SECRETS IN STONE: VANCOUVER ISLAND'S TRENT RIVER
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Trent River, Vancouver Island, BC
Deep in the moss-draped forests of Vancouver Island, beneath a green canopy of second-growth firs and the distant chatter of ravens, an ancient story lies written in stone.
You’ll find it not in dusty museums but in the riverbeds, sandstone ledges, and shale cliffs of the Trent River, just south of Courtenay, British Columbia.
This is a place where geology meets adventure — and where fossil hunters walk through time.
This area has been collected and studied in large part due to the efforts of the Vancouver Island Paleontological Society (VIPS) and its members.
These keen and knowledgeable citizen scientists have had a huge impact on our understanding of fossils in the region.
The picture below taken on August 20, 2020, when we were all down on the Trent for the extraction of Baby E-a marine reptile found high up in the bank by Pat Trask.
The Courtenay Museum hosts regular fossil tours here, led by Pat Trask. On one of those field trips back in 2017, Pat was leading a trip with a family and one of the field trip participants picked up a marine reptile finger bone.
It was laying in the river having eroded out from a nearby cliff. She showed it to Pat and he immediately recognized it as being diagnostic — it definitely belonged to a marine reptile — possibly an elasmosaur — but what species and just where on the river it had eroded from were still a mystery. As more and more of these bits and pieces were discovered, a very tasty pattern was emerging. Somewhere here, embedded in stone and eroding out bit by bit was a mighty marine reptile.
The excavation was the culmination of a three-year paleontological puzzle of various folk finding bits and pieces of the specimen but ever elusive, had been unable to locate the source. Time and perseverance won the day and that August morning we were on hand to bring that baby, aptly named Baby-E, out of the site and off to be prepped.
In the photo are VIPS members, James Wood, Betty Franklin, Dan Bowen and Jay Hawley. Each of their personal contributions to the paleontology of the Comox Valley, Vancouver Island and the Pacific Northwest are immense.
**A Journey Across Oceans and Ages**
The rocks that make up the Trent River landscape weren’t born here. In fact, they began their journey over 85 million years ago, far south of the equator as part of a scattered chain of tropical islands.
These fragments, riding the massive Pacific Plate, drifted slowly across the ocean, eventually slamming into the western edge of the North American continent.
The Pacific Plate — the largest tectonic plate on Earth, covering over 103 million square kilometers — is a restless force. Fueled by volcanic activity at its spreading center, it continues to expand, pushing against the North American Plate and forcing the ocean floor beneath the continent in a process known as subduction. Over time, this relentless collision helped build the rugged mountains and rich geological complexity of British Columbia.
Among the remnants of those far-flung islands is the Insular Superterrane — a mash-up of crustal fragments welded onto the continent from the Late Cretaceous through the Eocene. This allochthonous (meaning "foreign") terrain is geologically distinct from the rest of the mainland. The rocks you walk on along the Trent River don’t match anything next door in Alberta or even down the road. They’re relics of a world long lost to time.
**Fossils Beneath Your Feet**
In the 1970s, pioneering geologists Jim Monger and Charlie Ross of the Geological Survey of Canada helped map the complex tectonic puzzle of the Comox Basin. Their work revealed that by 85 million years ago, the Insular Superterrane — and the rocks of the Trent River — had already collided with the mainland, forming part of what we now know as Vancouver Island.
Back then, this region was a lush, subtropical landscape. Fossilized leaves and wood found in the area show ancient relatives of oak, poplar, maple, ash — even figs and breadfruit — thrived here. These are the botanical echoes of the Late Cretaceous, preserved in the mudstones and sandstones along the riverbank.
As you follow the river upstream, you'll come to a striking boundary: the transition from the dark-grey marine shales of the Haslam Formation to the sandy, more terrestrial Comox Formation. This contact zone marks a shift from deep ocean to coastal plain, and both formations offer their own fossil treasures.
**Ammonites, Turtles, and Dinosaurs — Oh My!**
Head west from Trent River Falls and you’ll arrive at Ammonite Alley, where the shale of the Haslam Formation has yielded beautiful examples of _Mesopuzosia_ and _Kitchinites_ , coiled marine cephalopods that once swam in warm Cretaceous seas. This section represents the _Polytychoceras vancouverense_ ammonite zone, a biostratigraphic marker dating back roughly 84 to 83 million years.
Further along, past slick algae-covered stones and twisting alder roots, the story shifts from ocean to land. Paleontologists have uncovered both marine and terrestrial fossil turtles here — including the rare helochelydrid _Naomichelys speciosa_ , a stubby-limbed, tank-like land turtle that once lumbered through the Cretaceous underbrush.
Even more impressive is the discovery of hadrosauroid dinosaur vertebrae by awesome possum Mike Trask — the tailbone of a duck-billed herbivore that may have wandered the nearby floodplains. Nearby, in the fine-grained sediments of Idle Creek, fossilized leaves and logs still peek from the rock, offering tantalizing clues about the forest these creatures once called home.
And then there’s the ratfish — one of the most bizarre and enigmatic finds from the Trent. Fossils of _Hydrolagus colliei_ , a modern-day chimaera species still living off the Pacific coast, have been found in the area. This particular specimen was a bruiser, larger than its modern kin and armed with disproportionately large eyes and unusual reproductive anatomy. As unappetizing to ancient predators as it is to us, this creature is a fascinating link between ancient and modern marine ecosystems.
**Where the Ancient Meets the Present**
The Trent River is just one piece of a larger fossil-rich puzzle that includes nearby rivers like the Puntledge, also known for its fossil finds — including marine turtles such as _Desmatochelys_ , as detailed in a 1992 paper by paleontologist Elizabeth Nicholls.
The Puntledge is significant to the K'ómoks First Nation, who have lived in this region since Time Immemorial and know the river by many names from the Puntledge, Sahtloot, Sasitla, and Ieeksun.
Today, fossil hunters — amateur and professional alike — can follow the rivers through time, discovering clues to a vastly different world hidden in the layers beneath their boots.
**Planning Your Adventure**
If you're ready to explore the paleontological wonders of the Trent River, head about three kilometres south of Courtenay along Highway 19. Look for a safe pull-off just south of the Cumberland Interchange. A trail leads from the highway beneath the bridge, bringing you to the river’s north bank. From here, the journey unfolds — a mix of scrambling, creek-walking, and sharp-eyed searching that can reveal fossils untouched for millions of years.
To head out on a guided tour of the river, visit the **Courtenay Museum** website and book in with Pat Trask to take you there, share the river's paleontological history and how to find fossils.
Remember: fossil collection is regulated, so always check local rules and never remove fossils from protected sites. In British Columbia, fossils belong to the province. If you find a fossil, you become its steward, noting where you found it and keeping it safe. Sharing your fossil finds with local paleontological societies and museums helps us to know what has been found and let's you know if that find is significant. If it is a new species, it might even be named after you!
The Trent River reminds us that adventure doesn’t always mean scaling peaks or paddling rapids. Sometimes, it’s found in quiet moments along a riverside, where the moss is thick, the rocks are ancient, and time itself feels close enough to touch.
