A special beauty to be experienced in northern British Columbia

By Gerald Fritsche Jul 20, 2010, 9:45 GMT

Prince Rupert, Canada - A gourmet restaurant looks different, at least in Europe. The 'Cow Bay Cafe' in Prince Rupert, a small city in the northern part of Canada's Pacific province of British Columbia, supposedly serves up the best food anywhere.

Looking through a curtainless window, however, all that I see is an ambience that reminds me more of a railway station tavern: simple wooden tables and chairs, piles of newspapers, bottles lined up, and two bulletin boards. The room is small - at most, 50 people might fit into the 'Cow Bay Cafe.'

So it is with mixed feelings that later on I enter the restaurant of Adrienne Johnston. A menu is nowhere in sight. The offering is changed twice a day. The menus now in effect, each offering 12 main courses and deserts, are written on the bulletin boards. Slowly, it dawns on me: the 'Cow Bay Cafe' is different.

Just as the best restaurant in the town appears different to a visitor from Europe, so too are the entire town of Prince Albert and the surrounding region also different. This is already evident on arrival. It takes an hour to reach flying in a propeller plane from Vancouver, a flight which passes over untouched Nature. The peaks of the Rocky Mountains pile up, criss-crossed by many rivers.

The northern part of British Columbia is particularly influenced by the indigenous inhabitants. According to Prince Rupert's 'Museum of Northern BC,' the Tsimshian people settled the area as early as 3,000 BC. It was only at the end of the 18th century that the first Europeans arrived in order to carry out fur trading and fishing.

To this day the Tsimshian as well as other indigenous peoples from the Haida and Nisga'as tribes live in Prince Rupert and have put their stamp on the tourism trade - and not only thanks to their wooden artefacts which can be admired in the museum and purchased in the souvenir shops.

In order to truly understand the traditional lifestyle, one must travel to the Kax-Kw'alaams Islands accompanied by a native, some 10,000 of whom live in the region. From the thick foliage of the trees, eagles warily watch the 'infiltrators.'

Peace and quiet is of the highest order in this apparently unspoiled place and straying from the paths is strictly forbidden. The Tsimshian chief shows off 'his' kingdom and points to edible fruits and those which one is better advised not to touch.

The trail leads out of the thickets and onto a stony beach saturated with large roots. This is the lodestone of the cultural past of the Tsimshian. Full of pride the chief points out the petrogylphen which even hundreds of years of wind, rain, sun and cold could not erase.

They are primarily images of faces which the chief's ancestors had carved in the stones. But there is not a lot which can be said about their meaning. It is often maintained that the faces were the expressions given to joy and sorrow, moments of happiness, moments of anxiety.

In Port Edwards, just 20 kilometres distant from Prince Rupert is the oldest salmon canning factory on the western coastline of North America. Built atop tree trunks, the North Pacific Cannery provides a glimpse into the life of a Pacific fishing town. The houses of the simple fishermen and of the affluent residents capture one's eyes just as much as do the production rooms. Everything from the fishing hooks to repairing the nets, all the way to the first, and still functioning, conveyor belts are still there in the cannery and shown to visitors.

With a bit of luck tourists might also see some bears - while on a train ride from Prince Rupert along the Skeena River to the town of Terrace.

The train, serving the destination of Prince George-Jasper and with which Prince Rupert gained its first access to the rest of North America's railway network, is regarded as a very top-class tourism attraction. During the 147-kilometre tour the region's complete beauty unfolds - a changing scenery of mountains, lakes, forests, farmsteads and sawmills.

The lumber industry had also long dominated the history of Terrace, a town which today only has touristic value. The locals are especially proud of the kermode bear. This white-coloured subspecies of the brown bear can be seen everywhere - on a coat of arms. Meeting one out in nature would be a real coincidence.

Well-known are the carvings of the Nisga'as - whether masks, totem poles, or traditional instruments - the locals welcome a visit to their workshops and a newly-opened museum - and this could also help visitors to dry out their wet clothes.

For, among other things, rain belongs to the scenery of northern British Columbia. They count only 50 days of the year when it doesn't rain. But this can also be beautiful - at least, another kind of beauty.