Prince Rupert is located on Kaien Island at the mouth of the Skeena River, on the southeastern edge of the U.S./Canada water boundary of Dixon Entrance. Prince Rupert is approximately 40 miles south of Alaska’s southernmost boundary, 950 miles north of Vancouver, and 447 miles west of the city of Prince George on Highway 16. The city’s population is 14, 643, and annual precipitation averages approximately 8 feet. Average summer temperature is 60 degrees F; winter averages 28 degrees F.

The community of Prince Rupert began as the western terminus of the second Canadian transcontinental railroad and continues today as a transportation center, linking the northern Canadian Pacific Coast to the rest of Canada as well as to Alaska by state ferry or to Vancouver Island on the British Columbia ferry system.

The bountiful North Pacific has always provided well for the coastal inhabitants of British Columbia. Tsimshian and Haida First Nations have lived on the shores of this region for thousands of years. Some archaeological sites of ancient villages are dated 5,000 years or more on the islands around Prince Rupert. The Historic Museum of Northern British Columbia has documented this history of their First Nations from contact with fur traders and missionaries on to present day activities.

The economic heart and passion of Prince Rupert is commercial and sport fishing of salmon, halibut, crab and prawns. Prince Rupert is also a leading Northwest port, exporting lumber, grain, coal and potash in the billions of dollars each year. Today this port offers all the amenities of a larger city with a friendly small town attitude. A tour of this community reveals a performing arts center, golf course, swimming pool, and civic center with reproductions of cedar totem poles that were carved hundreds of years ago.