permanent road, but the fishing was good.
Today, Bates still attracts plenty of folks hoping to catch salmon, and plenty of families who love its beachside tent and RV sites.
At Kye Bay Resort, the cozy cabins and rooms are only steps from one of the most expansive beaches on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The tidal flats and white sand are the main attraction, but Kye Bay also offers proximity to the town of Comox, farm stands, and the airport.
The Alders Resort is only a 20-minute drive from Courtenay, but it still feels remote, down the winding and ever-wilder Williams Beach Road, and has a summer-camp feel that dates back to the 1960s, when the resort began finding success.
A century later, the spirit remains
“We’re all about free-range kids,” says Buchanan. As returning families arrive, car doors fly open and kids spill out to race across the grassy property. During their stay, they (and their parents) are more likely to be found on the beach or playing games among the towering firs and spruce than on their tablets or phones, says Buchanan.
“There are always a lot of tears on check-out day. And it’s not just the kids who don’t want to go home”
These days, all three resorts are open year round, but they’re busiest in summer. Come July and August, The Alders is booked solid with its regulars, who mostly come from Victoria and Vancouver, but also from elsewhere in North America. They request their favourite cabin, each one named after a tree (Birch, Hemlock, Alder, Chestnut).
While some of the cabins remain close to their original state, most have been rebuilt, a process that feels like opening a time capsule, says Buchanan. One renovation turned up a theatre schedule from the 1940s.
After 100 years, a week at a historic beachfront resort is still one of the best ways to enjoy a Comox Valley summer. A lot has changed in that time, but much remains the same. “There are always a lot of tears on check-out day,” Buchanan says. “And it’s not just the kids who don’t want to go home.”
