July 3rd - The Infamous Past of Coal Harbour

Coal Harbor is a quiet little fishing and Eco-tourism hamlet with a population of about 200. However, it has had quite the infamous past. It borders Holberg Inlet off of Quatsino Sound which opens to the Pacific on the west side of Vancouver Island. In the late 1800's there were both coal and copper mines nearby. During World War II there was a Royal Canadian Air Force Base which operated a sea plane reconnaissance station. It was responsible for off-shore surveillance flights searching for Japanese submarines. The only recorded intrusion arrived onshore in 1945, when an incendiary balloon landed in the forest near Holberg Inlet, one of thousands of balloons released by the Japanese with the intention of starting forest fires and sowing panic among the West Coast population. When the war ended the base closed.


We purchased these delicious large White Spot Prawns from a local prawner docked at the wharf for $10 a pound Canadian.


The only store in the area is called: "Lucky Louie's" and lucky we were to find a cold drink on such a warm day.

We also found out that there is a whole series of fishing lures named after
"Lucky Louie!"

The 20 ft. high Blue Whale Jawbones, the largest of the whale family, are a reminder of the communities whaling past. If you can imagine just the jaws on this magnificent mammal would be equal to a two story building. In 1948, the Western Whaling Corporation began operating a whaling processing plant in some of the WW II buildings. Bought out by B.C. Packers Limited in 1949, the whaling fleet eventually grew to six vessels. The whaling season ran from April until September however, the operation was not a profitable one. From 1950 until 1957, the company killed and processed over 4,000 whales and lost over a million dollars.
During the 1960’s the whaling station was revitalized by a partnership of B.C. Packers and the Taiyo Gyogyo Company of Japan. An emphasis was placed on whale meat and 85% of the production was exported mostly for human consumption.

By 1964, only two ships remained in operation. It was the last whaling station in British Columbia when it closed in 1967 and the brutal slaughtering of these magnificent creatures ended here.

At one time, before closure and its filling with sea water, it was the deepest depression in the face of the earth. Although not as impressive as when one was able to look down into a cavity – 7,900 feet long, 3,500 feet wide and 1,320 feet deep – it is still awesome to see from the air.
The Utah/Island Copper Mine that operated from 1971-1995, on the shores of Quatsino Inlet’s Rupert Arm, near Coal Harbor was a mine of immense physical and fiscal proportion. Thousands of people worked there over the years with 900 working there at its peak in 1980. Even at closure, 450 employees worked here.
The mine produced 1,360,000 tons of copper, 1.1 million ounces of gold and 11.6 million ounces of silver, as well as 34,800 tons of molybdenum and 62,000 pounds of rhenium – whatever that is?

This is a photo of the pit filled with sea water.