Brief History of the Skeena Valley

The resource-rich Skeena Valley has been home to the Tsimshian and Gitksan Nation for millennia. The Tsimshian and Gitksan were and are expert fishermen; salmon in its abundance was gathered at the canyons of the Skeena and Kitsumkalum Rivers. Large rectangular longhouses were erected at sites all along the Skeena close to where the salmon was harvested.

The advent of missionaries and Europeans to the area occurred by 1832. Enticed by its natural wealth, settlers followed, particularly at the turn of the century. With respect to the fur trade, the telegraph, gold, and the railroad, this was the land of opportunity.

Where pleasure craft now dominate, the mighty sternwheelers used to churn the waters of the Skeena. The sternwheelers were indispensable for the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Ironically, the sternwheelers laboured toward obsolescence. Rail power was superior to water in both capacity for freight and the speed and distance with which it could be carried. Sternwheelers became redundant with the first puff of black smoke from the stack of the first rail engine in the area.

The early 1900s saw the birth of some of the Terrace area’s earliest settlements. The railway increased the rate at which communities formed; the history of towns like Usk, Pacific and Dorreen are inextricably intertwined with the Grand Trunk.

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