Foch Lagoon is approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and extends 5 miles (8 km) northwest from the western shore of Douglas Channel in Foch-Gilttoyees Provincial Park and Protected Area, about 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Prince Rupert and 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Kitimat, British Columbia. The lagoon, one of the largest and most remote on the coast, features unique tidal narrows at its entrance that create treacherous rapids. The name “Foch” likely honors Ferdinand Foch, a French general and military theorist who served as Supreme Allied Commander during World War I. The Haisla name for Foch Lagoon is Mesgalhi, also written as Miskatla. Foch Lagoon is connected to Foch Lake by Foch Creek, part of the Haisla Fish Clan stewardship area. The Foch-Gilttoyees Provincial Park and Protected Area encompasses 150,954 acres (61,089 ha) of rugged coastal terrain, pristine freshwater drainages, steep rocky slopes covered with old-growth forests, numerous waterfalls, tidal estuaries, and a windswept coastline. The name “Gilttoyees” originates from a Haisla word meaning “long and narrow stretch of water leading outward.” The park is part of a historical First Nations travel route between the Douglas Channel and the Skeena River, with the remainder of the route in Gitnadoiks River Provincial Park to the north. The Douglas Channel is part of a complex network of fjords formed during the westward movement of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet. This fjord system extends from the Pacific coast to the town of Kitimat, located 93 miles (150 km) inland, and reaches a maximum depth of 2,264 feet (690 m). The fjords are within the Kitimat Ranges, one of the three main subdivisions of the Coast Mountains in British Columbia. The other subdivisions are the Pacific Ranges to the south and the Boundary Ranges to the north.

In 1788, British Captain Charles Duncan on the Princess Royal engaged in the maritime fur trade and may have been the first European to enter Douglas Channel. However, he did not venture far before heading to Haida Gwaii. In 1792, Spanish Captain Don Jacinto Caamano on the Aranzazu anchored near the southern end of Hawkesbury Island and sent Second Pilot Martinez y Zayas up Douglas Channel in a longboat. Martinez y Zayas traveled about 54 miles (87 km) and saw only one Native fishing canoe. In June 1793, Captain George Vancouver anchored HMS Discovery and dispatched a cutter and launch under Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey and Robert Barrie into the fjords of the mainland. Whidbey’s party included surgeon and naturalist Archibald Menzies. They explored Douglas Channel and made contact with the Indigenous X’aisla of the Kitamaat people, who treated them well. The Kitamaat are a combination of at least three pre-European contact bands: the Nalabila, meaning “dwellers upriver” on the Kitimat River; the X’aisla, meaning “dwellers farthest downriver”; and the Gildalidox, who inhabited Kildala Arm. Before the first white settlement, these groups began wintering together at the X’aisla village, located just upstream from the mouth of the Kitimat River at the head of Douglas Channel. In 1893, Methodist missionary George Raley established Kitamaat Mission on an old village site on the east shore of Douglas Channel, about 5 miles (8 km) from the X’aisla village. Christian converts moved there, and by the early 20th century, virtually all the Kitamaat people (now known as the Haisla) had undergone at least nominal conversion and migrated to Kitamaat Mission. The natives returned to the old X’aisla village site to potlatch, staying out of reach of the missionary and Indian agent. Foch-Gilttoyees Provincial Park adjoins Gitnadoiks River Provincial Park to the north, providing a contiguous protected corridor between Douglas Channel and the Skeena River. Historically, this corridor was used by First Nations as a trade route. It was known as a “ggrease trail” because of the valuable fish oil, or grease, derived from eulachons, an anadromous fish once plentiful in Douglas Channel.

Drumlummon Bay, located at the entrance to Foch Lagoon, is named after the nearby historical Drumlummon Mines, established in the early 1920s. In 1898, the Golden Crown mine was operated east of Minette Bay at the head of Douglas Channel by James Steele and John Dunn. Smaller mines included the Copper Queen, Mighty Dollar, and Kitamaat Gem. The largest and most costly shaft mining operations were the Drumlummon and Paisley Point gold, silver, and copper claims, just north of the entrance to Foch Lagoon. These operations included constructing a dock at the creek mouth in the small bight north of Foch Narrows. The SS Coquitlam was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1898, disassembled, and shipped to Coal Harbour, British Columbia, where it was reassembled for the Union Steamship Company. In 1917, while delivering mining equipment to Drumlummon Bay, the ship was caught in Foch Lagoon’s powerful tidal race and crashed into a rock face, causing the hull to flood. Emergency repairs and pumps allowed the ship to limp south to a drydock in Victoria. The mining project included an aerial tramline with metal buckets to transport ore to a railway 0.6 miles (1 km) long. The railway cars then carried the ore to a shoreside stamp mill for refining and onward to the dock. Located halfway up the slope to the timberline, the mine featured thousands of feet of tunnels, with the main entrance beneath a waterfall. The mine fell victim to the stock market fluctuations of the 1920s, leading to its bankruptcy announcement in 1923. Much of the mining equipment was abandoned, and remnants of the pile-driven posts that elevated the tramline are still visible in the creek bed near the former dock and mill site. Read more here and here. Explore more of Foch Lagoon and Foch-Gilttoyees Provincial Park here: