Prince Rupert is situated on the west coast in the northern part of BC. It actually is situated on Kaien Island. Port Edward, is situated on the mainland, 17 km just outside of Prince Rupert. It is in the District of Port Edward that the North Pacific Cannery was established in the late 1800's. It is the oldest salmon cannery still standing in BC - there used to be 200 salmon canneries in BC - now a handful remain. The Skeena River (called the K'san by local First Nations) was teaming with salmon - and settlers realized that salmon was more valuable as an industry than the fur trade.
We took a guided tour, after being allowed to walk around and view the site independently. The factory employed First Nations, Japanese, Chinese and White Europeans. Initially all the work was done manually. Child labour was abundant simply because men and women were employed in the First Nations 'houses' and no daycare existed.
The Japanese men were sought after and hired for their skillsets including making the boats and using their knives. They would cut off the head, tail, fins and be able to process about 4 salmon per minute in doing so.
In 1923 the operation was updated to run by electricity. Instead of processing 20,000 cans of salmon as they did with the manual labor, they were able to process 34,000 cans of salmon in a season. The factory was closed in 1981 as Port Edward residents began complaining about the smell (due to the operation of the reduction plant - used to create oils and plant fertilizer from fish waste).
We had packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed the view of the Skeena River. We watched a couple of fisherman pull in their fish net and pull in about 5 really good sized salmon.
We then headed back to the hotel for a break.
We then walked down to the Cow Road area where we walked to the Museum of Northern BC. It was a beautiful building with lots of information. We only had 75 minutes to see all of it as it closed at 4 pm!
We then stopped in a little shop where I bought a pair of waterproof shoes! We will see how they hold up in the rain. We have had blue sky and sunshine for both days here in Prince Rupert. I asked the sales person if she had a restaurant recommendation. She suggested Arabisk Mediterranean Cuisine. We found out it was a 45 minute walk (plus another 15 already from our hotel), but another store clerk suggested it was a lovely day for a walk along the water on the newly completed Rushbrook Trail. It was a lovely walk and even better meal! We chose the Dinner for Two that included 3 appetizers and four kinds of meat, 2 mocktails (or glasses of wine if you prefer) and dessert. It was a real feast. I still feel like I ate too much. But it was a family run business and just excellent.
Tomorrow we have our grizzly bear excursion so I best get organized and pack my clothes and day bag!
