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Travel to British Columbia |
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Source: About this
Guidebook
Tips for Travel to Canada |
Life on the islands is very different from elsewhere in the province. Isolated from the mainland by stormy Hecate Strait, the 4,500 residents share an island camaraderie and laid-back, away-from-it-all temperament. Visitors can expect a friendly reception and adequate services. Motel-style accommodations are available in each town, but bed and breakfasts provide a closer glimpse of the island lifestyle. Groceries are also available, though choices can be limited. Gasoline is slightly more expensive than on the mainland, and raging nightlife is nonexistent.
The only land mammal indigenous to the islands is the Queen Charlotte otter, a subspecies of the mainland otter. The world's largest black bears, estimated to number almost 10,000, call the Queen Charlottes home. Though they're a lot heftier than their mainland cousins, they're not a distinct subspecies. Their size comes from a short hibernation and a summer-long salmon feast. No grizzlies live on the islands, but black-tailed deer are common. They were introduced as a meat source and have multiplied many times over. Other mammals present include elk (also introduced), squirrels, beavers, and muskrats. Stare out to sea to spot killer whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, otters, and tufted puffins. If you visit between late April and June, you might spot gray whales feeding in Hecate Strait on their way from Mexico to Alaska. The best place to whalewatch is along Skidegate Inlet near the museum or at the northernmost tip of Rose Spit.
the Haida people have lived on the Queen Charlottes since time immemorial. Fearless warriors, expert hunters and fishermen, and skilled woodcarvers, they owned slaves and threw lavish potlatches. They had no written language, but they carved records of their tribal history, legends, and important events on totem poles ranging from three to 104 meters high. Living in villages scattered throughout the islands, they hunted sea otters for their luxuriant furs, fished for halibut and Pacific salmon, and collected chitons, clams, and seaweed from tidepools. The first contact the Haida had with Europeans occurred in 1774, when Spanish explorer Juan Perez discovered the Charlottes. The islands weren't given a European name until 1787, when British captain George Dixon arrived and began trading with the Haida. He named the islands after his queen, the wife of George III. The whites gave the Haida goods, liquor, tools, blankets, and firearms in exchange for sea otter furs; over a 40-year period the otters were hunted almost to extinction. In addition, the white traders brought European diseases that ravaged the Haida population. At the turn of the 19th century, white settlers from the mainland began moving over to the Charlottes to live along the low-lying east coast and the protected shores of Masset Inlet. By the 1830s the traditional lifestyle of the Haida was coming to an end. The governments on the mainland prohibited the Haida from owning slaves and throwing potlatches, an important social and economic part of their culture, and forced all Haida children to attend missionary schools. The Haida abandoned their village sites and moved onto reserves at Skidegate and Masset on Graham Island.
Today totem poles are rising once
again on the Queen Charlottes, as a renewed interest in Haida art and
culture is compelling skilled elders to pass their knowledge on to younger
ge For many years the Haida struggled alongside the Island Protection Society to preserve their heritage. Their longtime efforts paid off in two major events: in 1981 the best-known of the abandoned Haida Villages, Ninstints, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in 1988 the southern section of the archipelago was proclaimed Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve.
To get around by floatplane, including to Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, call South Moresby Air Charters (tel. 250/559-4222). For comprehensive coverage of this unique destination, including the best places to stay, see the printed version of Moon Handbooks British Columbia.
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the south, separated by narrow Skidegate Channel. The islands stretch 290
km (180 miles) from north to south and up to 85 km (53 miles) across at
the widest spot. Running down the west side of the islands are the rugged
Queen Charlotte and San Christoval ranges, which effectively protect the
east side from Pacific battering. Nevertheless, the east coast, where most
of the population lives, still receives over 1,000 millimeters (40 inches)
of rain annually.
nerations.
The first totem pole to be erected in 90 years was put up in 1969 in
Masset, followed by one in 1978 at Skidegate. In 1986 a 50-foot dugout
canoe, created out of a single huge cedar log, was commissioned for
Vancouver's Expo86, and a second canoe was launched in Old Massett.