Port Salem

Located on the shores of Rupert Inlet on the north end of Vancouver Island, Port Salem is the second-largest city on the island, with its metro area--including the communities of Coal Harbour, Avalon, Marble River, Port Hardy, Samhain, Quatsino, Fort Rupert, St. Jerome, Lincoln, and Suqosh--playing home to over 170,000 people.

Port Salem was originally founded as Fort Salem in 1848 by the American-born Cdr. Calvin Walker, and named after his home town of Salem, Massachusetts. The sheltered location of Rupert Inlet, at the end of the Quatsino Sound, made for an ideal port, and soon the city became a major centre for both British military operations and commerce in the North Pacific. Indeed, Fort Salem initially served as the capital of the Colony of Vancouver Island from 1849 to 1858, when it was moved to governor Douglas' first choice of Victoria, to better protect British interests over the Fraser Canyon gold rush. (Douglas had been overruled by the first governor, Richard Blanshard, who both preferred Fort Salem's location on the major trade routes, and its relative autonomy from the Hudson's Bay Company, compared to the southern settlements.)

Despite loosing the prestigious position as the colony's capital, Fort Salem grew by leaps and bounds, and was at one point the largest city in the Colony of British Columbia, before it was overshadowed by Vancouver at the turn of the century. In 1903, the city rechristened itself as Port Salem, to better reflect its role as one of Canada's leading port cities.

Historically, Port Salem thrived off the bounty of the land and sea. It was a major port, served a bountiful fishing industry, and the rich forests around the community employed many in both forestry and spin-off shipbuilding and pulp and paper industries. However, a major shift in the region's economy occurred in 1919, when the province opened up King George's College of Quantsino to serve the region. This bastion of higher education would be renamed Quadra College in 1950, before becoming the prestigious Quadra University in 1967 as a celebration of Canada's centennial.

Quadra University is one of the largest institutions of higher learning in the province, with over 20,000 undergrads and nearly 5,000 graduate students enrolled as of 2015. Quadra University is especially well regarded for its oceanography, history, information technology, and indigenous studies programs.

Aside from the university, the city has many notable sites, including the Old Fort Salem historical park, the Gateway Bridges that cross Quatsino Sound, the historic Old Town and Harbourfront districts, the Ellis Seymour Memorial Arena--home of the Port Salem Warlocks WHL team--and dozens of regional parks that give the Port Salem its nickname "The City in the Woods." (Nobody actually calls it that, it's just marketing--ed.)

In addition, the city is known for having the largest Halloween festival in Canada, a tradition begun in the 1960s (playing off the whole "Salem, Massachusetts" vibe for profit--ed.) The Port Salem Harvest Festival brings visitors, from around the world to the city, and in recent years the Salem Horror and Comic Expo has become one of the most popular of such events in Canada.

Currently, Mayor Glenda Douglass is in the midst of her third term at mayor, having unexpectedly won her first election when she was only 28 years old in a narrow victory.