Around Charlotte
I have been away for two weeks in the Haida Gwaii archipelago (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands). I had the fantastic opportunity to volunteer on an archaeological dig at a site that was occupied 10,700 calendar years ago while sea level was rising in this area, and which is now on an old beach edge currently located in the intertidal zone. The age of the site makes it one of the oldest in British Columbia, but even more remarkable is that it has good preservation of wood and bone as well as the usual stone artifacts. Such sites are uncommon in any time period and no others this old have been found on the west coast of North America.
The trip included brief layovers in Charlotte (or the Village of Queen Charlotte to give its proper name) located on the south shore of Graham Island. One stop was to allow us to get gear and supplies together for the trip to near the south end of Gwaii Haanas (National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site to give the rest of its name); the other was on my way home waiting for the flight out and running some errands around town to help close off the first phase of the project. My first few posts are about getting to the site. It is not an easy place to access – it is 165km by water from the nearest road and about 140km as the raven flies from Charlotte to the site. The airport at Sandspit on Moresby Island is 800km NW of Victoria.
Today I show scenes from around Charlotte. Haida Gwaii is famous for its natural beauty and the cultural sites of the Haida, the original settlers of this land. It is not famous for Charlotte. I did not set out to take dismal photos of Charlotte, but that is the way it has come across in many of my photos. It is not as gloomy as I and the weather make it seem (see the link above to the Village website for a cheery perspective). However, I could not help using desaturated or monochrome processing for most of the images – it just seemed appropriate to wash away much of the colour.
Charlotte does seem that it is considerably less prosperous than it was when I first visited 30 years ago. The forest industry is very subdued compared to those days, and fisheries don’t seem to be doing much better. Tourism seems like a pretty healthy and growing industry though I suspect a lot of that money leaves the islands. Some of Charlotte’s decline might also be related to a shift of some commerce to the nearby Haida village of Skidegate.
So, off we go on my two week adventure. I hope you find it interesting.
To launch the gallery view click on any photo, use the arrows to navigate between images and press escape to return to this page.
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- Waiting for our ferry to Moresby Island and a drive to the end of the road to our work boat.
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- This ferry dock leads to the mainland port of Prince Rupert, more than 150km away.
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- Funky car, totally in character.
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- This place is all cleaned up – used to be you could not see it for all the beach combed stuff. Probably because its for sale.
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- I could tell you some Howlers about this place, if I did not need to protect the not-so-innocent.
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- This looks like its been sitting there for years – something tells me the Haida have a better means for smoking fish.
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- Meegan’s satisfies most hardware needs
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- Meegan’s front entrance
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- The project ran a strictly dry camp, which perhaps explains why I ended up with photos of both liquor stores.
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- Boats are everywhere you look, including along the main drag
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- Float plane dock and government wharf
Canon 5Dii, Canon 50mm/f1.4 and Nikkor-N 24mm/f2.8 lenses, mostly ISO 200, some at 100, others faster.
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burnt embers 
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What a great series to share and be enjoyed! Really looking forward to following this adventure of yours.
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Hi Toad! It was an adventure, though done in some comfort (apart from being wet much of the time).
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Had to look these islands up and now realize we must have sailed past them when we caught the ferry from Prince Rupert and cruised down the ‘Inside Passage’ to the N end of Vancouver Island on our tour of BC. What a fascinating place. I’m looking forward to the next instalment.
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Hi Andy, on a really clear day one can see the mainland mountain peaks from parts of Haida Gwaii – or at least the cloud heads above them – in the area of the Inside Passage (a wonderful trip, that one). But Haida Gwaii mountains are too small to be seen from the mainland (unless one is up high I suppose).
Haida Gwaii is biologically a very interesting place. It was a “glacial refugium” during the last ice age, in other words it was not fully glaciated and held biological populations (plants, mammals and fish) that are either now unique to the area, or have since spread back out over the coastal areas (like the salmon). It has almost no indigenous mammals (7 or 8 spp in total) – the black bear is quite different from the others in the Americas with very long legs and a shorter face.
Unfortunately, mindless individuals and organisations have introduced a number of species for which there is no competition and they are running rampant causing huge amounts of damage. For instance deer – there are no predators and they eat all the underbrush leaving moss and tree trunks (attractive and great to work in, but not natural). Racoons and rats have nearly wiped out some of the huge ground nesting bird colonies. And so on.
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It’s a great photo story and I am looking forward to more from this adventure.
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Good morning Joseph – I know that a few of my readers have been to Haida Gwaii, and Gwaii Haanas. I would not be surprised to learn you had too.
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1974. A lot has happened in Haida Gwaii since then (including the name). These photos bring back some faded memories.
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That is quite some time ago, so hardly surprising that the memories are faded. Not only has the name of the islands changed, but also what was Queen Charlotte City has to be called a Village now. They were formerly unincorporated and could use whatever name they wanted, but now they are an incorporated local government and must submit to the rules and they are not big enough to the use the word City in their name. Too bad since they had been QCC for a very long time.
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It sounds like you had a terrific opportunity to do some good work and get some great photos. I like the storefronts the best of this series. There is so much going on. Good work.
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Hi Ken! I spent a lot of time taking shots around the site and most of those images I doubt that I can use, for various reasons, such as many of them have people in them who are still off grid and unable to give permission. And, I was mostly confined to one small island without trails, and being thoroughly pooped from the day’s hard work, rarely felt like getting out with the camera afterwards anyway. Also, we were working with the tides, so starting at 4 or 4:30am a lot of the time I was there. Many wonderful afternoon naps were had! Still, I got some shots that i am pleased with, and it is a place where few people get to go, so it is nice to share the photographs. Glad you like the store fronts. I wish I had more time in Charlotte to take pictures – I only had about an hour to take pictures.
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