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Fort Rupert is the site of a former
Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
(HBC) fort on the east coast near the northern tip of
Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. The unincorporated community on Beaver Harbour is about by road southeast of Port Hardy.


Coal & fortifications

In 1835, the HBC became aware of coal deposits in the area, but no market existed until a
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...
presence emerged a decade later. Realizing the closing of Fort McLoughlin in the early 1840s had been a mistake, the HBC sought a new location partly motivated by Admiralty interest in coal. In 1849, men under the charge of Captain William Henry McNeill, assisted by John Work, erected Fort Rupert. Named after
Prince Rupert of the Rhine Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 ( O.S.) 7 December 1619 (N.S.)– 29 November 1682 (O.S.) December 1682 (N.S) was an English-German army officer, admiral, scientist, and colonial governor. He first rose to ...
, the first HBC governor, the strong fortifications were to provide protection from the fierce Nahwitti warriors in the vicinity. The high
stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...
held a cannon in the two
bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...
s. The dimensions were on the northwest side, on the northeast side, on the southeast side, and on the southwest side paralleling Wah-wese Creek. About a dozen Europeans manned the fort. The only contact with the outside world was the twice yearly HBC steamboat. In 1851, final construction was complete. That year, Robert Dunsmuir was appointed foreman over a crew of immigrant coalminers. Many of the Scottish miners refused to undertake non-mining work, and also were unhappy that the company provided limited protection against armed attacks outside the fort. Workers who refused to perform their duties were put in irons and placed on rations. Deserters risked death at the hands of the Nahwitti. Mining ceased in 1852. Dunsmuir was reassigned to the HBC coal operations at
Nanaimo Nanaimo ( ) is a city of about 100,000 on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. "The Harbour City" was previously known as the "Hub City", which was attributed to its original layout design with streets radiating fr ...
. The two cannons were not in working order, since any attempt to defend the fort against an attack by overwhelming numbers would be pointless. Individual Nahwitti would climb the outside walls and leer down at the occupants.


Early First Nations presence

No First Nations settlements existed in the immediate area. To take advantage of the new trading post, a Kwakwaka'wakw settlement quickly sprang up, housing about 600–700 people. Visits by royal naval officers sought to diffuse inter-tribal warfare, but also burned down houses for refusal to hand over tribesmen wanted for murder. During the 1862 Pacific Northwest smallpox epidemic thousands of indigenous people were evicted from large semi-permanent camps near Victoria and forced to return to their homelands, spreading smallpox throughout the Pacific Northwest coast. Groups of Kwakwakaʼwakw thus brought smallpox from Victoria to the Fort Rupert area. HBC employee Hamilton Moffat inoculated over 100 tribal members near Fort Rupert with
smallpox vaccine The smallpox vaccine is used to prevent smallpox infection caused by the variola virus. It is the first vaccine to have been developed against a contagious disease. In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with th ...
. Nonetheless, smallpox spread throughout northern Vancouver Island. Over the summer of 1862, smallpox reduced the Kwakwakaʼwakw population by over 50%.
Cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...
, as part of slave or child sacrifices, was practised among the tribes into the 1870s. Two decades later, corpses had been substituted in the ritual.


Hunt general store replaced the fort

The fort continued as a trading post, but business declined in the 1860s. An 1863 fire destroyed four houses and took one life. In 1868, factor Robert Hunt was transferred to
Fort Simpson Fort Simpson (Slavey language: ''Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́'' "place where rivers come together") is a village, the only one in the entire territory, in the Dehcho Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community is located on an ...
, but returned in 1872. By 1882, the HBC had abandoned the fort. In 1885, Hunt purchased the entire site for $1,500. In 1889, a fire consumed the former officers' quarters. Following further deterioration, the nearby Nahwitti salvaged items from the ruins, including metal objects such as knives, nails, and hammers. Allegedly, they also took iron and brass eight-pounder cannons and kept them in their village, Ku-Kultz. The Hunt family ran a general store, which passed to descendants, the Cadwallader family. An 1890 ledger entry mentions a $96.50 theft, Cadwallader tracking down the two suspects, and the restitution extracted.


Present-day First Nations

The present-day village of Fort Rupert is a historic Kwakwaka'wakw village of the Kwagu'ł (Kwagyewlth or Kwakiutl) and the Komoyue subgroup, where totem pole carving, and completion of artwork and traditional crafts can be observed. The
band government In Canada, an Indian band (), First Nation band () or simply band, is the basic unit of government for those peoples subject to the ''Indian Act'' (i.e. status Indians or First Nations). Bands are typically small groups of people: the largest in ...
of the Kwagu'ł is the Kwakiutl First Nation.
Petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...
s, though difficult to find, exist on the sandstone formations in the higher tidal zones below the former fort site.


Archaeological site

Apparently, a cannon from Ku-Kultz was taken to
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
in 1976. The Maritime Museum of British Columbia has a cast iron 9-pounder
carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the last quarter of the 18th century to the mid-19th cen ...
believed to be from the fort. Subsequently, scuba divers stumbled across six cannons on a sandy beach of an isolated bay in the region. At the Fort Rupert site, all that remains are various footings, drains, the huge stone chimney of the factor's residence, the Hunt family cemetery, and the collapsed Cadwallader store.


See also

*
Royal eponyms in Canada In Canada, a number of sites and structures are named for royal individuals, whether a member of the past French royal family, British royal family, or present Canadian royal family thus reflecting the country's status as a constitutional mona ...
* List of Kwakwaka'wakw villages


Footnotes


References

* * {{Canadian colonies Hudson's Bay Company forts Northern Vancouver Island History of British Columbia Kwakwaka'wakw villages Ghost towns in British Columbia