Port McNeill is a town in the North Island region 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 ...

, Canada on Vancouver Island's northeast shore, on Queen Charlotte Strait. Originally a base camp for loggers, it became a settlement in 1936. It was named after Captain William Henry McNeill of the

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 ...

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Port McNeill's population was 2,356, living in 1,019 of its 1,111 total private dwellings, higher than its 2016 population of 2,337. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Religion

According to the 2021 census, religious groups in Port McNeill included: *

Irreligion Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ...

(1,545 persons or 65.9%) *

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

(730 persons or 31.1%) *

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

(10 persons or 0.4%)

Tourism and location

Along with housing the headquarters of the Regional District of Mount Waddington, Port McNeill is the gateway to the Broughton straight. It offers the only access to the villages of Alert Bay (Cormorant Island) and Sointula (Malcolm Island) via

BC Ferries British Columbia Ferry Services Inc., Trade name, operating as BC Ferries (BCF), is a former provincial Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation, now operating as an independently managed, State-owned enterprise, publicly owned Canadian c ...

. Port McNeill Airport is five minutes to the south on highway 19. The town is also a popular summer tourism destination. There is a large population of wildlife including black bear, cougar, elk and deer. The town has a museum and a history centred on the area's logging history.

Other information

Logging remains the primary employer in Port McNeill, accounting for 25.7% of the labour force and contributing about 8% of the total BC timber harvest. The main contractors are Western Forest Products and LeMare Lake Logging. Port McNeill is also the home to the remains of the world's largest

burl A burl (American English) or burr (British English) is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from d ...

. Orca Sand & Gravel LP, the largest sand and gravel quarry in the northern hemisphere, opened here in February 2007. Material is shipped via 70,000 tonne container ships to ports in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

and via 7000 tonne barges 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 ...

. Kwagis Power, owned by Brookfield Renewable Power and the 'Namgis First Nation, built a 45-

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

facility on the Kokish River near Port McNeill. The Steelhead Society of B.C. and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee opposed the project. The project was finished in early 2014. Port McNeill is the hometown of Willie Mitchell, a former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

defenceman, and the birthplace of former

defenceman Clayton Stoner. It is also the hometown of Thomas Symons, Canada's rookie representation at the 2022 STIHL World Timbersports Championship, which began May 27 in Vienna, Austria. The first, second and fourth seasons of the

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

channel television show Alone were filmed in the forest outside Port McNeill. The third season filmed in

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

and featured local resident Megan Hanacek.Megan Hanacek survived in the wild for 78 days on hit TV show Alone
/ref>

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Port Mcneill, British Columbia Populated places on the British Columbia Coast Towns in British Columbia Northern Vancouver Island Populated places in the Regional District of Mount Waddington