GOLD RIVER

GOLD RIVER

Is a small town, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, just 12 kilometers from the head of Muchalat Inlet. It began in 1955, when a company by the name of Tahsis Company, established a logging camp. In 1968, it moved to its present-day location when the company built and constructed a pulp mill on the original location which was built as as a joint enterprise of the Tahsis Company and the Canadian International Paper Company (CIP). It was built and planned carefully with all amenities to house the entire mill’s employees and was incorporated in August of 1965. For 30 years during the mill flourished, Gold River had a peak population of about 2,500 residents, and even had its own newsprint mill built in 1989. By the end of the 20th century, the mill produced pulp for markets throughout the world until in 1998 when it was bought by Bowater, a Greenville, South Carolina-based pulp and paper company, who in 1998 closed the mill and some residents who worked in the mill were forced to relocate to other communities who rely on the pulp and paper industry. Gold River has since survived with tourism and sports-fishing as its main economic strongholds especially with its scenic lakes, rivers, mountains, and forests to explore. A road was constructed from here to Campbell River in 1958.

GOLD RIVER’S POPULATION: 1,362