Port Hardy Centennial Park
The first discovery of coal on Vancouver Island near here in 1835 prompted the Hudson’s Bay Company to build a fort in 1849, and to bring Scottish miners, Vancouver Island’s first immigrants. Native hostility, labour difficulties, and poor quality coal forced closure of the mines. Fort Rupert continued as a trading post until 1873.
The Kwagul First Nation, one of fifteen modern-day Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, had lived in villages along the Cluxewe River before 1849 when the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Rupert to mine coal. They relocated to a site called Tsaxis adjacent to the fort and made a treaty with the company in which they received compensation for their land. Their claim of ownership over the coal beds resulted in conflicts with the company.
Fort Rupert operated as a trading post, but its main purpose was to provide protection for a group of Scottish miners brought in in 1849 to mine the coal. A shaft was sunk and some coal was shipped to Victoria. In 1850 a contingent of English miners arrived, but they quickly became unhappy with their accommodation and food and went on strike, the first in BC. The ringleaders were shackled and imprisoned, but discontent continued and a number of strikers tried to desert to the Califiornia gold fields. At the same time, coincidentally, three sailors who had deserted from a Hudson's Bay Company ship at Fort Victoria were found murdered near Fort Rupert. The Nahwitti First Nation was blamed for the atrocity, but refused to give up the alleged murderers. In retaliation their village was burned by marines from HMS Daedalus. They rebuilt the village, but the next year men from a second ship attacked it, burning some lodges and killing a chief. Fifteen years later, still for the same crime, a third warship bombarded the settlement adjacent to the fort, killing several people.
The poor quality of coal at Fort Rupert, the labour unrest and the tense situation with the local First Nations resulted in the Hudson's Bay Company ceasing its coal mining venture there and establishing new coal mines at Nanaimo. The company ran the trading post until 1873, then sold it to an employee.
Today, the Fort Rupert (Kwakiutl) First Nation still occupy a reserve adjacent to the Hudson's Bay Company's site. Only rubble from one of the the chimneys of the old fort marks the location of the company's short-lived presence at Fort Rupert.
