As we left Fairmont Hot Springs, we had a few long days ahead of us. Our next stop was Prince Rupert, BC. Our first stop was Kelowna, followed by McBride, and finally Smithers before reaching Prince Rupert.
On our second day of that journey, between Kelowna and McBride, I had a camera problem. By the time I figured out what the problem was and realized that I wasn’t going to be able to fix it, we were shortly outside Kamloops, British Columbia, a larger city of about 100,000 people.
I checked to see if there was a camera shop in town. And lo and behold, in downtown Kamloops, there was. I called to see if they had any lenses that fit my needs. They did, and they were open. We decided to make a quick pit stop in Kamloops so I could get a working zoom lens.
As I’m messing with this lens, I saw my first roadside wild animals in Canada. Several bighorn sheep were playing right along the edge of the road. Good news is I got to see them. Bad news is I didn’t have a camera that would take a picture.
I went into this shop, and it was full of camera equipment of all sizes, all types, all brands and all ages. The manager had been collecting cameras for years. My lens, which is a Sony Series A lens, is no longer made, but he did have a couple in stock that would work, and they were reasonably priced, particularly considering that it was Canadian pricing. I managed to pick up a 28-200 for $125 and asked what else he had (just out of curiosity). He also had a 75-300. Well, that’s a better wildlife lens than what I had been carrying, so I bought the two. I was missing the ultra-wide angle, but figured I could live with that in exchange for getting more of the wildlife that was off in the distance. While I had a long lens, it was cumbersome and heavy, so I did not use it for going down the road photos. Now that I had two lenses, I would forever be saying ‘I don’t have the right lens on!’ I became very proficient at swapping out lenses quickly.
Between Kamloops and McBride, we found a place on the Skeena River that had a torrential river rapid that grabbed my attention.
Camera issue solved, we journeyed on. McBride was less than memorable, and we headed on to Smithers, BC, which has a population of only 5,500. However, it was a conference town. We stayed in one of the conference hotels which was unexpectedly nice.
The next day we made it to Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert is a port city in British Columbia. With a population of about 12,000 people, it is the fastest growing city in the province. It is known as the rainiest city in Canada with over 160 days of rain annually and averaging 102 inches a year. We apparently were there during the rainy season and my photos show it. But it was also popping out spring and the green color was almost neon it was so bright.
For many years, Prince Rupert was both a forestry city and a fish canning location. The city’s economy was heavily reliant on these industries. Our inn was right on the sound, and we had a beautiful view of the water, but alas, not a balcony.
Determined to see the sights, the day after we arrived, we drove out of town a little ways and took a tour of an old salmon canning factory. The view going out to the factory was impressive.
The tour of the factory revealed some shocking historical facts about the salmon canning process in the early 1900s:
– Eight-year-olds worked in the plant as hard as grown men.
– Women who worked there were expected to scale fish by hand at a rapid rate.
– The entire process was manual, making it a laborious means to get salmon into a can.
– They used lead to solder the cans shut. Then, to get the air out, they depressurized the can by putting a hole in the lid. Once the pressure had been released, they put a drop of lead to seal the hole.
The factory closed in the late 1960s when Canadian health laws were enacted to require all food processing facilities have concrete floors. This facility, like most in Prince Rupert, was constructed on a boardwalk over the tidal area of the ocean. Therefore, it was virtually impossible to do business or to concrete the facility they had. The factory has since been turned into a museum and an educational instrument for the industry, and they’ve done a really nice job of showing the process.
Something that surprised me was how diverse and yet, how segregated the work force was.
– The Japanese were skilled at filleting the fish, and they were housed in their own separate cabins. However, during World War II, the Japanese were interned in-country, and the canning industry lost all those workers. That put quite a strain on business in the 40s. Also, many of the Japanese who had been so good at their jobs did not return after the war.
– The native indigenous population lived in much more cramped quarters, and they did a lot of the manual labor.
– The Chinese, who were there because of the railroad, had their own quarters.
– The bosses were of European descent, and they had much nicer quarters.
This area was known to draw a great deal of wildlife because once the fish were filleted for use, the remaining parts were just dumped into a wooden hole that went straight to the shore and/or the tides. This made the area a prime habitat for bear, moose, otters, and seals — and anything else that wanted to feed on those remains. The feeding ground is no longer there, so we didn’t get to observe any animals, but it certainly would have been interesting in its day.
What has brought Prince Rupert back has been the fact that it is now the closest route from China to the North American coast. It has become a container ship port city. Once cargo is offloaded, trains and trucks deliver a significant amount of goods from the ships throughout the interior of Canada and probably even into the U.S. That business has revitalized Port Rupert’s economy and work force, meaning the city should long be an active player in the economic scene of British Columbia.
The city of Prince Rupert has a museum that explains the history of the community, particularly of the Inuit population. It is called the Museum of Northern British Columbia. At this point, it is important to note the difference in the way the U.S. and Canada address indigenous populations. America has traditionally referred to native populations or indigenous people as Indians, which is completely false and a slap in the face to many Native Americans. We now refer to them as Native Americans or by their tribal names. In contrast, Canada has universally accepted the name of First Nations People as a generalized classification for all indigenous populations. There is also a substantial difference between the indigenous populations to the south of the Arctic area and the Inuit population.
The Inuit population lives in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Prior to the establishment of this identity, most Americans would have called them Eskimos. That is no longer an acceptable term, and Inuit population is more appropriate. The Inuit population did not live as far south as Prince Rupert and therefore, the focus of the museum there was on trying to depict the First Nations People who did inhabit the area.
I first became aware of these indigenous terms when I visited and interviewed for a position in Sitka, Alaska. This is primarily the home of the totem pole population. They used totem poles for many things — for celebrations, to shame people, and to celebrate events. Each pole told a story. Two of the most commonly used icons of these First Nation bands are ravens and eagles. The colors of black, red, and white are also consistent with a number of bands of indigenous people in Alaska, northern Washington, and this area of British Columbia. The museum was carefully curated and well interpreted and while it was not a large museum, it was particularly effective in explaining who lived here before the Europeans settled.
When we first pulled in to Prince Rupert, we saw a cruise ship in port. I didn’t know cruise ships went to Prince Rupert, but clearly there was one there. At first, we couldn’t exactly figure out where it was. The location turned out to be Cow Bay.
Cow Bay got its name in the early days of Prince Rupert, about 1912, when a man brought a dozen dairy cows into the port to create a local dairy industry. The cows got loose and escaped and were seen swimming in the bay; thus the name Cow Bay stuck. The dairy industry did not. It was a deep water port and is now known as sort of a little tourist mecca for Prince Rupert. The fishing vessels come and go there, as do tour boats for the bear tour, which we took the next day.
And just for my Sorority Sisters, I couldn’t help snapping this photo. Alas, we did not eat there!
