British Columbia, Canada · North America
Bella Bella sits on the route: 1 hours from Bella Coola.
Bella Bella is a town located in British Columbia, Canada. With a population of 1,193, it is an important destination in North America.
On a road trip, Bella Bella sits in Canada, where you drive on the right. It's in the America/Vancouver time zone. Below you'll find where to stay, things to do nearby, and everything you need to add Bella Bella to your route.
Bella Bella, also known as Waglisla, is the capital of the Heiltsuk and is an unincorporated community and Indian reserve community located within Bella Bella Indian Reserve No. 1 on the east coast of Campbell Island in the Central Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. Bella Bella is located 98 nautical milesRead more
(181 km) north of Port Hardy, on Vancouver Island, and 78 nautical miles (144 km) west of Bella Coola. The community is on Lama Passage, part of the Inside Passage – a transportation route linking the area, and northern British Columbia as well as Alaska for marine vessels carrying cargo, passengers and recreational boaters from the south coast. The settlement "forms a national capital of sorts" to the Heiltsuk.
Founded between 1897 and 1903, Bella Bella is located on Campbell Island.
Originally styled New Bella Bella to distinguish it from "Bella Bella", the community's official post office name for some time was Waglisla, meaning "river on the beach" in the Heiltsuk language. Old Bella Bella is the Heiltsuk village site located south of the current village that was known as Bella Bella. As it grew, a post office was located in the store. When the Heiltsuk relocated their settlement to the north, the post office, and the name Bella Bella, moved – first to the store in the BC Packers Cannery, then to the village of Shearwater. The post office name was retained while moving location several times. This is a source of confusion and the reason 'Bella Bella' sometimes appears on Denny Island rather than Campbell Island on some Provincial maps.
The Hudson's Bay Company's Fort McLoughlin was near the same location, which is on McLoughlin Bay.
With a population of 1,400, Bella Bella is the largest community to be found on the Central Coast north of Queen Charlotte Strait. It is home to the Heiltsuk First Nation. Like many small communities on the coast, such as nearby Ocean Falls, Bella Bella has had a precarious and isolated existence. The closing of coastal cannery towns and decreased need for coastal shipping reduced the importance of Bella Bella's port.
However, the resumption of ferry services by BC Ferries and the introduction of an air link from Vancouver via Port Hardy by Pacific Coastal Airlines have revived Bella Bella. There are scheduled flights from Bella Bella (Campbell Island) Airport onward to Klemtu and Ocean Falls.
Services in Bella Bella include a large general store, the Bella Bella Community School, Alexa's restaurant, the Koeye Cafe, the Thistalalh Memorial Library, an RCMP police station (with a circuit court every 1.5 months), the Bella Bella Medical Clinic, staffed by 3 physicians and a nurse practitioner, and ƛ̓uxválásu̓ilas (pronounced kwil-valas-iwaylas) Heiltsuk Hospital (formerly R.W. Large Memorial Hospital) and its pharmacy. The CIBC bank branch closed in 2007.
The village of Bella Bella was previously known as Waglisla to the Canadian Postal Service; the postal address changed to Bella Bella (V0T 1Z0) in October 2007.
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Bella Bella is located in British Columbia, Canada, North America. The coordinates are 52.1631 latitude, -128.1440 longitude.
Bella Bella has a population of approximately 1,193 people, making it a town in Canada.
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CAA roadside assistance: 1-800-222-4357. Winter tyres mandatory in Quebec December–March.
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