Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Last updated

Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site Gulf of Georgia Cannery 2018.jpg
Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site
The Cannery's Museum Interior Gulf of Georgia Cannery Museum 2018.jpg
The Cannery's Museum Interior

The Gulf of Georgia Cannery is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Steveston village in Richmond, British Columbia. [1]

Contents

Built in 1894, the cannery echoes the days when it was the leading producer of canned salmon in British Columbia. [2] Today it is a museum with interactive exhibits, film, and tours that demonstrate the Cannery's important role in the history of Canada's West Coast fishing industry. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, a non-profit community organization, operates the site on behalf of Parks Canada.

History

Early years

The cannery opened in 1894, in the boomtown of Steveston on the lower Fraser River. It was the largest cannery in British Columbia until 1902. It was known as the "Monster Cannery" - packing more than 2.5 million cans of salmon in 1897. Each canning season attracted a workforce of hundreds of workers, usually of First Nations, Chinese, Japanese, and European descent. At the time, fish canning was one of British Columbia's largest employers, and produced one of its principal export commodities.

Advancing technology

Over the years, the hordes of people manually canning salmon gave way to rows of high-speed machinery. For the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, the price to pay for these advancements would be a diminished role in the canning of salmon, as the last can of sockeye rolled off the production line in 1930. Then, the British Columbia Fishing and Packing Company and Gosse Packing Company Limited merged, forming British Columbia Packers Limited, an amalgamation of the other canneries in the community.

World War 2

The Gulf of Georgia Cannery remained quiet during the 1930s, but with the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, the Cannery was revitalized by an onslaught of new capital and expansion in anticipation of a new enterprise, namely herring. New machinery and an army of workers produced case after case of canned herring in tomato sauce, the major source of protein for Allied soldiers and civilians struggling overseas during the war. Herring canning became an industry-wide endeavour and alongside it grew the business of herring reduction, that is, the transformation of herring into protein-rich oil and meal for animal feeding purposes.

Post war

The end of the war meant the end of a market and the end of herring canning in British Columbia. For the Gulf of Georgia Cannery, herring reduction would become the predominant activity by the late 1940s. The rise of this industry is reflected by the growth of the Cannery complex which saw three successive waves of expansion before the herring reduction industry was crippled by overfishing and government closure in the late 1960s. By the 1970s, a new market emerged in Japan for British Columbia herring roe and this ensured that the reduction operation at the Cannery would run once more. However, the new roe industry generated only a small amount of raw material for reduction, as catches formerly in the hundreds of thousands of tonnes were limited by regulation to the low tens of thousands.

Closure

By 1979, the cost of operating the Cannery's aging reduction equipment became too much and the reduction plant was closed. The buildings would serve as a net loft and storage for the Canadian Fishing Company's boat fleet and the era of transforming the Cannery into a museum would begin in earnest.

National Historic Site

During the 1970s and early 1980s the local community lobbied various levels of government to save the Cannery. In 1979 the Federal government purchased the property and in 1984 it was transferred to Parks Canada. The building was first open to the public in 1994 in celebration of the centennial of the building. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery Society, a local not-for-profit organization, was formed in 1986 to work together with Parks Canada to develop and operate the site. Today, the Cannery is one of the very few federally owned National Historic Sites operated by a third party.

Chronology

The Cannery, seen from the Fisherman's Park (2007) Gulf-of-Georgia-Cannery2.jpg
The Cannery, seen from the Fisherman's Park (2007)
Fisherman's Park sculpture in 2018 Gulf of Georgia Cannery Sculpture 201807.jpg
Fisherman's Park sculpture in 2018

1894 - Construction of the original L-shaped building; one manual canning line.

1897 - East Wing built to provide additional packing and seasonal living area. Two additional canning lines added.

1906 - Arrival of the mechanical butchering machine; West wing (butchering shed) converted to net loft/storage. East wing shortened by 50 feet (15 m) in 1906 due to new dyke and railway tracks along the waterfront.

1932 - Remains of the West wing demolished by a windstorm.

1940 - Roofline raised to accommodate additional boiler (boiler house).

1943 - Ice house built (in order to store fish for a longer amount of time).

1940-48 - Various structural modifications and additions related to the herring reduction process: Vitamin oil shed and dryer shed.

1956 - East wing of original building raised to accommodate evaporator. Separator room constructed next to evaporator room.
1964 - Addition of grinding and bagging room off drying shed.

1979 - Gulf of Georgia reduction plant closed, building is used as a net loft.

1994 - Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site of Canada opens to the public.

Tours

Tours of the facility are led by heritage interpreters, and a 25-minute film is offered upon request. Special programs are offered for school groups. The facility is wheelchair accessible, and programs are offered in English and French.

Tours have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saysutshun (Newcastle Island Marine) Park</span> Canadian provincial park

Saysutshun Provincial Park, formally known as Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park, is a provincial park located on a small island off the coast of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.

Steveston, founded in the 1880s, is a neighbourhood of Richmond in Metro Vancouver. On the southwest tip of Lulu Island, the village is a historic port and salmon canning centre at the mouth of the South Arm of the Fraser River. The early 1900s style architecture attracts both the film and tourism industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lulu Island</span> Island of the Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada

Lulu Island is the name of the largest island in the estuary of the Fraser River, located south of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the second-most populous island in British Columbia, after Vancouver Island. The city of Richmond occupies most of the island, while a small section at the eastern tip, known as Queensborough, is part of the city of New Westminster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deas Island</span> Peninsula in British Columbia, Canada

Deas Island is a peninsula in the south arm of the Fraser River between Delta, British Columbia and Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to a regional park approximately 300 acres (120 ha) in size; and has three historic buildings: Burrvilla, a stately Victorian home; Inverholme, a one-room schoolhouse; and the Delta Agricultural Hall. Between 1895 and the 1940s, the peninsula had a small Greek settlement with a population of about 80 at its peak.

Robert Cunningham (1837–1905) was a British-Canadian lay missionary turned entrepreneur who founded the town of Port Essington, British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Porcher Island</span>

Porcher Island is an island in Hecate Strait, British Columbia, Canada, near the mouth of the Skeena River and southwest of the port city of Prince Rupert. The locality of Porcher Island is located near the island's northern tip at Humpback Bay, 54°05′11″N130°23′23″W. Stephens and Prescott Islands are located off its northwestern tip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alaska Packers' Association</span> Defunct American canned salmon manufacturer

The Alaska Packers' Association (APA) was a San Francisco-based manufacturer of Alaska canned salmon founded in 1891 and sold in 1982. As the largest salmon packer in Alaska, the member canneries of APA were active in local affairs, and had considerable political influence. The Alaska Packers' Association is best known for operating the "Star Fleet," the last fleet of commercial sailing vessels on the West Coast of North America, as late as 1927.

Crescent Porter Hale (1872–1937) was an American industrialist who was involved in the canned salmon industry in Bristol Bay, Alaska throughout his adult life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John West (captain)</span>

John West (1809–1888) was a Scottish inventor and businessman who emigrated to Canada, California and later Oregon where he operated a cannery and exported tuna to Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salmon cannery</span> Factory that commercially cans salmon

A salmon cannery is a factory that commercially cans salmon. It is a fish-processing industry that became established on the Pacific coast of North America during the 19th century, and subsequently expanded to other parts of the world that had easy access to salmon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canned fish</span> Processed fish preserved in an airtight container

Canned or tinned fish are food fish which have been processed, sealed in an airtight container such as a sealed tin can, and subjected to heat. Canning is a method of preserving food, and provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years. They are usually opened via a can opener, but sometimes have a pull-tab so that they can be opened by hand. In the past it was common for many cans to have a key that would be turned to peel the lid of the tin off; most predominately sardines, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union Fishermen's Cooperative Packing Company Alderbrook Station</span> United States historic place

Union Fishermen's Cooperative Packing Company Alderbrook Station, on the Columbia River in Astoria, Oregon, was built in 1903. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1991. The listing included three contributing buildings and another contributing structure on a 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) area.

The Marshall J. Kinney Cannery, located in Uniontown, Astoria, Oregon, United States, between Fifth and Seventh streets, was constructed in 1879 and became one of the city's longest-running salmon canneries. Run by the Astoria Packing Company, of which Marshall J. Kinney was president, the complex quickly became the "largest and most extensive salmon-packing establishment on the Pacific Coast". In 1894, the cannery was completely rebuilt after being burned to the ground. Five years later Kinney became part of the Columbia River Packers Association, joining several other canneries and packing companies. By 1904, the complex supported three production lines; Kinney continued cannery operations until the 1920s when it was primarily used as a central machine shop and warehouse for the Columbia River Packers Association. In 1954, a cargo ship ran into the complex, part of which was lost. Intact portions were used for storage until 1980 and today house shops and small businesses. The cannery was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1989, but was delisted on September 8, 1997.

<i>Fish Canneries Reference</i>

Canada (AG) v British Columbia (AG), also known as the Reference as to constitutional validity of certain sections of The Fisheries Act, 1914 and the Fish Canneries Reference, is a significant decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in determining the boundaries of federal and provincial jurisdiction in Canada. It is also significant, in that it represented a major victory in the fight against discrimination aimed at Japanese Canadians, which was especially prevalent in British Columbia in the early part of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clover Leaf Seafoods</span> Canadian canned seafood marketing company

Clover Leaf Seafoods Company is the leading marketer brand of canned seafood in the Canadian market owned by British equity firm Lion Capital LLP. Headquartered in Markham, Ontario, it sells canned, shelf-stable, and frozen goods under the Clover Leaf and Brunswick brands. The company's products include tuna, salmon, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, crab, lobster and sardines. Clover Leaf Seafoods was formerly owned by Canadian Connors Brothers Limited when merged with American counterpart brand Bumble Bee Seafoods in 2003, it was then sold to American equity firm Centre Partners in 2005, then sold to Lion Capital in 2010, still paired with Bumble Bee.

Kildonan is an unincorporated community in the Alberni Inlet-Barkley Sound region of the west coast of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The former steamboat landing and ferry dock is on the east shore of Uchuchklesit Inlet, which branches northwest of the lower reaches of Alberni Inlet. Adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the locality is by road and ferry about 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Port Alberni.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Pacific Cannery National Historic Site</span>

The North Pacific Cannery (NPC) located near Port Edward, British Columbia, Canada, is one of the longest standing canneries in the Port Edward area. NPC was founded in 1889 by Angus Rutherford Johnston, John Alexander Carthew, and Alexander Gilmore McCandless. The plant stopped processing salmon in 1968, becoming a reduction plant until its closure in 1981 after 80 years of operations.

Sacramento, California, United States, has been an important location in the history of canning thanks to its situation on the intersection of major transportation routes and proximity to large fertile growing areas. Sacramento’s canning industry has prepared a large variety of agricultural products, but is best known for canned tomatoes, earning Sacramento the nickname, "The Big Tomato."

References

  1. Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site of Canada . Canadian Register of Historic Places . Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  2. "In Their Words : The Story of BC Packers Introduction" . Retrieved 2010-02-11.


49°07′29.89″N123°11′12.17″W / 49.1249694°N 123.1867139°W / 49.1249694; -123.1867139