History, culture and wildlife await in Prince Rupert, British Columbia

Thwack, thwack, thwack!

A humpback whale quickly commands our attention as it slaps the water repeatedly with one barnacle-covered fin. Our boat off Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia came to a sudden stop a few minutes earlier when we saw it breach in the distance.

Now, the whale has come closer and we watch for half an hour while he continues slapping, diving, tail flapping, noisily exhaling and, occasionally, heaving half his 40-tonne body out of the water, then falling backwards and disappearing. Finally, he surfaces like a submarine no more than 50m from where I’m standing, speechless, on the back deck, then takes off doing a humpback version of butterfly stroke with his pectoral fins!

The most surprising thing? It’s not even “whale watching season”. That’s from the end of July through mid-September. Now, in late June, we’re on our way to view grizzly bears in BC’s Khutzeymateen Park, a valley that’s home to one of the highest concentrations of grizzlies in Canada.

“Somebody had the foresight to actually make this into a sanctuary,” says Doug Davis, captain and owner of Prince Rupert Adventure Tours, as we motor up the Khutzeymateen Inlet, part of the park that was established in 1994 to protect grizzlies.

Wisps of cloud hang over the forested slopes that close around us. “We’re just part of the scenery,” Doug says, referring to his lemon-yellow, 22m-long catamaran. “They accept us. Most places, the bears aren’t that accommodating.”

It’s low tide and we spot several golden-hued bears, including a mother and cub, crunching on mussels or chewing protein-rich sedge grass. Because food is relatively abundant here, bears live closer together than they would otherwise. Still, life isn’t as idyllic as it might look, at least not for the females.

“The males are pretty ruthless,” says Jasmine, one of our guides, explaining that a male will kill a cub to make its mother fertile again. “Any of the moms that you will see on the beaches, they’re constantly on their back legs, looking around, huffing and puffing, because they’re so cautious. You know, they’re on edge 24/7.”

Prince Rupert offers visitors more than just thrilling wildlife encounters. This place has been a trade hub for thousands of years, long before the city itself was founded on an island near the mouth of the Skeena River in 1910. This is the homeland of the Ts’msyen (shim-SHEE-un), whose name means ‘People inside the Skeena River’. It’s one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world, with rich traditions and a striking architectural heritage.

Traditionally divided into four clans — eagle, raven, killer whale and wolf — the Ts’msyen used totem poles, house front paintings, ceremonial regalia, songs, stories, dances and feasts to keep their culture alive since time immemorial.

The Museum of Northern British Columbia resembles a Ts’msyen longhouse with massive cedar posts and beams. The first thing I notice is the sweet scent of cedar, still present years after the trees were cut and the bark was stripped for construction in the mid-1980s.

Most of the pieces on exhibit were purchased by a collector who then donated them to the museum, or by the museum with the help of the federal government. Individuals have also donated items, such as the exquisitely carved and painted warrior canoe that was in one family for three generations. And several Ts’msyen chiefs have agreed to let the museum display their ceremonial regalia.

Curator Susan Marsden says the museum wants to show visitors the sophistication of the Ts’mysen and the Gitksan Nations, also of the Skeena River, from their perspective, rather than “perpetuating the unspoken assumption that First Nations societies were somehow less than so-called civilisations, when indeed the opposite can be said to be true”.

By the late 19th century non-Indigenous entrepreneurs decided that the most significant food of coastal First Nations was something they could exploit for profit. Soon canneries opened the length of British Columbia’s coast, more than 200 at peak.

The longest running in all of BC was the North Pacific Cannery, at the mouth of the Skeena River. Now a National Historic Site, some of the buildings and houses, built on stilts and connected by boardwalks, are preserved as they were when the cannery closed in 1968.

On this drizzly July day, typical weather in Prince Rupert, not a single salmon brightens the water. But back in the early 20th century, it was said that “you could walk to the other side of the river on the backs of the salmon,” our guide tells us as we stand on the dock, looking across. “And there were so many boats, that you can walk on and jump across all the boats to get to the other side,” she adds.

Inside the main canning building, still equipped with machinery, I picture what it must have been like; the scaling, the gutting, the butchering. The making of cans themselves. The noise, the stench. Assembly lines of men and women, many Indigenous, as well as Japanese and Chinese, each ethnicity with their own physically demanding jobs.

Once canned, the salmon was shipped to market by train on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, now part of CN Railways. Today, that railway has once again made Prince Rupert a significant port. But instead of shipping out salmon, it receives grain, coal and wood pellets from other parts of Canada, which are transferred to large container ships from around the world.

Cruise ships also frequently stop on their way to and from Alaska. But Prince Rupert is worth way more than a short stopover. Come by the VIA passenger train from Jasper, as I did, and you’ll find a place with a storied human history, where even the wildlife is welcoming.

+ Suzanne Morphet was a guest of Destination BC, which has not influenced or read this story before publication.

fact file

+ The VIA train between Jasper and Prince Rupert runs three days a week year-round. viarail.ca/en

+ The Crest Hotel in Prince Rupert looks over the water and is within an easy walk of the museum and harbour. cresthotel.ca

+ Book a wilderness tour with Prince Rupert Adventure Tours at adventuretours.ca

+ The North Pacific Cannery National Historic Site is open from May 1 to September 30. northpacificcannery.ca