Sewall, sometimes incorrectly spelled Sewell, is an unincorporated locality located on the north shore of

Masset Inlet Masset Inlet is a large saltwater bay located in the heart of the lowland of northern Graham Island, the northernmost and largest island of the Haida Gwaii islands on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is fed by several rivers, the la ...

, on

Graham Island Graham Island () is the largest island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago (previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), lying off the mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is separated by the narrow Skidegate Channel from the other pri ...

in the

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecat ...

archipelago (formerly known as Queen Charlotte Islands) off 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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is located 21 miles up Masset Inlet.

History

Sewall began its life as a real estate promotion dubbed Star City, after the developer, the Star Realty Company, during a real estate boom on Graham Island that also saw the foundations of

Juskatla Juskatla is a settlement on Juus Ḵáahlii (formerly Juskatla Inlet), a sidewater off the southern end of Masset Inlet on Graham Island, the largest and northernmost of the Haida Gwaii islands off the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Bac ...

Delkatla Delkatla is a community on the east side of the mouth of Masset Inlet on Graham Island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago in British Columbia, Canada. Name origin The community was named in association with Dal Ḵáahlii (formerly Delkatla Inlet), a ...

and

Graham Centre 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 ...

, but the name Sewall was finally chosen, being that of S.D. Sewall (the "Sewell" spelling is featured in the provincial gazette of 1930, but was a mistaken association with

Sewell Inlet Sewell may refer to: *Sewell (name), a surname and given name, including lists of people with the name *Sewell, Bedfordshire *Sewell, Chile *Sewell, New Jersey *Sewell's Point, Norfolk, Virginia, United States *22815 Sewell, an asteroid See also * ...

nearby, which has a different name-origin.) By the end of 1913, seventy families had settled here, mostly

Icelandic Canadian Icelandic Canadians are Canadian citizens of Icelandic ancestry or Iceland-born people who reside in Canada. Canada has the largest ethnic Icelandic population outside Iceland, with about 101,795 people of full or partial Icelandic descent as o ...

s encouraged to relocate from Manitoba. After the First World War, most families moved away, but one of the original homesteaders, Paul Bastian, bought up most of the land and continued to live on and raise his family there. S.D. Sewall said that he was interested in farmland in the area surrounding Sewall, and that it was not the intention of the developers "to force the new town's growth but to build up the area around it". Sewall had been the site of a sawmill owned by the Masset Inlet Lumber Company.''Started with the Sewall mill: Cheapens the Cost'', ''Masset Leader'', 6 February 1913
/ref>

Climate

References

Populated places in Haida Gwaii Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Ghost towns in British Columbia Icelandic settlements in Canada {{BritishColumbiaCoast-geo-stub