Westwood Lake is named after William Joseph Westwood, who operated a dairy farm when the area now known as Westwood Lake was a shallow marsh. In 1860 the Westwoods boarded a California steamer bound for Victoria. After making a small fortune in real estate, they moved to Nanaimo in 1864. Westwood paid $1 an acre for the 650-acre East Wellington property as a homesteader.
The dairy farm was operated until Westwood’s death, on Jan. 29, 1872. When the farm buildings were destroyed by fire that same year, his widow sold 600 acres of the property acres to Richard Chandler of San Francisco, who wanted the coal rights, for $150,000.
The Nanaimo Electric Light, Power and Heating Company operated a coal-powered electric plant in Nanaimo built in 1888, primarily for lighting streets and homes. In 1904, the company, then owned in Victoria, built the Millstone hydro-electric plant and dam on the Millstone River. In 1907, the company built No. 2 dam at Westwood Lake.
The company was sold in 1926 to the International Utilities Corporation, and the Millstone power plant was later acquired by the British Columbia Power Commission. The power plant ceased operations in 1956, was decommissioned, and in January 1957 the City of Nanaimo bought the land for $1. Westwood Lake was dedicated as a city park in 1957
And now you know…