The King of Cortes Island

It’s hard to know exactly how to act in the presence of royalty. Do I bow? Curtsy? Should I speak only when spoken to? Where do I put my hands? The concerns are multitude.

Fortunately for me, King Karl Triller, the late “King of Cortes Island,” proved far warmer than the royal kings of old. The first and only time I met King Karl, the local legend and builder of Cortes Island’s Wolf Bluff Castle, I was eight years old.

It was the summer of 2009. My family was transporting a North Pacific 42 from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Seattle. My mother and father, needing a break from work and a change of pace, opted for a meandering cruise down the Inside Passage. Having boated through the area many times before and fallen in love with the Canadian coastline and its people, my parents thought a longer, more in-depth journey would be a fitting way to introduce their kids to the landscape.

Our six-week voyage was nothing short of magical, filled with astounding flora and fauna and an even more astounding cast of Canadian characters. Through inky black waters, sleek porpoises rode the wake of our bow. A dockmaster and his musical nephew once greeted my family with a literal trumpet song before giving us a tour of their declining cannery town. Dock parties and camaraderie abounded. Crab and freshly caught fish were shared and traded freely among passing boaters. Bioluminescent plankton were so common at night that they even felt like another part of the crew.

None of these experiences, however, held a candle to meeting the Hungarian-born, self-proclaimed Cortes Island monarch.

FOR THOSE NEW to His Highness’s royal kingdom and the island of Cortes itself, some geographical knowledge might be appropriate. Cortes Island sits at the bottom of the Discovery Island Chain, sandwiched between Desolation Sound and Campbell River. The Strait of Georgia opens up upon Cortes’s southern tip, at times creating large swells that can send boaters running for cover.

With a population of around 1,000 full-time residents, the island retains a small-town and rural feel, with ecoconscious community food co-ops and ample hiking trails (located on the southern end of the island). The two closest anchorages to Karl’s regal abode are Cortes Bay to the east and Mansons Landing to the west. Both are equipped with government docks and decent holdings (wind-dependent), though Mansons Landing boasts far better beaches and quicker access to town. Further north, Gorge Harbour offers well protected anchorage as well as fuel and the much-loved Gorge Harbour Marina Resort. The real gem of the island, however, lies closer to the east side.

On a dusty country road outside of Cortes Bay, King Karl’s lifelong work and now crumbling legacy sat nestled behind a stand of towering pines. The walk from Cortes Bay’s government dock felt both long and short, as was fitting when one anticipated an audience with aristocracy. At the time, my parents had already tipped me off to the special island royal.

WHEN I FIRST arrived at Wolf Bluff Castle in 2009, Karl was perched outside his fortress wearing a crown. He sat atop a fittingly regal, though improvised, throne—a white plastic folding chair. His robes of choice were a quintessentially Pacific Northwest teal checkered shirt, adorned with black suspenders and bare feet—our humble king amongst men.

Back then, Karl offered tours of his five-story, eight-bedroom castle. Complete with climbing English ivy and three turrets, the stone structure really did feel as if it had erupted from a medieval fairy tale.

Warm and eager to share his story, Karl regaled my brother and I with tales of the castle’s construction. Unable to build a fortress in Hungary, Karl moved to Cortes Island, where he could erect his empire in peace, building codes be damned! He spent 12 years single-handedly crafting the castle, pouring every concrete brick and constructing each structure himself.

At Wolf Bluff Castle, named after the wolves that once roamed Cortes Island, King Karl had managed to create not only an architectural marvel but also a medieval arsenal. Inside, the dining room boasted heavy-set wooden tables strewn with swords, shields and crossbows—appropriate for a king in need of protection. Cortes Island, of course, being one of the most strategically relevant locations to establish a dominion.

My parents still treasure a photo of my brother and I posing menacingly alongside the king, wielding our selected weapons of choice.

If you were particularly lucky—or unlucky, depending on your temperament—Karl might show you the dungeon where he had carefully crafted a “torture chamber” with handmade dummies and cheeky signs announcing their sins. At Wolf Bluff Castle, the monarchy still ruled with an iron fist. As the judge, jury and executioner, King Karl went by many names.

By the time I met him, Karl was nearly blind and deaf. His beard had run snow white with the seasons of age, and he stooped as he moved around. What little I know about the monarch comes mostly from my family’s memories, supplemented by the sparse information available about him online and at the Cortes Island Museum. Access to his castle and the magical world he created was free, though he kindly asked for donations.

DECADES AGO, IN the late ‘90s, when the foundation of my mother and father’s romance was built on weeks long trips through the Discovery Islands, they stopped and met Karl in his prime—if your late 60s to 70s can still be considered the height of youth.

Back then, they remember him hosting dinners for passing boaters, a great way for Karl to generate revenue and for the boating and Cortes Island community to mingle. Even better, after a long voyage, if you wanted to step into medieval times instead of the present day, you could stay at the castle when it was functioning as a Bed and Breakfast. My mother and father recall Karl taking glee in his hospitality, always eager to chat and show off his personal kingdom.

In an attempt to replicate that sense of wonder I felt as a child, in 2022 my friends and I trekked to find Karl and his castle once more. We had been on a two-month-long voyage, tracing the path of another misfit of the Inside Passage, Muriel Wylie Blanchet, the skipper and writer of The Curve of Time. Cruising back down south, we passed Cortes Bay and took it as a welcome chance for refuge and a day trip to Karl’s fantastical world.

When we arrived, we found neither Karl nor the memories of my youth. Instead, behind the overgrown forest, we discovered only the remnants of Wolf Bluff Castle. Though the fortress still stood, the place once so full of Karl’s vim and vigour now lay abandoned before us, a ghost of its former self. Ivy had nearly covered the entirety of the structure, and wood rot had seeped into the doors and exterior window casings. Birds chirped quietly, and the air felt remarkably hot and still. Karl passed away in the winter of 2022, just a few months before my friends and I arrived back on the island.

With Karl’s passing, not only did Cortes Island lose a part of its cruising hospitality, but it also lost an identity uniquely tied to the Discovery Islands and the lore of the Inside Passage.

THIS CRUISING GROUND of my parents’ past was distinctly littered with runaways, dreamers, kooks, bootleggers, artists and misfits. Listening to my mother and father talk about their experiences in the Inside Passage, it seems you couldn’t throw a rock without hitting a hospitable local with a strange story to share or some wisdom to impart.

To me and many others, the Inside Passage is a place where you can actualize your wants and desires. For myself and my friends, these dramatic waters were the backdrop of our coming of age, our passage into adulthood, and a place of creativity and discovery.

Karl’s desire, as strange as it seemed, was to be a king. Cortes Island afforded him that chance, and brick by brick, he crafted that dream into reality.

Now, having voyaged through this Canadian coastline as both a child and a young adult, I can confidently say that something unique abounds in these waters. A kind of magic draws illustrious characters to these islands and compels them to stay and take root. Refuge Cove, for example, was established by a cooperative of young Vancouver dreamers seeking a new way of living. Many draft dodgers fled north and chose to build a life here in hiding opting for peace instead of war. Hippies, liveaboards and makers and menders of all sorts find easy footing in these landscapes.

WHILE KARL IS one of the kookiest characters I’ve had the privilege to meet in the Inside Passage, he is also a thread in a larger tapestry. Though Wolf Bluff Castle no longer reigns as Cortes Island’s ruling kingdom, perhaps Karl’s true legacy wasn’t the castle itself. Instead, it might be the legacy of all those who chose to stake their claim in the Inside Passage—a legacy of independence, a can-do attitude and the understanding that their dreams, however unconventional, will not only be respected but will also become an integral part of what makes the Inside Passage so special. Long live our king and long live the dreamers of these extraordinary waters.

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Interested in living like a King? Wolf Bluff Castle is currently for sale. See MLS Number 979826 for more info.