TOFINO MASONIC HALL

The story of establishing the last Lodge in the decade 1941 to 1950 belongs to the West Coast of Vancouver Island.  The Grand Master in 1950, Most Worshipful Brother John Hanna Nicholls Morgan, issued a dispensation for a Lodge in Tofino, situated here, at the entrance to Clayoquot Sound. 

The Lodge was instituted as Manoah Lodge on May 6, 1950, by the Grand Master, and as the District Deputy Grand Master for District No. 5 reported, it was the culmination of an ideal sought for some three years by the Brothers at Tofino and on the West Coast of Vancouver Island.  With the support of the Lodges of central Vancouver Island, Grand Lodge, on June 21, 1951, ordered that a charter be granted to Manoah Lodge No. 141 at Tofino, and the Lodge was constituted on July 21, 1951 by the Grand Master, Most Worshipful Brother Joel Murray Mitchell, in the Masonic Temple at Tofino.  The Lodge took its name, not from the First Nations lore of the area, but from the Hebrew word meaning “A Place of Rest”.  Manoah Lodge adopted the American Work as its ritual. 

Despite our relative isolation (no road connected the West Coast with the rest of Vancouver Island in 1951), the communities of Tofino and Ucluelet took advantage of the economic boom in the forestry and fishing industries.  A road to the other communities would not be constructed until the ‘60’s, and only then paved in 1982.  WW II had left us with a hospital and an airport capable of landing the largest aircraft of the day.  The Canadian Coast Guard was well-established in Tofino, and  as many of their members joined Manoah Lodge, we came to be known as “the Coast Guard Lodge”.

Throughout these several decades of change, one of the constants that has enabled our small Lodge to succeed is the support and energy of our Brethren in our sister Lodges up and down Vancouver Island; but, particularly the Brethren of District 5, who made the historic voyage of several days by sea and road to get down the Alberni Canal via the old Uchuck II (predecessor of today’s Francis Barkley) to attend our constitution and later meetings, and who still continue to make the arduous road trip today.

On July 18, 2011, Most Worshipful Brother William R. Cave, dedicated the plaque commemorating our 60th Anniversary.

Manoah Lodge continues to provide a welcoming home for the Brethren of the Clayoquot Sound. For information on becoming a Freemason, visit our Lodge webpage at www.manoahlodge.com, or the Begin You website, at www.beginyou.bcy.ca.