The Kiltuish River originates in the Kitimat Ranges and flows approximately 16 miles (25 km) north to Kiltuish Inlet, an arm of Gardner Canal, about 103 miles (166 km) southeast of Prince Rupert and 51 miles (82 km) south of Kitimat, British Columbia. The river lies within the traditional territory of the Haisla people. The name “Kiltuish” is derived from a Haisla word meaning “long and narrow stretch of water leading outward.” The fjord was named Gardner Canal in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver, honoring his friend and former commander, Admiral Alan Gardner, the 1st Baron Gardner. That same year, Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey, part of Vancouver’s expedition, charted the fjord.

The Haisla people currently reside in the village of Kitamaat, near the head of Douglas Channel. The present-day Haisla First Nation comprises two main subdivisions: the Kitamaat and the Kitlope. The Kitlope formerly lived at the mouth of the Kitlope River and at Kemano, both located in Gardner Canal. They formally amalgamated with the Kitamaat in the 1950s. Before this, most of the band had already migrated to Kitamaat and resided there part of the year. The Kitamaat themselves are a combination of three pre-contact divisions: the Nalabila (“dwellers upriver”), X’aisla (“dwellers farthest downriver”), and Gildalidox (“inhabitants of Kildala Arm”). In 1893, missionary George Raley established a rival village on an old settlement site about 5 miles (8 km) down the channel from the inlet’s head. Converts moved there upon Christianization. By the early 20th century, nearly all Kitamaat had converted and migrated to Kitamaat Mission. The old village site was used to catch and process oolichan or to potlatch out of the missionary and Indian Agent‘s reach.

Gardner Canal is one of the principal inlets on the British Columbia coast and a side inlet of the larger Douglas Channel. This embayment is 56 miles (90 km) long and connects to the Pacific Ocean via Devastation Passage, Verney Passage, Douglas Channel, and the complex waterways around Gil Island, Campania Island, and the Estevan Group, exiting into Caamaño Sound and Hecate Strait. Douglas Channel is a busy shipping artery due to the methanol import terminal and aluminum smelter at Kitimat, where bauxite is imported and smelted, with the resulting aluminum oxide exported. A major expansion of the port of Kitimat, as the terminus of a natural gas pipeline and a liquefied natural gas export tanker terminal, is expected to increase shipping in Douglas Channel in the near future. Read more here and here. Explore more of Kiltuish River and Gardner Canal here: