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KITIMAT
BRITISH COLUMBIA
CANADA
In a real sense, the community of Kitimat, founded as it was in the 1950’s, is one of British Columbia’s youngest Coastal towns. In another sense, the Kitamaat Village, across the Kitimat Arm from the town is a much older aboriginal settlement. Although there was some pioneer settlement in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in the location that is now Kitimat, it wasn’t until Alcan began developing an aluminum industry on the northwest coast in 1950, that Kitimat was really born. Invited by the B.C. Government, Alcan established the Nechako Reservoir in central British Columbia behind the massive Kenney Dam, south of Vanderhoof. Water was carried through a 16 km tunnel through the Coastal Mountains to a hydro generating station built at Kemano. The narrow Kemano Valley could not accommodate an aluminum smelter, so Alcan built its plant and its deep-sea port facility at Kitimat, at the head of the Kitimat Arm. Power to supply the community and the smelter was carried over a 60 km transmission line built through some of the most rugged mountain territory in British Columbia. Kitimat’s first inhabitants were an army of construction workers. It was these pioneer men and women who cleared the thick coastal forests of the Kitimat Valley and forged a new industry and a new community for the future employees and residents of Kitimat.
Today Kitimat is a modern, planned community with a hospital, a school system and recreational facilities that are the envy of many larger, more-established communities. These include two ice rinks, a fully equipped recreation center with gymnasium, basketball courts, squash and racquetball courts, and a modern swimming pool, and numerous outdoor facilities such as soccer and baseball fields, tennis courts, cross country skiing and a challenging, professionally designed 18-hole golf course and many other popular additional modern recreational facilities.
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