BENEATH THE ISLAND

Over the past few years, a few of us have been collecting the pieces and preparing them to build a memorial bench for our good friend Dale Chase who if you don’t know, played a huge part in the discovery, exploration and mapping of many Vancouver Island caves and also caves all around the world. Along with his hard work underground, he also put a lot of work above ground inspiring purpose driven caving and conservation to anyone who showed a interest including myself. 

Throughout the spring we slowly worked the logs from Dale’s property which Dale’s son Darian had fallen. We dried, milled, shaped, sanded and sealed the pieces which were now ready for installation. 

In early May we did the trek up to the entrance of Riverbend Cave at Horne Lake Caves Park multiple times carrying the massive chunks of cedar. Luckily they had been dried so they weren’t as heavy as they could have been, but still took all of the energy we had to make the final few feet of trail.

After a few months of unsuccessful attempts at acquiring a plaque we had finally tracked down one of quality. Early August it arrived and we made the trip back up to inlay it. 

“This bench honours Dale Chase for his enormous contributions to the caving community of Vancouver Island and beyond.
March 10, 1946 – May 3, 2021

Sit a while and ponder the wonders of the world beneath your feet.”

This project was so rewarding for everybody involved. We are all proud to look back at this and see such a grand memorial bench in Dale’s memory.

This project couldn’t have been possible without the generous help of Darian Chase, Sheila Macpherson, Myles Fullmer, Vancouver Island Cave Exploration Group, Peter Curtis, John Lay, Sarah Gifford, Pat Shaw, Kirstin Humpherys, Peter Norris and Martin Davis.