Wales Island (British Columbia) - History

History

For an obscure island in a remote corner of the B.C. coast, Wales Island was to play a pivotal role in the often contentious Alaska Boundary Dispute between Canada and the United States. This dispute had its roots in the 1825 treaty signed by Russia and Great Britain, which attempted to define, in principle more than fact, the boundary that lay between Alaska and what was then the west coast of British North America. Included in the terms of this treaty was the stipulation that the southernmost boundary of Alaskan territory would advance northwards through Portland Canal to the 56th parallel north. This demarcation was claimed to have placed Wales Island firmly in Alaskan territory.

There the matter lay until Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, and British Columbia became a province of Canada four years later, in 1871. Between this period and the final settlement of the boundary question in 1903, survey crews from both Canada and the United States actively explored, mapped and charted the high mountains, deep fjords, glaciers and bogland of this rugged terrain, often in collaboration. In 1896, the military intervened in the form of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which constructed four stone houses in the Portland Canal area. This was done to strengthen America’s claim to the Canal as the southernmost boundary of Alaska. One of these sturdy structures was built on the south shore of Wales Island, while another, on the border between Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska, can still be seen today.

Two years later, the potential mineral wealth of the far north, as revealed by the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, convinced both Canada and the United States that a new Alaska boundary treaty was urgently required.

This renewed interest in the region led eventually to the signing of the Hay-Herbert Treaty in January, 1903. The terms of the treaty provided for a tribunal to settle the boundary question in precise geographical language. Thus, over the next several months, the Alaska Boundary Tribunal, with Canadian, American and British representatives, duly measured, mapped and deliberated, before delivering its award in October of that year. Among the many consequences of this final demarcation of the boundaries of the Alaskan Panhandle was the result that Wales Island now belonged to British Columbia.

In 1902, while Wales Island was still claimed to be in U.S. territory, a salmon cannery was built on the east shore of Pearse Canal, on the north-west side of the island. But as a result of the 1903 Tribunal Award, the American owners of the cannery forfeited possession of their facility, which by then had produced more than 3500 cases of canned salmon.

At the same time, Hidden Inlet Cannery, situated 14 miles (23 km) further north on the west shore of Pearse Canal, had suffered a reverse fate, and was now in Alaskan territory. In 1910, Merrill DesBrisay, the former Canadian owner of Hidden Inlet Cannery purchased Wales Island Cannery and rebuilt it. For the next 14 years, DesBrisay and Company operated the plant before selling to the Canadian Fishing Company in 1925. Wales Island Cannery had its peak production of 50,000 cases of salmon in the 1924 season. It produced its final pack of 26,000 cases in 1949, the last of eleven canneries to operate in the Nass River-Portland Canal area. For several years thereafter, the plant functioned as a summer gillnet station before being abandoned in the late 1950s. Today, a fly-in fishing lodge occupies the site of the former Wales Island Cannery.

Coda: In 1936, the U.S. Congress granted $100,000 to the former American owners of Wales Island Cannery, as compensation for the loss of their property 33 years earlier.