Observatory Inlet is an extension of Portland Inlet, which is located north of Prince Rupert. The inlet was named by Captain George Vancouver because of the numerous astronomical observations he made there after setting up
his observatory in Salmon Cove.1This despatch mentions that Observatory Inlet was to be one of the locations of a line of telegraph
that Governor Frederick Seymour supported.
1. Captain John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names; Their Origin and History (Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 364.