Old Bella Bella

Also known as 'Old Towns' or Qlts.

Old Bella Bella was the name for the Heiltsuk village that grew up around the Hudson's Bay Company's historic Fort McLoughlin, at McLoughlin Bay on Campbell Island. The village relocated to the present site of Bella Bella, BC by 1903. Today the Heiltsuk control the site, which houses a BC Ferry Terminal, Fish Plant, and two houses, as well as archaeological remains of the old village.

Located on Campbell Island opposite the modern town now carrying the name Shearwater, the village grew the Hudson's Bay Company closed the fort and replaced their operations with steam-ships. William Fraser Tolmie a Scottish doctor and fur trader employed by the Hudsons Bay Company left a record of some of his time at the fort and observed the development of the Heiltsuk village there.

The Heiltsuk village of Old Bella Bella (then simply Bella Bella) grew up adjacent to Fort McLoughlin, the Hudson's Bay Company trading fort at McLoughlin Bay. The fur trade employee, and later politician William Fraser Tolmie worked at Fort McLoughlin and wrote about his experiences in his book Physician and Fur Trader, providing interesting insights to the history.

The Fort closed in 1843. One report says that the Heiltsuk burned the abandoned fort for the iron; "The Indians who had gathered around the fort, left to their own devices, immediately burned it down to obtain the iron used in its construction, and nothing now remains of this early trading post."

A few years after the fort was abandoned, the Hudsons Bay Company had a change of mind and opened a store on the site of the former fort. They operated the store until deciding to lease it out, which they did in May 1883. The community grew from the original group that had first built next to the fort.

The Heiltsuk population was ravaged by the smallpox epidemic of 1862.

During the late 1800s other Heiltsuk leaders brought their people together at Old Bella Bella; "Chief Humpshet and his followers from the north end of Hunter's Island; Chief Kiete and his people from the village on Spiller Channel."

The village changed significantly during the latter part of the 1800s, with European influence driving some of the change. A missionary account of the village in 1898 describes it; "The Indians were still located in McLoughlin Bay, but were housed in European type houses, closely crowded together. There was a home for the missionary and a school and church. Approximately three hundred Indians inhabited the village where the people were supposedly Christianized and their children attended day school." Several traditional bighouses also existed in the village. A set of house posts was collected from one of these houses and is now located in the Brooklyn Museum.

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Wikipedia