ONCE UPON A TIME IN GIBSONS The Town of Gibsons Heritage ...

GOSPEL ROCK
(formerly Shepard’s Rock)
photo courtesy Lee Ann Johnson
Reason for inclusion:
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION,
CULTURAL ASSOCIATION,
ECOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE,
IMPORTANCE TO THE COMMUNITY
Marlayne Lister photo from fi lm “Desolation Sound” courtesy Liz Cunningham
A landmark for mariners in the early 1900s, Gospel Rock and the surrounding area is home to
native arbutus and other indigenous plant life which is becoming increasingly rare. It is popular
with bird-watchers, who have recorded an astonishing number of species in the area.
In the early 1900s, a series of Biblically-inspired messages, including “The Wages of Sin is
Death,” “He Shall Be Born Again,” and “Christ Died For The Ungodly” appeared on the rock,
and were kept brightly-painted for years.
A member of the Plymouth Brethren who occupied a cabin nearby Shepard’s Rock was presumed
to be the author.
Robert Watson, a Hudson’s Bay Company offi cial and well-known Canadian writer spent
many summer holidays in the area, and his novel Gordon of the Lost Lagoon was set in Gibson’s
Landing. The rocky promontory described in the book is presumed to be Gospel Rock.
Roby Kidd, founder of the “Continuing Education” concept evolved what he called his “social
gospel” while living in Gibson’s Landing. When interviewers asked about his home, he would
reply that wherever he might abide, Gibson’s Landing was his spiritual home, and its focus was
Gospel Rock. Whenever he was under stress, Kidd said, he would make his way there either
physically or spiritually and, looking over the Strait, would take his mental bearings from his own
Rock of Ages.
Others have found the spot conducive to meditation, and Gospel Rock has been a popular site for
Easter Sunday services for many years.
Gibsons Heritage Inventory and Register 79