Port Alice

History

Historically, before 1750, the area was home to the Hoyalas, followed by the Koskimo people in the late 1800s. It was named after Alice Whalen, the founders' mother. The brothers Whalen began their construction of the mill at its present site in 1917, with first pulp produced in 1918. The mill at Swanson Bay, on the Inside Passage farther north, was also a Whalen operation. Due to heavy rainfall and the surrounding steep slopes, Port Alice experienced mud and rock slides in 1927 and 1935, which contributed to the decision to relocate the town site away from the mill in 1965. Landslides continued to occur in the area and at the new townsite in 1973, 1975, 1987, and 2010. Port Alice bears a resemblance to Port Annie, the fictional town described by Vancouver Island author Jack Hodgins in his novel The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne. The new orchid hybrid "Port Alice" has been officially listed at London England in the Royal Horticultural Society's "Book of Registered Orchid Hybrids". This slipper-type flower is the result of crossing a complex hybrid Paphiopedilum "Western Sky" with a species Paphiopedilum appletonianum.

Geography

Devil’s Bath, a flooded sinkhole near Port Alice, is an example of a cenote and is the largest in Canada at 359 meters in diameter and 44 meters in depth. There are a number of hiking destinations in the area. They include Devil’s Bath, Eternal Fountain, Vanishing River & Reappearing River. These are a series of ancient karst and limestone formations. The access is through dirt roads. Port Alice has an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) and is one of the mildest and wettest places in Canada, receiving of actual rainfall per year and exceptionally little snow, which amounts to as much as 33 percent more rainfall than infamously wet Prince Rupert and only marginally less than Southeast Alaska’s wettest cities of Ketchikan and Yakutat which each average around and receive much more snowfall.

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  86
• Bald Eagle

  Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  84
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  73
• Steller's Jay

  Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  73
• Belted Kingfisher

  Megaceryle alcyon (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  64
• California Gull

  Larus californicus Lawrence, 1854 · Aves
  64
• Swainson's Thrush

  Catharus ustulatus (Nuttall, 1840) · Aves
  58
• Short-billed Gull

  Larus brachyrhynchus Richardson, 1831 · Aves
  56

Most recent

• M 4.8 — 2020-05-10
  106 km WSW of Vernon, Canada
• M 4.1 — 2018-03-06
  73 km WSW of Vernon, Canada
• M 3.9 — 2017-06-19
  21 km SSW of Vernon, Canada
• M 4 — 2017-01-31
  104 km SSW of Port McNeill, Canada
• M 3.9 — 2014-04-26
  101 km SSW of Port McNeill, Canada
• M 4.1 — 2014-04-24
  115 km WSW of Vernon, Canada