You are here:  Home > Encyclopedia of BC > B > Blunden Harbour

Blunden Harbour


BLUNDEN HARBOUR was a coastal village on the mainland opposite the north end of VANCOUVER ISLAND, occupied by the Gwa'sala and 'Nakwaxda'xw groups of the KWAKWAKA'WAKW people. They resettled here in the mid-19th century from older villages around SMITH and SEYMOUR inlets to be closer to commercial FISHING. The village was the subject of a famous painting by Emily CARR in 1930. In the 1960s the people moved again, this time to the Tsulquate reserve at PORT HARDY. A tiny SAWMILL settlement and steamship landing called Port Progress was also established here about 1918 and lasted until the early 1930s.