Prince Rupert

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Prince Rupert on Kaien Island lies near the mouth of the Skeena River and that is where we find Patrick today having travelled for 18 hours on a ferry from his last destination Campbell River.



Named in 1906 for Prince Rupert, first governor of the Hudson Bay Company, it began as a tent town and developed after 1914 as the terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. In the 1970s it became the western terminus of the Yellowhead Highway from Edmonton.

Salmon and Halibut fishing and processing are an important part of the economy.



We saw a fishing boat that held a sad story.

In 1985 Kazukio Sakamoto took his vessel, the Kazu Maru, out to fish in local waters. Tragically neither he nor the boat returned home.

18 months later the boat was found in Skidegate Channel.

Eventually the Kazu Maru was taken to Prince Rupert where it was restored The plaque commemorates her voyage, the park surrounding boat was built as a dedication to all mariners whose lives have been lost at sea, a bronze statue of a fisherman holding his boat’s steering wheel commemorates all those lost at sea.

The fisherman’s wife referred to the Kazu Maru as ‘the love of his life’ and he would have been happy to know the little craft was part of a park honouring mariners lost at sea.



During World War II, the strategic geographical position of the city resulted in the arrival of thousands of American and Canadian troops which used the port for obtaining supplies and materials.



Prince Rupert has some beautiful and very large wall murals.

The museum building built is in the style of a traditional northwest coast First Nations longhouse.

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