Prince Rupert

Prince Rupert on Yellowhead Highway 16

I don’t know why it is called the Yellowhead, but there is a silhouette of a yellow haired person on the highway signs. 

I had to make a separate page for this trip to Prince Rupert.    It is 90 miles of the most beautiful scenery imaginable.  First of all there are mountains on both sides of the road, all of them capped with snow.  At the base of the snow pack begins a waterfall that often cascades over several rock formations until it tumbles into a river below.  The route primarily follows the Skeena River, which we picked up in Hazelton.  Hard to believe that it was the primary navigation route by sternwheeler for gold rushers, the telegraph line, the railroad and cargo of all kinds.   Every turn presents a beautiful picture and we had great weather all the way. 

We stopped outside of Prince Rupert at Lake Prudhomme Provincial Park.  There weren’t many there, as has been our experience, but John talked to a couple from Maine who were on their way to Ketchikan – he to be a fishing guide, and she the bookkeeper for the summer.  They were in a tent and would catch the early morning ferry.  This is their third season doing this.  He is retired from the Park Service.    It rained hard during the night and we were thinking about them having to pack up all their stuff wet.

We decided to stay here two nights.  We went into Prince Rupert to get the lay of the land.  It is a small town that has received lots of hype.  In fact, we are finding that all of the things in the book we have, called “Mileposts” is hyped, only to find it’s very small.

The town has an area called Cow Bay, named for cows that were brought in to establish a dairy.  There was no dock so they had to swim to shore.  This received a big advertising spread and picture in the book, but is only about two stores big.

We went to Safeway, which I already covered. The ferry landing is at one end of town and the cruise ship area at the other.  They have an airport but it is out of town, and there

are lots of taxis, many run by men wearing turbans. 

The most impressive thing about Prince Rupert is the Museum of Northern British Columbia.  Nacho had his picture taken with a large Totem Pole in the Longhouse shaped foyer.   ( I hope the First Nations people are OK with that!)

It is a very well done museum, with displays of art and history re the natives and quite a display of the US Army, which had 10,000 troops there, primarily moving stuff to Alaska and the Pacific.   And oh, the things we aren’t taught in school!  Did you know that after WWI, the US considered Great Britain to be an enemy?  The Canadians thought we were going to invade, and they geared up to protect their borders.  How we resolved whatever issues there were and became allies by the Second World War is a subject for later research.

Another interesting this on display in Prince Rupert is a small Japanese fishing vessel.

A man named Kasukia Sakamoto went fishing on his boat the Kazo Maru on September 20, 1985.  He never came home and his boat was found washing up on the shore in the Queen Charlotte Islands in March of 1987.  The captain who found her brought her to Prince Rupert and through research discovered her history.  It turned out Kasukia was from Owase, Japan, which happens to be the Sister City of Prince Rupert.  His widow allowed them to keep the boat; it was restored, and is now on display.

We ate at a local restaurant called Smiles Café.  It opened in 1922 and has gone through several ownerships, but they have retained the original flavor of the place, including a placemat with the entire menu from 1945, when all those troops were here.   They had a comprehensive menu with interesting things like Fried clams French style 50 cents, Welsh Rarebit on Toast 50 cents, Denver Sandwich 30 cents and Fried Filleted Chicken a la Maryland Style 70 cents.   It made me want to hang around just to order some of these items to see what they were! It rained a lot while we were here, so we didn’t spend too much time in Prince Rupert, but I think we saw what needed to be seen.