Writer Georgina Montgomery and photographer Kevin Oke haven’t lived in the Cowichan Valley very long, but in their new hard cover book, The Cowichan, they’ve managed to capture the area’s essence, from its rich logging history to its incredible geography.

The lush photos and descriptive prose provide a broad exploration of everything from the Malahat north to Ladysmith and, of course, west to the Cowichan Lake area and beyond.

“As soon as I moved here, I thought about doing a book,” said Oke, who’s been living in the west end of North Cowichan for more than four years, starting with visits two days a week when he would go on adventures around the valley, camera in hand. He was hot off a press run of The Enchanted Isles, about the Gulf Islands.

“There’s a diverse culture here with a great arts community and it’s very inspiring.”

Oke took most of the photos with his Nikon D300 and D2X digital cameras, although there are some from other photographers.

Montgomery, who moved to Cowichan Station about two years ago, hit the ground running on this project. She’s known Oke for some 20 years and had been making plans for the book a few months before becoming a Cowichan resident.

“There is great diversity in the Cowichan Valley and I’m taken by just how beautiful this area is,” said Montgomery. “There are very strong communities and the people are very family-oriented. There’s great diversity of geography in such as close area and then there are the great layers of history.”

She said that despite the physical and often political separation of the Cowichan Lake area from the rest of the valley, there are still many similarities, especially with their common logging history.

The 143 glossy-paged book features an impressive 14 pages on the Cowichan Lake area — which they suggest is the heart of the region — including snippets on the rich logging history, the lush geography and the exciting present. Both the Cowichan River and Cowichan Lake fare well in the book — and rightfully so — because of their importance to the region.

Here is a short description of our area: “Cowichan Lake is what many consider the heart of the Cowichan,” writes Montgomery. “Cut long and deep into the interior terrain of the region, it lies about 162 metres (530 feet) above sea level. Kaatza, as it was called by the Cowichan Lake First Nation, means big lake, a simple yet accurate description of the second largest freshwater body on Vancouver Island (after Kennedy Lake near Ucuelet).”

Montgomery and Oke defined the area they would cover simply by using the boundary of the Cowichan Valley Regional District

A book launch was held at Bistro 161 in Duncan on Thursday, which featured some local foods and wines.

Through Harbour Publishing, The Cowichan, at $34.95, is on sale at the Volume One Books in Duncan.