Visit the North Pacific Cannery Museum

If you’d traveled along British Columbia’s Skeena River in the late 1800s or early 1900s, you would have noticed multiple salmon canneries lining its banks, taking in massive quantities of fish and shipping out tiny tins to customers far and wide.

That fascinating history is on display and preserved at the North Pacific Cannery Museum, a National Historic Site near Port Edward and Prince Rupert. The museum consists of the impressive remainders of residences and workspaces, including the massive cannery itself, all of which are accessible via a dock suspended over the scenic Skeena.

A visit here involves exploring exhibits via guided tour or self-guided tour. Though the museum is a work in progress, with restorations continuing today, there is plenty to see. You’ll learn about how the canning industry operated on the Skeena, the way workers lived when this cannery operated and how the cannery itself was run. Old equipment and other cannery technology, fishing nets and canning supplies are on display as well.

The most interesting insights here have to do with worker life in this remote corner of northern British Columbia. The cannery offers visitors the ability to step back in time and imagine what it would be like to live and work here.