3 Best Sights in British Columbia, Canada

Linked to Steveston's historic waterfront, this 8-acre (3.7-hectare) park offers a rare glimpse of life within a once-thriving mix of canneries, boatyards, residences, and stores. Britannia Heritage Shipyard dates back to 1885 and is the oldest remaining shipyard structure on the Fraser River. Weathered to a silver-gray color by a century of exposure, many of the buildings are the last examples of their type on the entire coast. Several buildings have been restored. These include Murakami House, once the three-room home of the 11-member Murakami family; boatworks buildings; shipyard residences; stilt houses; the last surviving Chinese bunkhouse on the west coast; and a board-and-batten First Nations House similar to traditional 19th-century Coast Salish longhouses. Year-round programs include the restoration of wooden boats. 

Kids adore riding the rails at the British Columbia Forest Discovery Centre, a 100-acre outdoor museum just north of Duncan. Pulled by a 1910 steam locomotive, a three-carriage train toots through the woods and over a trestle bridge across a lake, stopping at a picnic site and playground on the way. Forestry-related exhibits around the site include a 1930s-era logging camp, historic logging equipment, and indoor exhibits about the modern science of forestry. Interpretive trails through the forest lead to ancient trees, one dating back more than 500 years. During July and August, a gas locomotive runs every hour. In May, June, and September, the train may be replaced with a gas locomotive.

In the late-19th century, hundreds of cannery villages, built on pilings on the edge of the wilderness, lined the coast between California and Alaska. Most are gone now, but BC's oldest (it dates to 1889) and most complete surviving example is 22 km (14 miles) south of Prince Rupert, via Highway 16 and Port Edward, at the mouth of the Skeena River. Once home to more than 700 people during canning season, the town of 28 buildings, including managers' houses, the company store, and cannery works, is now a national historic site. Staff members lead tours, give demonstrations of the canning process, and represent the unique culture of cannery villages. The site also has a seafood restaurant and overnight accommodations in its European Bunkhouse.