Princess Royal Island is the largest island on the

North Coast of British Columbia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, Canada. It is located amongst the isolated inlets and islands east of

Hecate Strait , image = HecateStrait(PittIsland).JPG , image_size = 260px , alt = , caption = Hecate Strait and Pitt Island , image_bathymetry = Loc-QCS-Hecate-Dixon.png , alt_bathymetry = , caption ...

on the British Columbia Coast. At , it is the fourth largest island in British Columbia. Princess Royal Island was named in 1788 by Captain

Charles Duncan Charles Duncan may refer to: Politics and law * Charles T. Duncan (1838–1915), American lawyer and Virginia state judge * Charles Duncan (politician) Charles Duncan (8 June 1865 – 6 July 1933) was a British Labour Party politician and t ...

, after his sloop .

Access and settlements

The island is located in an extremely remote area of British Columbia, north of

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 ...

and south of Prince Rupert. It is accessible only by boat or air. The

Inside Passage The Inside Passage (french: Passage Intérieur) is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeaste ...

ferry and shipping lane runs along its eastern flank, in Princess Royal Channel separating it from the mainland. The island is uninhabited, but used to be home to the community of Surf Inlet, a gold-mining town at the inlet of the same name (though also known as Port Belmont or Belmont), and Butedale, a mining, cannery, fishing and logging town on the island's east coast. The nearest communities today are

Klemtu Klemtu is an unincorporated community on Swindle Island in the coastal fjords of British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Kitasoo Indian Reserve No. 1. Klemtu is the home of the Kitasoo tribe of Tsimshians, originally from Kitasu Bay, and t ...

, on

Swindle Island Swindle Island is an island on the North Coast of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located south of Princess Royal Island on the Inside Passage shipping route. The small First Nations community of Klemtu is located on its eastern ...

and

Hartley Bay Hartley Bay is a First Nations community on the coast of British Columbia. The village is located at the mouth of Douglas Channel, about north of Vancouver and south of Prince Rupert. It is an isolated village accessible only by air and wate ...

, on the mainland shore east of Gil Island.

Indigenous reserves

Indigenous reserves on or adjacent to Princess Royal Island are:

Hartley Bay Indian Band The Hartley Bay Indian Band is also known as the Gitga'at First Nation or the Hartley Bay First Nation. The members of the Gitga'at First nation are often referred to as Gitka'a'ata. The population of Gitk’a’ata peoples living in Hartley Bay ra ...

reserves: *Kahas Indian Reserve No. 7, on the west coast of Princess Royal at Barnard Harbour, 16.50 ha (40.8 acres) . *Kayel Indian Reserve No. 8, on the west shore of Princess Royal fronting on Campania Sound, 1.60 ha. (4.0 acres) at . *Lackzuswadda Indian Reserve No. 9, on an island at the entrance to Surf Inlet, on the southwest coast of Princess Royal, 2.20 ha. (5.4 acres) at .BC Names/GeoBC entry "Lackzuswadda 9 (Indian reserve)"
/ref>

Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation The Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation, also known as the Kitasoo/Xaixais Nation, is the band government of the First Nations people of Klemtu, British Columbia, Canada. The band comprises two ethnic groups who share an ancient alliance, the Kitasoo, a ...

reserves: * Canoona 2, on Princess Royal Island, north shore of

Graham Reach Graham and Graeme may refer to: People * Graham (given name), an English-language given name * Graham (surname), an English-language surname * Graeme (surname), an English-language surname * Graham (musician) (born 1979), Burmese singer * Clan Gr ...

, 219.30 ha. *Dil-ma-sow 5, on Kent Islet southwest of the Princess Royal Islands, 1.90 ha. *Kinmakanksk 6, on the southwest shore of Princess Royal Island on

Laredo Channel Laredo may refer to: Places * Laredo, Cantabria, the original Spanish town with this name * Laredo District, La Libertad, Peru United States and Mexico * Laredo–Nuevo Laredo, a bi-national metropolitan area ** Laredo, Texas *** Downtown La ...

, 11.70 ha. *Lattkaloup 9, on Princess Royal Island at mouth of Fowles Creek,

Laredo Inlet Laredo may refer to: Places * Laredo, Cantabria, the original Spanish town with this name * Laredo District, La Libertad, Peru United States and Mexico * Laredo–Nuevo Laredo, a bi-national metropolitan area ** Laredo, Texas *** Downtown La ...

, 0.40. ha. *Saint Joe 10, on Princess Royal Island at outlet of Bloomfield Lake into Laredo Inlet, 0.50 ha. *Ulthakoush 11, at head of Laredo Inlet on Princess Royal Island, 2.40 ha.

History

Twelve of the 17 crew of U.S. Air Force 44-92075 were found alive here in 1950, during the first lost nuclear/ Broken Arrow episode of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. The plane itself flew north after the crew bailed out, crashing on

Mount Kologet Swan Lake Kispiox River Provincial Park is a provincial park in northwest British Columbia, Canada. It lies within the territories of the Gitanyow and Gitxsan First Nations. The park and the area surrounding it are important to First Nations peopl ...

, east of the

Nass River The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance. Nass Bay joins Portland In ...

to the northwest of Hazelton. Cannery Ruins, Butedale, BC

Geography

The island's northern tip is

Trivett Point Trivett Point is a headland at the northern tip of Princess Royal Island in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. Name origin The point, and nearby Kingcome Point to its east, was named about 1867 by Captain Pender, RN, for J.T. ...

, its northwestern tip is Kingcome Point. The Canoona River drains the central part of the island, flowing east to the sea from

Canoona Lake Canoona is a rural locality in the Livingstone Shire, Queensland, Australia. In the , Canoona had a population of 81 people. It was the site of the first North Australian gold rush. Geography The Fitzroy River forms the southern boundary of t ...

Ecology and environment

The island is classified by the

World Wildlife Fund The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wo ...

as part of their system's Pacific temperate rain forest

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...

. In the ecoregion system used by Environment Canada, the island is in the

Pacific Maritime Ecozone The Pacific Maritime Ecozone, as defined by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), is a Canadian terrestrial ecozone, spanning a strip approximately 200 kilometres wide along the British Columbia Coast, then narrowing along th ...

. In the system of biogeoclimatic zones used by the British Columbia Ministry of Forests, the island is part of the Coastal Western Hemlock zone. Wildlife on Princess Royal Island includes

kermode bear The Kermode bear, sometimes called the spirit bear (''Ursus americanus kermodei''), is a subspecies of the American black bear and lives in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada. It is the official provincial mammal ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

and

fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

es, and nesting populations of

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of p ...

s, bald eagles, and the endangered marbled murrelet. Marine life around the island includes abundant

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

elephant seal Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oi ...

orca The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...

s and porpoises. Princess Royal Island is a core component of a regional preservationist campaign covering the North and Central Coast, which has been dubbed the

Great Bear Rainforest The Great Bear Rainforest is a temperate rain forest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, Canada comprising 6.4 million hectares. It is part of the larger Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion, which is the largest coastal temperate rain ...

by environmental groups.

References

External links

Princess Royal Island on BritishColumbia.com
{{Coord, 52, 55, N, 128, 50, W, display=title Islands of British Columbia Central Coast of British Columbia Uninhabited islands of British Columbia