Port Edward

Port Edward, BC, incorporated as a district municipality in 1991, population 544 (2011c), 577 (2006c). The District of Port Edward is located near PRINCE RUPERT on British Columbia's northern mainland coast, on Inverness Passage near the mouth of the SKEENA RIVER. The townsite was laid out in 1908 during the GRAND TRUNK PACIFIC RAILWAY construction boom prior to World War I. Speculators hoped the new community would become the railway terminus but that honour fell to Prince Rupert. The village was named Port Edward after King Edward VII. The first fish cannery had been built in 1889 and eventually the community became a major fish-canning centre. After World War II the community declined and the canneries gradually closed, with the last shutting down in 1983. Port Edward is now mainly a bedroom community of Prince Rupert but has attracted some industry (fish processing and aquaculture). The 1889 cannery complex (North Pacific Historic Fishing Village) was designated a national historic site in 1985.