Members of the Port Simpson fire company

• Other Authors: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections Division
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Fire fighters > British Columbia > Port Simpson; Ladders > British Columbia > Port Simpson; Group portraits; Fire departments > Uniforms; Canada; British Columbia; Fort Simpson; Port Simpson; Lax Kw'alaams; First Nations; Tsimshian; Tsimshian*
• Online Access: http://cdm16786.contentdm.oclc.org:80/cdm/ref/collection/alaskawcanada/id/719

On verso of image: Fire Company, Port Simpson, B.C. Filed in British Columbia--Port Simpson Port Simpson, also known as Lax Kw'alaams - place of the wild roses - is almost 100 per cent First Nations people. The town is part of the Tsimshian First Nation and its people have been connected with Lax Kw'alaams for millennia. Archaeologists have discovered artifacts dating back 4,000 years on nearby islands. Another dig, just outside town, has turned up relics that may be 10,000 years old. The Tsimshian people have been catching salmon for food and trade all of that time. In the 19th century Lax Kw'alaams became Fort Simpson, the busiest Hudson's Bay trading post on the north coast. It had a vibrant economy based on the salmon, the fur trade and on the industriousness of the Tsimshian people. All that changed in 1998 when the great salmon runs turned out to be the worst in a century.