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Comments? |
princerupert.com |
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NorthCoast's Regional Information Site |
Skeena
River Cannery Geography
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Seeing Canneries as places in time “Cannery Row” was made famous by Steinbeck writing about California. The Skeena has had several cannery rows: the most durable along Inverness Passage (1-5 on left and see full table at end of page), but historically along the Skeena itself and especially Port Essington, on the Ecstall. |
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In Time Over 2/3rds
of the canneries predate founding of Prince Rupert, which should tell us
something about why they were so ephemeral. |
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Boundaries
and Canneries Changes in technology and fishing regulations have perhaps been the deciding factor controlling where canneries were located. Until 1924 cannery tugs pulled out lines of sail boats that gillnetted daily in the Skeena. As gas boats became legal, mobility became easier and the salmon were intercepted farther offshore. Presumably for conservation reasons it became illegal to fish in the Skeena. By 1948 even Port Essington was off limits (green left) |
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Changes in Technology Modified from Brent
(1948) |
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Gladys Blyth has compiled much of the early documentation. The table below was extracted from that work and the Gazetteer data found using her locations. Each Cannery has its own write up. The table below could be used as basis of historical database: for example all the BC Archives images could be placed in another database and linked to this one using a common name/ or number. |
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map |
Cannery |
open |
closed |
most cases |
year |
BC Gazetteer |
MAP |
Latitude |
Longitude |
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1 |
Inverness |
1877 |
1950 |
62,271 |
1938 |
103J/1 |
54°12'00" |
130°16'00 |
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2 |
North Pacific |
1889 |
1968 |
31,031 |
1968 |
103J/1 |
54°11'00" |
130°12'00" |
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3 |
Dominion |
1906 |
1927 |
12,001 |
1906 |
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103J/1 |
54°19'00" |
130°25'00" |
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4 |
Sunnyside |
1916 |
1968 |
95,619 |
1968 |
103J/1 |
54°11'00" |
130°12'00" |
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5 |
Cassiar |
1903 |
1983 |
126,000 |
1965 |
103J/1 |
54°11'00" |
130°11'00" |
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6 |
Haysport-I |
1920 |
1937 |
58,235 |
??? |
103J/1 |
54°10'00" |
130°00'00" |
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7 |
Aberdeen* |
1878 |
1902 |
17,570 |
1902 |
103I/4 |
54°13'00" |
129°53'00" |
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8 |
Alexandria Cannery |
1904 |
1915 |
7,492 |
1911 |
103I/4 |
54°10'00" |
129°56'00" |
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9 |
Balmoral |
1883 |
1933 |
52,785 |
1919 |
103I/4 |
54°10'20" |
129°56'30" |
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10 |
Ladysmith Cannery |
1900 |
1907 |
4,481 |
1906 |
103I/4 |
54°10'00" |
129°57'00" |
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11 |
British American Co* |
1883 |
1923 |
39,452 |
1919 |
103I/4 |
54°09'00" |
129°58'00" |
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12 |
Skeena River Commercial |
1898 |
1923 |
30,824 |
1917 |
103I/4 |
54°09'00" |
129°58'00" |
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14 |
Skeena Cannery |
1883 |
1926 |
18,001 |
1924 |
103I/4 |
54°09'00" |
129°58'00" |
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15 |
Carlisle |
1895 |
1950 |
72,666 |
1941 |
103J/1 |
54°07'00" |
130°05'00" |
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16 |
Claxton |
1892 |
1944 |
109,083 |
1938 |
103J/1 |
54°05'00" |
130°05'00" |
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17 |
Standard |
1890 |
1902 |
11,977 |
1902 |
103J/1 |
54°02'00" |
130°05'00" |
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18 |
Humpback Bay |
1928 |
1933 |
24,531 |
1932 |
103J/1 |
54°05'00" |
130°23'00" |
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19 |
Oceanic |
1903 |
1929 |
39,788 |
1934 |
103J/1 |
54°07'00" |
130°13'00" |
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20 |
Port Ed |
1918 |
1981 |
281,452 |
1972 |
103J/1 |
54°13'00" |
130°17'00" |
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21 |
Seal Cove |
1943 |
1953 |
18,495 |
1948 |
103J/8 |
54°20'00" |
130°17'00" |
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22 |
Babcock (McMillan) |
1957 |
--- |
57,000 |
1989 |
103J/8 |
54°19'00" |
130°19'00" |
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23 |
New Oceanside |
1974 |
---- |
515,000 |
1981 |
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24 |
PR Co-op |
1962 |
--- |
60,400 |
1977 |
103J/8 |
54°17'00" |
130°21'00" |
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25 |
Nelson Bros* |
1940 |
1972 |
198,058 |
1966 |
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26 |
Tuck Inlet Cannery |
1913 |
1928 |
34,994 |
1924 |
103J/8 |
54°23'00" |
130°15'00" |
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