BITS OF HISTORY: SALMON CANNERIES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA

This weathered red building perched atop rotting pilings and nestled within British Columbia's rugged wilderness is the Tallheo Cannery off Vancouver Island's north coast. 

It is abandoned today but was once a prosperous salmon cannery on Canada's rugged west coast processing local Chinook, Pink, Chum, Sockeye and Spring salmon from fishing boats offloading their catch from the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Tallheo is also the location of a former village of the Nuxalk First Nations known as Talyu. It sits at the junction of the Taleomy and Noerick Rivers where they join South Bentinck Arm at Taleomy Narrows. 

Today, you can visit the site and stay at the local Tallheo Cannery Guest House which operates as a bed and breakfast, offering visitors a chance to see the original cannery, general store and enjoy the moody weather of the north coast.

While many associate Tallheo with its cannery history is also the name of the dialect of the Nuxalk language spoken by the Talhyumc, the subgroup of the Nuxalk Nation who live here and by those who live at Q'umk'uts' at the confluence of the Bella Coola River and the Pacific Ocean in the Bella Coola Valley. The Nuxalk are a distinct people of the area and decidedly not Coast Salish as some report. 

Prior to European contact, they numbered more than 35,000 strong. Once smallpox and conflict had taken their toll, that number dwindled to a tragic 300.

Over the past hundred years, that population has rebounded to 3,000 and growing — a testament to their strength and endurance as a people and commitment to family, land and prosperity. 

In 1905, the Tallheo Cannery opened to the hum and thrum of modern machinery mixed with skilled human hands to process the marine bounty of the local area. The business was founded by a Norwegian immigrant who employed many of the local residents. 

The fish were caught up on the west coast, processed locally by a mix of settler and First Nation workers then exported to the world to share in the modern convenience of tinned salmon.  What a pleasure it must have been for some folk to try this west coast delicacy and chiefly fish some for the first time. The canning process had been around since the early 1800s, first developed in France then spreading across Europe before coming to North America. Canned meat was originally available in crocks, glass, and tinned iron and found its first use as a means to keep the troups fed for the European military. 

British Columbia welcomed the first canneries in the 1860s. The industry soon became the bread and butter for many local families and allowed those far from the coast and indeed, across the seas, to dine on fresh-caught salmon. 

At one time, British Columbia boasted more than 200 such canneries. Over the years all have shut down — save one. St. Jean's Cannery and Smokehouse in Nanaimo is all that remains of this one booming industry. 

St. Jean's got their start selling smoked oysters or smudgies to locals, then expanded to chowder and finally salmon. They were a family favourite of ours growing up on the coast. 

Both my Uncle Dick and Uncle Doug sold them oysters and fish that were quickly turned into delectable oyster chowder and canned salmon that were sold for 25 cents each. Today, they sell hand-packed wild Pacific salmon, tuna and shellfish in their online store and process fresh-caught salmon from sport fishermen. 

Wild, smoked Pink salmon and wild, skinless, boneless Sockeye salmon will run you $5.95 per tin and wild smoked sockeye a few pennies more at $6.50. They also sell candied salmon, a personal favourite of mine, for $7.95-$27.95 in sealed foil pouches. 

The expansion in products led to an expansion of the business itself. St. Jean's is now in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, a fitting local as this community is known as the Salmon Capital of the World, and Delta along the Fraser Lowland south of the Fraser River in British Columbia's Lower Mainland. 

It would be wonderful to see this industry grow even further to bring back the cannery traditions to British Columbia's wild west coast and the bounty found here.

• References: http://nuxalk.net
• St. Jean's Cannery and Smokehouse: https://stjeans.com
• Tallheo Cannery Guest House: https://www.bellacoolacannery.com
• Alaska Historical Society: https://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/history-in-a-can-2
• The Tyee: https://thetyee.ca/Solutions/2018/08/22/Last-BC-Cannery-Standing/