The Spanish settlement at Yuquot, by H. Humphries, 1794. It was in the small cove shown at the right-hand side of the illustration that John Meares built the first sailing ship in British Columbia, the North West America, in 1790. RBCM PN4639.
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Nootka is widely remembered by British Columbians for the historic events that happened close by. Captain James Cook, in 1778, was the first European known to have landed in British Columbia. Here also Captain John Meares built the first sailing vessel in British Columbia. It was near Nootka that the Spanish seized British ships, and it was in Friendly Cove that Captain George Vancouver, the British commander, and Francisco de Bodega y Quadra, the Spanish commandant, met to settle the region's future.
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Lighthouse at Friendly Cove, about 1900. The Spanish fort was located on the smaller island. RBCM PN10993.
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View of the Nootka Sound and Nootka Island.
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During the 1920s and 1930s, Nootka was a hive of industrial activity. Fish canneries, fish reduction plants, mines, quarries and lumber operations dotted the surrounding inlets. The largest of these was the Nootka Cannery, originally operated by the Nootka Canning Company. The plant was built in 1917 on a small inlet on Nootka Island, just a few kilometres from Yuquot, where over a century prior the Spanish built the first European settlement in British Columbia.
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Nootka Cannery, about 1920. RBCM PN15626.
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Fishing boats tied up at Nootka Cannery, 1932. RBCM PN18504.
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