Alert Bay, British Columbia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alert Bay is a village on Cormorant Island

Cormorant Island, British Columbia

Cormorant Island is an island in Queen Charlotte Strait on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. It has a total land area of about 4 square km and is located south of Malcolm Island and west of Port MacNeill....

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. According to the 2006 census, 556 people live within the village.

Population

Slightly more than half of the village's 556 residents are First Nations

First Nations

First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...

people. The village is in traditional Kwakwaka'wakw

Kwakwaka'wakw

The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...

territory.

Facilities and features

Alert Bay has a grocery store, a museum, a traditional 'big house', a hospital, an RCMP station, a drug store, a post office, a couple of restaurant and retail establishments, a BC liquor store, a Royal Canadian Legion

Royal Canadian Legion

The Royal Canadian Legion is a non-profit Canadian ex-service organization founded in 1925, with more than 400,000 members worldwide. Membership includes people who have served as current and former military, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, provincial and municipal police, direct relatives of...

, a pub, a drug and alcohol treatment centre, a credit union and an automated teller machine

Automated teller machine

An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...

. The town is served by Alert Bay Airport

Alert Bay Airport

Alert Bay Airport is a public airport located on Cormorant Island next to the village of Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada. Cormorant Island lies between Malcolm Island and Port McNeill on northeastern Vancouver Island....

, a public airport

Airport

An airport is a location where aircraft such as fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and blimps take off and land. Aircraft may be stored or maintained at an airport...

and the Alert Bay Water Aerodrome

Alert Bay Water Aerodrome

Alert Bay Water Aerodrome, , is located adjacent to Alert Bay, British Columbia, Canada. The water aerodrome is built on Cormorant Island in the Queen Charlotte Strait, between Malcolm Island and Port McNeill....

. There is a boat harbour and a BC Ferries

BC Ferries

British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. or BC Ferries is a de facto Crown Corporation that provides all major passenger and vehicle ferry services for coastal and island communities in the Canadian province of British Columbia...

terminal with service to Sointula

Sointula

Sointula may refer to:* Sointula, British Columbia, a community in the Canadian province of British Columbia,* Sointula, a novel by Bill Gaston....

and Port McNeill

Port McNeill, British Columbia

Port McNeill is a town in the North Island region of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada with a population of 2,623 . Located on Vancouver Island's north-east shore on Queen Charlotte Strait, it was originally a base camp for loggers, Port McNeill became a settlement in 1936...

. There are also 2 campgrounds and an ecological park consisting of a cedar swamp and a small area of old-growth sitka spruce and coast hemlock forest.

There is one elementary school in Alert Bay

School District 85 Vancouver Island North

School District 85 Vancouver Island North is a school district in British Columbia. It is based in the town of Port Hardy. It provides service to the communities northern tip of Vancouver Island including Port McNeill and Woss as well as the adjacent smaller islands such as Alert Bay.-Schools:...

for children in kindergarten and grades 1 to 7. Older students generally travel by water taxi

Water taxi

A water taxi or water bus, also known as a commuter boat, is a watercraft used to provide public transport, usually but not always in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or on demand to many locations, operating in a similar...

to a school in nearby Port McNeill

Port McNeill, British Columbia

on Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

, along with students from Sointula

Sointula, British Columbia

Sointula is an isolated village on Malcolm Island in British Columbia, Canada. Lying between Vancouver Island and the British Columbia mainland, northeast of Port McNeill and not far from Alert Bay, the island is part of the historic and present territory of the 'Namgis First Nation...

on nearby Malcolm Island.

Alert Bay is also home to the world's tallest totem pole.

Origin of the name

The settlement was named c.1860 after the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

ship HMS Alert

HMS Alert (1856)

HMS Alert was a 17-gun wooden screw sloop of the Cruizer class of the Royal Navy, launched in 1856 and broken up in 1894. She was the eleventh ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name , and was noted for her Arctic exploration work; in 1876 she reached a record latitude of 82°N.-Construction:The...

, which conducted survey operations in the area.

Potlatch ban

In 1921, the Government of Canada

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

, in an effort to stop the potlatch

Potlatch

A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...

custom of dance, song, and wealth distribution under Section 116 of the Indian Act

Indian Act

The Indian Act , R.S., 1951, c. I-5, is a Canadian statute that concerns registered Indians, their bands, and the system of Indian reserves...

, confiscated many items including wooden masks, copper shields, and dance regalia, some of which were later placed in the U’mista Cultural Centre in the village. During the 1970s and 80s, the native population regained their possessions after long negotiations. The artifacts housed in the cultural centre, as well as items stored in other museums, were given back to the village.

Geology

Volcanic features

Volcanism

Volcanism is the phenomenon connected with volcanoes and volcanic activity. It includes all phenomena resulting from and causing magma within the crust or mantle of a planet to rise through the crust and form volcanic rocks on the surface....

in the geography around Alert Bay are part of the Alert Bay Volcanic Belt

Alert Bay Volcanic Belt

The Alert Bay Volcanic Belt is a heavily eroded Neogene volcanic belt in northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The belt is now north of the Nootka Fault, but may have been directly above the fault at the time it last erupted...

. It appears to have been active in Pliocene

Pliocene

The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...

and Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

times. No Holocene

Holocene

The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...

eruptions are known, and volcanic activity in the belt has likely ceased.

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