Katherine Bickford

Kildonan is a small village located on the east side of Uchuchklesit Inlet, on the north side of the lower reaches of Alberni Inlet – if you want to visit, you either take a float plane or travel on a ship such as the Frances Barkley.

Kildonan was a cannery village – the original cannery and associated buildings were built on pilings in 1903 when the Alberni Packing Company established the Uchucklesaht Cannery, the first cannery on the west coast of Vancouver Island,

In 1909 the Wallace Bros Packing Company purchased the cannery and renamed it Kildonan after the homeland of Peter and John Wallace, the company’s owners. In 1913 a cold-storage component was added and in 1925 a pilchard reduction plant was built.

In 1926 the cannery was sold to BC Fishing & Packing Company and later transferred to BC Packers in 1928. The cannery processed pilchards, herring and albacore tuna until 1946. By 1960 the entire plant had closed.

All of the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1962, except for the manager’s house.