Qualla: Coombs, British Columbia

Coombs, British Columbia: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Qyd assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. There are goats on the roof. That is the first thing anyone tells you about Coombs, British Columbia, and it is usually enough to get you off Highway 4A. The Old Country Market, also known as Goats on the Roof, keeps a family of goats grazing on its sod-covered rooftop, a sight absurd enough to have turned a roadside stop into Vancouver Island's most photographed curiosity. But Coombs has a story that predates the goats by decades, one that involves the Salvation Army, a retired commissioner who never visited the place named for him, and a group of English families who crossed an ocean to start over in the forests of central Vancouver Island.

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Qyd assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Coombs, British Columbia: The Commissioner Who Never Came

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Coombs takes its name from Commissioner Thomas Bales Coombs, who headed the Salvation Army movement in Canada in the early 1900s. When Coombs retired in 1911, the Army honored him by naming their newest colony after him. The commissioner never visited the community that bore his ...

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Image: Public domain

Coombs, British Columbia: An Army of Settlers

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Qyd assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The community was established in 1910 under a Salvation Army emigration plan that relocated families from overcrowded British cities to rural Canada. Walter Ford and his brother-in-law John West were sent ahead to prepare the land, and Ensign Crego, trained in farming, led the ne...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Qyd assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Coombs, British Columbia: Deeper Roots

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Qwexcxewq, CC BY 4.0. The Salvation Army settlers were not the first people on this land. The area was historically inhabited by the Coast Salish peoples, including the Snuneymuxw First Nation, who have lived in the region for more than 5,000 years. European settlement, with its logging, road-building...

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Image: Qwexcxewq | CC BY 4.0

Coombs, British Columbia: Goats, Bluegrass, and the Fall Fair

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Doug Hay, CC BY 2.0. Modern Coombs, with its population of about 1,672, has leaned into its eccentricity. The Old Country Market draws tourists by the busload, and the goats have become unofficial ambassadors for the entire Parksville-Qualicum region. Butterfly World offers a small indoor tropical ra...

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Image: Doug Hay | CC BY 2.0

Coombs, British Columbia: Mediterranean Climate, Rainforest Soul

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Qwexcxewq, CC BY 4.0. Coombs sits at the northernmost edge of the cool-summer Mediterranean climate zone, which means warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters. The combination makes for lush vegetation and a long growing season unusual for this latitude. Surrounding forests of Douglas fir, cedar, and h...

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Image: Qwexcxewq | CC BY 4.0