Kiltuish River originates in the Kitimat Ranges and flows about 16 miles (25 km) north to the Pacific Ocean at 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 Kiltuish River is within the traditional territory of the Haisla people. The name “Kiltuish” comes from a Haisla word meaning “long and narrow stretch of water leading outward”.

Gardner Canal is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia coast, and a side-inlet of the larger Douglas Channel. The 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, which exit into Caamaño Sound and Hecate Strait. The fjord was named in 1793 by Captain George Vancouver in honor of his friend and former commander, Alan Gardner, the 1st Baron Gardner. Joseph Whidbey from Vancouver’s expedition, charted the fjord that same year.

Douglas Channel is a busy shipping artery because of the methanol import terminal and the aluminum smelter at Kitimat where bauxite is imported and smelted aluminum exported. A major expansion of the port of Kitimat as a container and bulk resources port may increase shipping in Douglas Channel in the near future. Read more here and here. Explore more of Kiltuish River here: