Lawson Harbour was a historical community on Lewis Island between Chismore Passage to the west and Arthur Passage to the east near the mouth of the Skeena River, about 75 miles (121 km) southwest of Terrace and 20 miles (32 km) south of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Lawson Harbour was one of several small fishing and logging communities started by settlers after World War I including Oona River, Hunts Bay, and Osland. Arthur Passage was named in 1867 by Captain Daniel Pender after Arthur E. Kennedy, the third governor of the British colony on Vancouver Island. Lewis Island is named after Captain Herbert G. Lewis, an officer in the service of Hudson’s Bay Company who commanded several of the company’s vessels engaged in the coasting trade including Beaver, Otter, Labouchere, and Enterprise. Lewis Island, and most of the surrounding area, are underlain by rocks assigned to the Alexander terrane which includes partially metamorphosed volcanic arc rocks and associated sedimentary rocks of the Descon Formation that developed during the Ordovician period.
The Tsimshian people, or Ts’msyen, along with the Tlingit of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon and the Haida of Haida Gwaii, represent the Northwest Coast cultural area. The Kitkatla, or Gitxaala, are one of the 14 bands of the Tsimshian Nation in British Columbia. They were also, in the early European contact period, called the Sebassa tribe, for their paramount chief at that time, Ts’ibasaa. Another name for themselves is Git lax m’oon meaning ‘people of the saltwater’, in recognition of the islands and inlets they inhabited. The Kitkatla reputedly were the first Tsimshians to formally encounter and trade with Europeans and the first to use guns. Communities on the North Coast of British Columbia include the prehistorical and historical First Nations villages and the settlements started in the early 20th century largely by Scandinavian settlers who were encouraged by the government to take up land through homesteading. Homesteading, or pre-emption, was a measure instituted by the British Columbia Colonial Government, through the Land Ordinance of 1870, to accommodate the pressure exerted by incoming settlers to obtain title to land for settlement and ownership. British Columbia homesteading was eliminated in 1970 and many of these communities have now vanished into the temperate rainforest.
A small fishing and logging community flourished at Lawson Harbour after World War I with a school and a population that peaked at about 40. The well-known Swedish boat builder Emil Rosand established a boatyard at Lawson Harbour in the 1920s and 1930s. His shop in Lawson Harbour built at least 11 boats, including 3 halibut boats and 8 salmon trollers. These boats were generally built with yellow cedar frames and red cedar planking, all cut by hand with a whipsaw. Some of the planks were cut from logs salvaged on local beaches. He also repaired many vessels from Prince Rupert at his boat shop. Wooden boatbuilding in British Columbia was a natural part of living and working in the small fishing villages of the North Coast. The fishing boat was essential for work, but also it was the main form of transportation to get from a remote coastal community to the big cities of Port Essington in its day or Prince Rupert. Many people in the coastal communities built their own boats. After fishing during the summer, several small family boatyards kept busy by building and repairing boats. The settlement at Lawson Harbour was abandoned in the 1950s but remains can still be seen today. Read more here and here. Explore more of Lawson Harbour and Lewis Island here:
