The village is named for Manoah Steves, who arrived with his family around 1877-1878 from Moncton, New Brunswick via Chatham, Ontario. Born Manoah Steeves, a second cousin of William Henry Steeves, he dropped the second 'e' en route. Manoah and his family were the first white family to settle in the area. Steves' son William Herbert actually developed thetownsite, which became Steveston in 1889. Salmon canning began on the river in 1871, with the first major cannery being the Phoenix, developed in 1882 by Marshall English and Samuel Martin; by the 1890s there were 45 canneries, about half at Steveston. Salmon-canning was so much part of the life of Steveston that it was also known asSalmonopolis.
Each summer large numbers of Japanese, Chinese, First Nations, and European fishermen and cannery workers descended on the village, joining a growing year-round settlement. The fishery also supported a significant boatbuilding and shipbuilding industry. Sailing ships from around the world visited the harbour to take on cargoes of canned salmon.
The peak of civic aspirations was pre-World War I, when Steveston was promoted as Salmon polis, a supposed rival of Vancouver, but canning activity slowly declined and finally ceased in the 1990s. The Gulf of Georgia Cannery, built in 1894 and at one time the largest plant in British Columbia, was reopened as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1994, and remains open today, recently given an award for Canada's best historic site.
The post office, which is also now a museum and tourist information centre, was once the location of a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, until it moved in the late 1970s to its current location across the street.
Stevenson’s Japanese Canadians
Japanese Canadians formed a large part of Steveston's population; their internment during World War II was a serious blow to the community, though some of the internees returned when they were allowed and a sizeable Japanese
