Roy L Hales/ COrtes Currents - Over the past 20 years, Christian Gronau has documented 149 fossiliferous rocks in our area.
Fossil #144 was recently installed at the Cortes Island Museum, but the German-born and trained palaeontologist said, “Palaeontology became a question for me when I was settled here. I looked around, of course was interested in the local geology, and realized that Cortes is just a big pile of granite with very little exceptions to that rule and started wondering what I was going to do with my interest in fossils.”
He moved to Canada in 1972 and met his partner, Aileen Douglas, while working in the mining sector.
Regarding their decision to move to Cortes Island in 1978, he explained, “it's a winding path, a complicated path, but a happy path that led me here and palaeontology didn't feature into the decision making. More the landscape, the political climate of Canada, people of Cortes. This was a long time ago.”
He and Aileen moved to a water access only property without hydro or telephone and became shellfish farmers, but palaeontology is very important to Christian Gronau.
“It's one of the major aspects of defining our existence, explaining our origins, putting us in some context and giving us an identity on this planet. It gives us a real sense of deep time, because we can trace our ancestry as far back as life itself, which I think is pretty profound, pretty important.”
Everything changed after fossil #1 turned up in Gorge Harbour.
Image credit: The important pieces of evidence in support of Bute Inlet having been the main conduit for the transport of Buchia erratics from the Potato Range to Cortes Island. Fossil #129 found by Barry Saxifrage, Fossil #130 by Christian Gronau - photo courtesy Christian Gronau
