Kitimat
Kitimat is located at the mouth of the
Kitimat River on the northern coast of
British Columbia.
1 The name Kitimat comes from the Tsimshian word, of the Haisla First Nation, “Kitamaat”,
which means
people of the snow.
2 Kitimat falls in the vaguely defined
Stikine territory between the
Stikine and
Finlay Rivers.
3
People have settled in the area since the 1860s.
4 The Haisla First Nation (previously the Kitamaat and Henaaksiala groups) settled
on the northeast side of area and named the village Kitamaat Mission.
5 The Aluminum Company of Canada put a smelter site at the mouth of the
Kitimat River in 1950.
5 The city was officially incorporated on 31 March 1953.
6 According to the despatches, a trader named
Morris was hiding a large store of liquor in his home in Kitimat.
8 Commander Pike, who surveyed the British Columbia coast for illegal liquor trade, discovered Morris’s
hidden stash of spirits and confiscated them immediately.
9
- 1. Andrew Scott, Kitimat, Encyclopedia of BC.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Andrew Scott, Stikine Territory, Encyclopedia of BC.
- 4. Scott, Kitimat, Encyclopedia of BC.
- 5. Andrew Scott, Kitimat, Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names.
- 6. Scott, Kitimat, Encyclopedia of BC.
- 7. Ibid.
- 8. Paget to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary), 29 June 1863, 6387, CO 60/17, p. 33.
- 9. Ibid.