While Glendale Cove is known worldwide today for high quality Grizzly Bear viewing it was not the first International business to locate there. That claim belongs to a fish cannery that Captain R.E. Goss built in 1910.

Operated off and on for over 40 years it was both a place of work and home to upwards of 200 people at its peak.

The workforce was a mixture of cultures including Chinese, Japanese, First Nations and European with many of the workers bringing their families with them for the fishing season. The main cannery building was built over the water on pilings and was just under 36,000 square feet in size. Yearly production of 25,000 – 60,000 cases of Sockeye, Pink and Coho Salmon made the Glendale Cove cannery one of the more profitable ones operated by the Anglo British Columbia Packing Company. Today, except for a few pilings near our lodge site, little sign of this part of Glendale Coves history remains.

In 1923 a detailed survey, including a map of the operation, was undertaken by the British Columbia Fire Underwriters Association. The survey valued the main building, all 36,000 square feet of it, at $20,000.00. To take a look at this fascinating document click here »