Campbell River, British Columbia

Campbell River or Wiwek̓a̱m[1] is a city in British Columbia on the east coast of Vancouver Island at the south end of Discovery Passage, which lies among the 50th parallel north along the important Inside Passage shipping route. Campbell River has a population (2016 census) of 35,138 and has long been touted as “the Salmon Capital of the World”. Campbell River and Region is in close proximity to the neighboring communities of Quadra and the Discovery Islands, Sayward, Oyster River, Gold River, Tahsis and Zeballos.

The first settlers known in the area were members of the Island Comox and related Coast Salish peoples. During the 18th century a migration of Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwak’wala-speaking) people of the Wakashan cultural and linguistic group migrated south from the area of Fort Rupert and established themselves in the Campbell River area, at first enslaving and then absorbing the Comox, and became infamous as raiders of the Coast Salish peoples farther south, known to history as the Euclataws, which is also spelled Yucultas and is a variant on their name for themselves, the Laich-kwil-tach, Lekwiltok or Legwildok. Of this group, also known as the Southern Kwakiutl, there are two subdivisions, the Wekayi or Weiwaikai of the Cape Mudge Indian Band on Quadra Island and the Weiwaikum of the Campbell River Band located in and around the city of Campbell River.

Captain George Vancouver reached Campbell River in 1792 aboard the ships HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham. The channel between Quadra Island and Campbell River is named Discovery Passage after HMS Discovery. The captain and his botanist, Mr Archibald Menzies, discovered a small tribe of 350 natives who spoke the Salish language. A Lekwiltok war party, heavily armed with European rifles, paddled south from Johnstone Strait in the middle of the 19th century and were in control of the area when HMS Plumper came through on a cartography mission under Captain George Henry Richards around 1859. Dr Samuel Campbell was the ship surgeon, and historians believe his name was given to the river by Richards. The community took the name of “Campbell River” when its post office was constructed in 1907.[2] Likewise, the name of HMS Discovery’s First Lieutenant Zachary Mudge is preserved in the nearby Cape Mudge.