Masset (; formerly Massett) is a village in the

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; / , literally "Islands of the Haida people"), previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between off the British Columbia Coast, northern Pacific coast in the Canadian province of British Columbia ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

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. It is located on Masset Sound on the northern coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately west of mainland British Columbia. It is the primary western terminus of

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

16 (the

Yellowhead Highway The Yellowhead Highway () is a major interprovincial highway in Western Canada that runs from Winnipeg west to Graham Island off the coast of British Columbia via Saskatoon and Edmonton. It stretches across the four western provinces of Britis ...

) and is served by Masset Airport, with flights 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 ...

and

Prince Rupert 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 ...

. During the maritime fur trade of the early 19th century, Masset was a key trading site. It was incorporated as a village municipality on May 11, 1961.

Name

The name Masset was a gift from the captain of a Spanish vessel that was repaired with the assistance of the Haida citizens of Atewaas, Kayung and Jaaguhl. These three villages accepted the gift and adopted the name Masset to commemorate what might be the first ever contact between Europeans and the Haida. During the early years of Canadian colonization the name Masset and the post office were adopted by the former Reverend Charles Harrison as part of his scheme to sell land. The name Masset is currently in use by two places: the Village of Masset, a municipality under Canadian legislation; and by the Village of Old Massett, the original recipient of the name and a village under the Constitution of the Haida Nation. According to John T. Walbran, Masset came from the Haida word ''Masst'', or large island. Captain Douglas, on his second visit from

Nootka Sound Nootka Sound () is a sound of the Pacific Ocean on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, in the Pacific Northwest, historically known as King George's Sound. It separates Vancouver Island and Nootka Island, part of the Canadian province of ...

aboard the ''Iphigenia'' on June 19, 1789, named the bay leading to the inlet ''McIntyre's Bay''. This name was used on the charts of Dixon and Meares. The American traders called the inlet, ''Hancock's River'' as shown in Ingraham's chart of 1792 after the American brig ''Hancock''. In 1853 H.N. Knox of the Royal Navy, mate on , did a sketch survey of the harbour when the name Masset was adopted by the British. A survey was made in 1907 by Captain Learmouth on ''HMS Egeria''. Masset's name in the local dialect of the Haida language is ''Uttewas'', "white slope", probably referring to a small hill south of the village.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

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 ...

, Masset had a population of 838 living in 399 of its 518 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 793. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Oceanographic research

From 1942 to 1942, the

British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program The British Columbia Shore Station Oceanographic Program is a sea surface temperature and salinity monitoring program on the Canadian coast of the northeast Pacific Ocean. The program is administered by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and regroups 12 ...

was collecting coastal water temperature and salinity measurements for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans from Masset everyday during this period.

Military base

Canadian Forces Station Leitrim Detachment Masset, established as Naval Radio Station Masset in 1943, is a

Canadian Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

facility used to gather

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

for the

Communications Security Establishment Canada The Communications Security Establishment (CSE; , ''CST''), formerly (from 2008-2014) called the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), is the Government of Canada's national cryptologic agency. It is responsible for foreign signa ...

and the Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch. The equipment at CFS Masset is operated remotely from CFS Leitrim near

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Climate

The climate, moderated by a warm Pacific current from Japan, is generally mild with no extremes in temperature, oceanic (''Cfb''). Annual temperature varies only 20 degrees Celsius but is variable and unpredictable - even within a 24-hour period. Average rainfall is with snowfall of and there is generally a breeze, most often out of the southeast when it is raining, and the northwest when it is sunny. Summer temperatures are in the range and the days are long - May, June, July boasting 18 hours of daylight. August and May general have the most sun but there is a fair degree of rain throughout the summer months. Winter months are mild with temperatures in the range and while precipitation is usually in the form of rain there can be some snowfall. Conditions can become severe without warning and Masset has registered wind gusts to . Although it is located at over 54 degrees north, rainfall follows a Mediterranean pattern. It is one of the northernmost places with this characteristic.

References

External links

*
The Canadian Encyclopedia
{{authority control Villages in British Columbia Populated places in Haida Gwaii Haida villages Graham Island Hudson's Bay Company trading posts