Steveston

Steveston was once the largest fishing port on the Pacific coast, with dozens of canneries along the Fraser mouth processing sockeye. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery, built in 1894, survives as a museum with the canning line in place, the machinery explained including the racist name given to one early machine, and the herring reduction plant. The Britannia Shipyard nearby preserves boatbuilding sheds and the stilt houses of Japanese Canadian workers, most of whom were interned and dispossessed in 1942. At the public dock, licensed fishermen still sell their catch directly off the boats, which is unusual in Canada.

History

For thousands of years this was home to Halkomelem-speaking peoples, with at least two Musqueam villages. Manoah Steves came with his family around 1877-1878 from Moncton, the townsite began in 1880 as a crown grant to his son William Herbert Steves, and it became Steveston in 1889; salmon canning on the river began in 1871, the Phoenix cannery opened in 1882, and by the 1890s there were 45 canneries, about half of them here, giving the town the nickname Salmonopolis, with Japanese, Chinese, First Nations and European workers arriving each summer (Wikipedia, Steveston, British Columbia).

The main sights

• The Gulf of Georgia Cannery - an 1894 plant with the canning line intact.
• The fisherman's wharf - boats selling salmon, prawns and crab off the deck.
• Britannia Shipyard - boatbuilding sheds and Japanese Canadian stilt houses.
• The dyke path - a walking route along the Fraser and the marsh.

When to go

May to September for boat sales and full opening; the cannery reduces hours in winter. Catch at the dock depends entirely on openings, which vary by year and species.

What to expect

Dock sales depend on fishery openings and there may be nothing for sale. The cannery is a Parks Canada site with its own hours. Summer weekend parking is difficult.

Nearby

Richmond Night Market lies northeast; Vancouver is north.

Key facts