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 will discuss his new book The Good Hope Cannery: Life and Death at a Salmon Cannery on Dec. 10, 2 p.m., at the Harbourfront library.
In 1895 Scottish entrepreneur, engineer, and outdoor adventurer Henry Ogle Bell-Irving built the Good Hope Cannery, which canned salmon continuously until 1940. For the next 20 years, the camp served company fishermen as a place where they could refuel, eat, buy supplies and have their boats and nets prepared.
A Bell-Irving descendent 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.