Limestone, Toothpaste, and Texada Island

Texada Boat Club docks at Sturt Bay on Texada Island

Departing Lund, we motored down the Strait of Georgia into Malaspina Strait, stopping at Sturt Bay on Texada Island. The Texada Boat Club offers transient moorage at their docks in Sturt Bay, with picnic tables under an open tent barge for impromptu social gatherings. People on the island are friendly and hard working.

Texada Island has a long history of mining, including iron, copper, silver, and gold. In more recent years, Texada has been a continuous source of high-quality limestone. The quarries can be seen along the hillsides while motoring along Malaspina Strait. Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate in the form of the mineral calcite. There are several varieties of limestone, and Texada Island is known for its high-quality content.

Limestone plays an important role in a wide variety of products. Crushed limestone is used for road base and is also used as an aggregate in concrete. It can be cut into blocks and slabs for use in construction; it’s used for facing stone, floor tiles, stair treads, window sills, and many other applications. It can be used as a weather and heat-resistant coating on asphalt, impregnated shingles, and roofing. Crushed limestone is used in smelting and other metal refining processes. It’s even used as a filter stone for sewage disposal systems, and used as a sorbent to absorb pollutants in many coal-burning facilities.

Crushed Limestone

Farmers use limestone for treating acidic soils and in animal feed as a filler that provides calcium. Powdered limestone is also used as a filler in paper, paint, rubber, and plastics.

And, yes, limestone is even used in toothpaste — calcium carbonate is a mild natural abrasive which is less hard than tooth enamel so works well for cleaning; the calcium benefits in helping to develop and maintain teeth which are made up of calcium compounds. Limestone also gives toothpaste its white color.

Visitors can learn about the history of mining and quarrying on Texada, along with other interesting island history at the “Van Anda Museum” located a short distance from the docks at Sturt Bay on Waterman Avenue, adjacent to the elementary school.