Kowesas River flows generally north for 22 miles (35 km), draining a watershed of 101,807 acres (41,200 ha) in the Coast Mountains before emptying into the head of Chief Mathews Bay, about 112 miles (180 km) southeast of Prince Rupert and 17 miles (27 km) south-southwest of Kemano, British Columbia. The bay, on the southwest shore of Whidbey Reach at Courageux Point, extends roughly 3.5 miles (5.5 km) southwest from Gardner Canal. A tideflat approximately 0.5 miles (0.8 km) wide is exposed at low tide at the bay head. British Admiralty Charts labeled the bay as Kowesas Bay before 1927. Gardner Canal is a 56-mile (90 km) fjord and one of the principal inlets on the northern British Columbia coast. Its entrance lies behind Hawkesbury Island and is accessible via Devastation Sound or Varney Passage. Captain George Vancouver named the fjord in 1793 in honor of his friend and former commander, Alan Gardner, who had commanded HMS Courageux in 1792; Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey was the first to chart the fjord during the Vancouver Expedition. The Coast Mountains consist of deformed igneous and metamorphic rocks and are built from several distinct terranes of varying ages that originated in different parts of the proto-Pacific basin. In addition, oceanic crust beneath the Pacific is subducted along the range’s southern edge, forming a north–south line of volcanoes that is part of the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province, Canada’s most volcanically active area. The Coast Mountains batholith is a composite continental body that intruded into the terranes of western British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. It is exposed along Gardner Canal and Chief Mathews Bay, where it is known as the Chief Mathews pluton.

The northwest coast of British Columbia once had the most densely populated indigenous communities recorded in Canada. Its land and waters provided abundant natural resources—especially cedar and salmon—from which highly structured cultures evolved. Many distinct First Nations emerged in the region, each with its own history, culture, and society, though several shared common elements such as the central importance of salmon. Before contact—and briefly after colonization—some groups regularly engaged in warfare, carrying out raids and capturing individuals for slavery. The Haisla inhabited Douglas and Devastation Channel, while the Kitlope, who called themselves Henaksiala, lived along Gardner Canal and the upper Princess Royal Channel. The Haisla social system is based on eight matrilineal clans—Eagle, Beaver, Crow, Killer Whale, Wolf, Frog, Raven, and Salmon—each with its own chief, resource area, and winter village. The remoteness of villages, situated deep in northern inlets, isolated the Haisla and Henaksiala until the 1890s, when a mission and residential school were established in the Haisla village of Kitamaat. Missionaries and government agents believed that aspects of traditional culture hindered assimilation into European Canadian society and thus should be eliminated. They compelled the abandonment of feasts and potlatch dancing, dismantled communal houses, and forbade children from speaking the Haisla language. During the same period, a decline in population fragmented clans and lineages, disrupting orderly succession to titles and property. In 1947, the Haisla and Henaksiala merged to form the modern Haisla First Nation.

Chief Mathews Bay has a small estuary notable for its diverse plant communities, particularly its salt marsh meadows and abundant intertidal species. According to Henaksiala tradition, a settlement once stood at the head of the bay. The boggy flatland on the north side of the river mouth, known as Tla’mid, provided wild crab apples, blueberries, huckleberries, salmonberries, and edible roots. On the south side of the entrance, Ma’alinuxw Mountain was traditionally a hunting ground for mountain goats among the Haisla. All five Pacific salmon species, along with herring, spawn in the Kowesas River and several small creeks draining into the bay. Historically, the river also hosted a run of eulachon—also known as oolichan or candlefish—an anadromous smelt that spawns in the lower reaches of coastal rivers and streams. In the Pacific, eulachon, like most smelts, have a boreal distribution. They are found exclusively in the eastern Pacific, from northern California to the eastern Bering Sea, their range closely aligned with the coastal temperate rainforest. Eulachon populations have declined across much of their range, particularly in the past 20 years. The causes remain uncertain; although climate change appears to be a factor, local habitat alterations and bycatch in commercial trawl fisheries likely also contribute. The decline of eulachon concerns many First Nations, for whom the fish hold major cultural significance—especially as a source of a traditional staple known as ‘grease.’ Fisheries managers and the commercial fishing industry are equally alarmed, since eulachon frequently appear as bycatch in shrimp trawls. Consequently, management measures aimed at reducing eulachon bycatch may also diminish potential shrimp catches in some regions. Read more here and here. Explore more of Kowesas River and Chief Mathews Bay here: