Old Bella Bella

Located on Campbell Island opposite the modern town now carrying the name Shearwater,[1] the village grew and the Hudson's Bay Company closed the fort and replaced their operations with steam-ships.

William Fraser Tolmie a Scottish doctor and fur trader employed by the Hudson's Bay Company left a record of some of his time at the fort and observed the development of the Heiltsuk village there.

Decimated by disease, the tribes gradually congregated on Campbell Island, a central location within the territory, and the site of a Hudson's Bay Company fort.

By that time the Heiltsuk had been long involved in trading with the outer coast and so the fort held the attraction of a central commerce area as well as a source of medical aid in the treatment of new diseases.

He initiated the relocation of the community to Waglisla because the site on McLoughlin Bay had become overcrowded and there was not enough land to build the single-family homes that the missionaries thought were essential to Christian life.

After this unfortunate event the Heiltsuk asked the resident trader to allow them to build on the large vacant section of land that the Hudson's Bay Company held in the centre of the village.

The site now contains a fish processing plant and BC Ferries terminal - McLoughlin Bay, which includes a 'roll-on-roll-off' ramp allowing vehicles access.