[BCMA] The Good Hope Cannery: A Vital Part of BC's Colourful History

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - The Maritime Museum of BC

December 7, 2011

The Good Hope Cannery: A Vital Part of BC's Colourful History

Lower Mainland author W.B. (Bruce) MacDonald will present a slideshow and share stories about a once-thriving cannery in Rivers Inlet and the fascinating characters that lived and worked there. He discusses his book The Good Hope Cannery: Life and Death at a Salmon Cannery ($26.95, Caitlin Press) on Sunday, December 11 at 1 pm at The Maritime Museum of BC in Victoria at 28 Bastion Avenue. Free admission.

In 1895 Scottish entrepreneur, engineer, and outdoor adventurer Henry Ogle Bell-Irving built the Good Hope Cannery in Rivers Inlet, BC.  As sole agent for the Anglo-British Columbia Packing Company, Bell-Irving effectively controlled the company, which grew to include cannery operations on the west coast from Washington State to Alaska. For years the operation was astronomically successful, but profits were realized on the backs of skilled Chinese and Native cannery workers, and on the know-how of northern Europeans and Japanese fishermen.

Good Hope canned salmon continuously until 1940 and thereafter served company fishermen as a place where they could refuel, eat, buy supplies and have their boats and nets prepared. By the late 1960s depleted fish stocks and technological advances rendered Good Hope obsolete as a camp. But a Bell-Irving descendent, grandson Ian Bell-Irving, envisioned Good Hope as a sport fishing resort catering to affluent North Americans, and so Good Hope entered the third phase of its life, a life that continues to this day. The Good Hope Cannery and the Goose Bay Cannery in Duncanby are all that are left of an important era in BC's history-all the other canneries in Rivers Inlet have vanished.

The Good Hope Cannery: Life and Death at a Salmon Cannery is a story of the people who built it, worked in it, fished for it, and welcomed guests to it. Bruce MacDonald looks deeply into the personalities and everyday lives, and sometimes tragic deaths, of the colourful characters of the Good Hope Cannery.


W.B. (Bruce) MacDonald was born and raised in New Westminster, BC . A poet and author, Bruce's writing has been published in The Malahat Review, Quarry and The Antigonish Review. He is the author of eight books including Heroes, and The Mornin' the Psychedelic '60s Came Splashin' Through Tidal Pools. Before turning to writing, Bruce owned an award-winning advertising agency.

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MaryAnne Dieno
Marketing, Events and Communications Coordinator
mdieno at mmbc.bc.ca<mailto:mdieno at mmbc.bc.ca>
250-385-4222, ext. 113
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