Coal Harbour is a community on the north side of Holberg Inlet in Quatsino Sound, about 220 miles (355 km) north-west of Vancouver and 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Port Hardy, British Columbia. It was named after a small, unsuccessful coal mine founded in 1883. Holberg Inlet takes its name from the historical town of Holberg at the head of the fjord, which was named after Baron Ludvig Holbert, an 18th-century Danish essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright. Holberg was the first writer to use Danish as a literary language. The spelling was changed from Holbert to Holberg in 1983. Quatsino Sound is the northernmost of five sounds on Vancouver Island‘s west coast and contains numerous inlets, bays and islands. Its complex topography results from sedimentary rocks and igneous intrusions juxtaposed on both sides of the Holberg Fault, which is generally aligned with Holberg Inlet.

Vancouver Island’s landscape was carved, cut and ground away by glaciers flowing from the mainland Coast Mountains across narrow eastern channels and straits, as well as from local island glaciers. The most recent glacial period was the Fraser Glaciation, which occurred 25,000 to 10,000 years ago; the west coast deglaciated 17,500 years ago and the east coast by 16,500 years ago. Early humans undoubtedly occupied the postglacial landscapes of the Pacific north-west coast, though the archaeological record is poor since much evidence of their presence was inundated by rising sea levels following glacial recession. The historical indigenous people of Quatsino Sound are the Hoyalas, the Gwat’sinux (or Quatsinox), the Klaskinox, the Giopinox and the Koskimox, all part of the Kwakwaka’wakw people who speak the Kwakʼwala language. In 1868 the villages of Quatsino and Winter Harbour were the main population centres reported by HMS Scout. The tribal groups were eventually organized as the Quatsino First Nation as a band government during colonization under the Indian Act.

In 1883 coal seams were discovered near Quatsino and a mining camp was established at Coal Harbour, but attempts to extract coal were unsuccessful. In 1918 early European settlers opened a general store and boarding-house at Coal Harbour. A trail was built to Port Hardy and regular mail service started in 1920. In 1927 the first gravel road to Port Hardy was completed, finally linking Coal Harbour to the rest of the island. The townsite was first developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force as a base for seaplane patrols in the North Pacific during the second world war. The aircraft used were Supermarine Stranraers and later Canso-As, or Consolidated PBY Catalina flying-boats built by Canadian Vickers. Anti-aircraft ordnance, ammunition storage for depth charges and concrete fortifications were built. Many original buildings remain, including the general store and officer’s barracks overlooking the harbour. After the war the buildings were bought by Western Whaling Company, the forerunner of BC Packers, and whaling operations began. Whales were harpooned by a fleet of up to five small chaser boats with harpoon guns and landed using a steam windlass on the main slipway formerly used by seaplanes. The whalers caught mostly sei (2,153), sperm (1,108) and fin (837) whales. The plant was powered by two second-world-war American destroyer steam engines. Canada Packers took over the facility in 1967; it was sold for scrap, the last whaling station in British Columbia to close. See a short video about shore whaling in the early 1900s here. Read more here and here. Explore more of Coal Harbour and Holberg Inlet here: