Janice Beck

Three Towns: a History of Kitimat: Fourth Reprint: 1983 Janice Beck

Although Kitimat now has over fifty years of history, there is a much older history to be told of two earlier human settlement periods. "Three Towns: A History of Kitimat" relates the three points during which people settled in the Kitimat River Valley beside the Douglas Channel in the Coastal Mountain Range of British Columbia. Town I tells of the Haisla First Nation in the Valley for generations, and the creation of the Methodist Mission at Kitamaat, permanent village of the Haisla. Town II tells of the explorers, trappers, prospectors, homesteaders, land speculators, and adventurers who passed through the region during the Mission period. Town III is the birth of Kitimat in Northwestern B. C. in the early 1950s with the construction of Alcan's Kitimat-Kemano Power Project including aluminum smelter and town. Together, the "Three Towns" share the adventuresome spirit and rich history of the Kitimat Valley at the mouth of the Kitimat River in Northwestern B. C.