Gallery
- Woodfibre
Woodfibre, BC (foreground mill) and Howe Sound. From Mount Roderick.
Mill at Woodfibre, BC. Mount Sedgwick, background centre. July, 2005
Woodfibre, BC from Britannia Beach. May, 2004
Woodfibre, originally Britannia West, [1] was a pulp mill and at one time a small company town, on the west side of upper Howe Sound near Squamish, British Columbia. The mill closed in March 2006.
In 1912, a mill opened at the site where Mill Creek empties into Howe Sound. The townsite of Woodfibre was soon constructed at the remote location, which was accessible only by boat.
The community was named by Sir George Bury, president of Whalen Pulp and Paper Company when the mill was built in 1920. [2] : 299
The mill was owned by Alaska Pine and Cellulose Ltd when, in December 1954, that company was purchased by Rayonier Inc. Rayonier operated the mill under the Alaska Pine and Cellulose name until 1959, when the company name was changed to Rayonier Canada, Ltd. Rayonier continued to operate the mill until 1980, when the company exited the pulp business in western Canada and divested the company to Western Forest Products. [3]
Until the 1960s, whole families lived, worked and were partially educated at Woodfibre. At that time, the townsite began to be demolished, and families moved to other nearby communities such as Squamish and Britannia Beach. [4] Mill owner Western Forest Products provided ferry service, by way of the MV Garibaldi II , an identical design to smaller BC Ferries, until the mill's closure in 2006.
In January 2013, Western Forest Products announced that it has entered into a conditional agreement for the sale of its former Woodfibre Pulp Mill site for the purchase price of $25.5 million. The site, consisting of 212 acres (86 ha) of industrial waterfront land, is located at the head of Howe Sound, southwest of Squamish, British Columbia. The net proceeds from the sale are expected to be approximately $17 million [5]
In 2015, the site underwent an environmental assessment for use as a liquefied natural gas plant. [6] That was approved in 2016 and Woodfibre LNG received an export license as well. The $1.6 billion LNG plant was expected to be operational by 2020. [7] In March 2020, construction was delayed until 2021. [8]
Construction work began in June 2022, with site clearance and preparation work being undertaken by Graham Infrastructure on behalf of EPC Contractor McDermott International.
In operation since 1947, it generates 2.6 MW of electricity with a single pelton wheel. [9]
Bowen Island, British Columbia, is an island municipality that is part of Metro Vancouver, and within the jurisdiction of the Islands Trust. Located in Howe Sound, it is approximately 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) wide by 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) long, and at its closest point is about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) west of the mainland. There is regular ferry service from Horseshoe Bay provided by BC Ferries, and semi-regular water taxi services. The population of 4,256 is supplemented in the summer by about 1,500 visitors. It has a land area of 50.12 km2 (19.35 sq mi).
Britannia Beach is a small unincorporated community in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District located approximately 55 kilometres north of Vancouver, British Columbia on the Sea-to-Sky Highway on Howe Sound. It has a population of about 300. It includes the nearby Britannia Creek, a small to mid-sized stream that flows into Howe Sound that was historically one of North America's most polluted waterways.
Mount Garibaldi is a dormant stratovolcano in the Garibaldi Ranges of the Pacific Ranges in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. It has a maximum elevation of 2,678 metres and rises above the surrounding landscape on the east side of the Cheakamus River in New Westminster Land District. In addition to the main peak, Mount Garibaldi has two named sub-peaks. Atwell Peak is a sharp, conical peak slightly higher than the more rounded peak of Dalton Dome. Both were volcanically active at different times throughout Mount Garibaldi's eruptive history. The northern and eastern flanks of Mount Garibaldi are obscured by the Garibaldi Névé, a large snowfield containing several radiating glaciers. Flowing from the steep western face of Mount Garibaldi is the Cheekye River, a tributary of the Cheakamus River. Opal Cone on the southeastern flank is a small volcanic cone from which a lengthy lava flow descends. The western face is a landslide feature that formed in a series of collapses between 12,800 and 11,500 years ago. These collapses resulted in the formation of a large debris flow deposit that fans out into the Squamish Valley.
Squamish is a community and a district municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located at the north end of Howe Sound on the Sea to Sky Highway. The population of the Squamish census agglomeration, which includes First Nation reserves of the Squamish Nation although they are not governed by the municipality, is 24,232.
The Squamish-Lillooet Regional District is a quasi-municipal administrative area in British Columbia, Canada. It stretches from Britannia Beach in the south to Pavilion in the north. Lillooet, Pemberton, Whistler and Squamish are the four municipalities in the regional district. Its administrative offices are in the Village of Pemberton, although the district municipalities of Squamish and Whistler are larger population centres. The district covers 16,353.68 km² of land area.
Powell River is a city on the northern Sunshine Coast of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Most of its population lives near the eastern shores of Malaspina Strait, which is part of the larger Georgia Strait between Vancouver Island and the Mainland. With two intervening long, steep-sided fjords inhibiting the construction of a contiguous road connection with Vancouver to the south, geographical surroundings explain Powell River's remoteness as a community, despite relative proximity to Vancouver and other populous areas of the BC Coast. The city is the location of the head office of the qathet Regional District.
Garibaldi, originally named Daisy Lake and also known as Garibaldi Lodge and Garibaldi Townsite, is a locality and ghost town in British Columbia, Canada, on the Cheakamus River around its confluence with Rubble Creek and just south of Daisy Lake. The CN railway and British Columbia Highway 99 traverses it north–south.
Brentwood Bay is a small village in the municipality of Central Saanich, on the Saanich Peninsula in British Columbia, Canada. It lies north of the city of Victoria, east of the community of Willis Point, and south of the town of Sidney.
Howe Sound is a roughly triangular sound, that joins a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2021.
The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains portion of the Pacific Cordillera. Located entirely within British Columbia, Canada, they run northwest from the lower stretches of the Fraser River to Bella Coola and Burke Channel, north of which are the Kitimat Ranges. The Coast Mountains lie between the Interior Plateau and the Coast of British Columbia.
The North Shore Mountains are a mountain range overlooking Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Their southernmost peaks are visible from most areas in Vancouver and form a distinctive backdrop for the city.
Stawamus Chief Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, established in 1997. It encompasses both the eponymous Stawamus Chief and the Slhanay granitic domes and the surrounding forest.
Langdale is a small residential community in British Columbia, Canada, located within the territory of the Squamish Nation, and part of West Howe Sound, Electoral Area F within the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD).
The Britannia Range is a small mountain range of the Coast Mountains that runs along the eastern shore of Howe Sound just north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a subrange of the Pacific Ranges and often considered part of the North Shore Mountains. The range is bounded by the Howe Sound to the west, the Stawamus River to the north, Loch Lomond on the upper Seymour River to the east, and Deeks Lake to the south. However, some official maps extend the range further south of these boundaries and many local sources such as hiking guidebooks will often include all of the peaks along the Howe Sound between Deeks Lake and Cypress Mountain as part of the range.
Darrell Bay, formerly Shannon Bay, is a bay and associated ferry terminal and unincorporated settlement on the northeast coast of Howe Sound to the south of Squamish, British Columbia, Canada. It is adjacent to Shannon Falls Provincial Park, which lies immediately across BC Highway 99. Known locally as Shannon Bay until 1949, after William Shannon, one of the original landholders in the vicinity and the namesake of Shannon Falls, it was renamed by the Hydrographic Service as the result of a petition from Darrell Burgess, who owned a fishing camp at this spot. No reason was indicated why the established local name was not submitted by the Hydrographic Service.
Port Mellon is a settlement in British Columbia, Canada, located within the territory of the Squamish Nation, and part of West Howe Sound, Electoral Area F within the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD). Port Mellon is the home to the region's largest employer, the Howe Sound Pulp & Paper Mill.
The Squamish volcanic field is a small north–south trending volcanic field on the South Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It extends for only about 3 km (1.9 mi) from the eastern side of Howe Sound northeast of Britannia Beach to the heavily forested slope on the western side of the Squamish River mouth. It forms the southernmost end of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, which comprises part of the Canadian Cascade Arc. Its volcanoes are relatively minor to the more voluminous stratovolcanoes found throughout the Garibaldi Belt and are composed of dacite and lesser basaltic andesite. The field gets its name from the nearby community of Squamish at the north end of Howe Sound on the Sea to Sky Highway.
RYAM is an American chemical company specializing in cellulose-based products. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, it produces more than 25 grades of high-purity performance fibers for products ranging from food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals to paints, filters, impact-resistant plastics, and digital display screens. In 2014, Rayonier and Rayonier Advanced Materials split into separate companies. Rayonier retained the real estate and forest resource components while RYAM took over management of the performance fibers division.
M Creek, officially M (Yahoo) Creek, is a creek flowing southwest out of the Britannia Range and entering Howe Sound just north of Lions Bay, British Columbia, Canada.
The Britannia Mines Concentrator is a National Historic Site of Canada. The large, inclined gravity mill was built on the northwest side of Mount Sheer to assist the transfer of copper ore through the chemical and mechanical processes of the plant. It is a landmark in Britannia Beach, British Columbia some forty-five kilometers north of Vancouver.
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