Sooke's history dates back over a thousand years ago with the T'Sou-ke First Nations peoples.

The T'Sou-ke Nation, a Coast Salish band, has lived in the area because the land and sea provided them with a tremendous amount of food. Salmon, clams and the stickleback fish were easily caught at the mouth of the Sooke River where the band continues to live.

In 1843 a Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur trading fort was built in the area (now Victoria) which launched a European immigration and the buying of land.

Then in the early 1860s,  a shortlived gold-rush hit the area when a few nuggets were found inland where the Sooke, Leech and Wolf rivers meet. 

By the mid-1950s, the total population in the Sooke region just tipped a little over 1,200 people. 1959 saw the launch a community paper (now the Sooke News Mirror) and 1963 was the opening of Mom's Café - a Sooke fixture still operating over 50 years later.

Today the Sooke region boats a wide range of attractions including

• Millennium Memorial Park 
• Historic driving tours
• Murals and historic hotels
• Museum
• Lighthouse and Moss cottage

Fun Fact: Up until a decade ago, harvesting the rainforest was what built the economy of Sooke and put money into the bank account of the procincial government.