Steveston BC

We had guests recently, my brother and his wife were here from Ontario for a week's visit. We dodged raindrops all week to try and see some of the sights. On another day full of rain and wind, we decided to visit Steveston BC, on Lulu Island, at the mouth of the Fraser River just south of Vancouver. It didn't sound that promising, but, was surprisingly interesting and made for a great day out. The Steveston Museum was beautifully presented. It documented the history of this historic fishing village and especially its Japanese Canadian inhabitants and their internment during World War II.

Steveston Museum

Steveston is today home to Canada's largest commercial fishing fleet, over 600 boats. At Fisherman's Wharf you can buy fish direct from the boats. It doesn't get much fresher.

The highlight of our visit turned out to be the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site. We timed our visit just right and were able to receive a guided tour through the site. Very informative and I'll never look at a can of salmon the same way again! In the 1880's this area had over 45 canneries and was known as Salmonopolis. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery was operational from 1894-1979, but stopped canning salmon, switching to herring, around 1930, as the area was suffering from salmon overfishing even then.

The cannery building is huge, at its peak it had three canning lines. One line is currently on display and takes you from the fish arriving at the dock through to the end of the line where cans of salmon were loaded onto pallets. People (including children) of all ages and nationalities worked in the cannery in very harsh conditions. Each station was restored realistically. The 'sliming' station was especially graphic with lots of very realistic fish pieces, plastic slime and gore dripping from the table!

The 'Sliming' station

This station was near the end of the line, just prior to the cans entering the ovens for cooking.

Another interesting museum in Steveston is the Interurban Tram Building. It holds a beautifully restored vintage, wooden tram, one of 28 that were bought from the St. Louis Car Company in Missouri. The Interurban tram line ran from 1913 to 1958 greatly contributing to opening up the area.

Steveston Interurban Tram Museum