カシアル缶詰工場 / カスパコから追放された (17)

The Cassiar Cannery, northwest of the mouth of the Skeena River, was established by the Cassiar Packing Company in 1903 on land first purchased by a non-Indigenous settler in 1889. Initially accessible only by boat, the community gained rail service in 1914 with the completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, and a post office opened in 1916. At its peak, the cannery employed more than 600 workers and supported a population of about 1,000.

The company town, Caspaco (an acronym of Cassiar Packing Company), used a system that controlled housing, policing, stores, and education, and kept workers dependent on the company’s facilities. Japanese Canadians lived in segregated bunkhouses and were employed primarily in fishing and net mending, although many also worked on the production line. By the 1920s, competing canneries in the area had closed, leaving Cassiar as the last operating cannery on the Skeena River. It remained in operation until the 1980s.