Prince Rupert, Northern British Columbia |
The town of Prince Rupert began as a dream when founder Charles Melville Hays, president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, saw the island on which it sits as the perfect terminus for marine trade, and rail and sea travel.
Unfortunately, on a trip back from Europe in 1912, where he was rustling up money to finance his vision, Hays met with an untimely and tragic death aboard the RMS Titanic.
The Northwest Coast has fed the human spirit for thousands of years. The land and sea has generously supported a vast First Nations population for over 10,000 years. Long before European contact, Prince Rupert's inner harbour was the most densely populated area north of Mexico. The Tsimshian Nation is the indigenous First Nations in the Prince Rupert area - their traditional territory extending south to Kitasoo, north to the mouth of the Nass River and up the Skeena River just east of Terrace.
Today, the communities of Metlakatla, Lax Kw’alaams (Port Simpson), Metlakatla Alaska, Gitkxaahla (Kitkatla), Gitga’ata (Hartley Bay), Kitasoo (Klemtu), Kitselas, and Kitsumkalum are still vital Tsimshian villages. You’ll find the central offices of the Tsimshian Nation at Chatham House above the Museum of Northern British Columbia. Other First Nations in the northwest include the Haida, Gitksan and Nisga’a people. The cultural centre of the Tsimshian-speaking First Nations people today, Prince Rupert had been surveyed as early as the 1870s, and was incorporated on March 10, 1910, named for the son of Queen Elizabeth and Frederick of Bohemia.
Seventy-five years later, a number of local folks have rekindled Hays' dream, and by the mid-1980s, Prince Rupert had two major export terminals and a booming local economy. With this newfound prosperity have come culture and tourism. Located on Kaien Island, which was uninhabited a century ago, Prince Rupert is the true Gateway to the North, with travel options as diverse as the spectacular scenery along the way. As a critical transportation hub, it affords access to some of the world's most remote and admired natural scenery.
Prince Rupert's natural deepwater harbour handles significant volumes of commercial traffic as well, with ocean-going freighters from all over the world loading cargoes of grain, lumber, pulp, mineral ore, sulphur and coal destined for international markets. The port's importance will increase as Pacific Rim trade grows.
Population: 15,281
Location: Prince Rupert is located on the northwest coast of British Columbia at the western end of the Yellowhead Highway 16, 30 miles (48 km) south of southeast Alaska, approximately 90 miles (145 km) from Terrace, and 453 miles (725 km) west of Prince George.
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