Prince Rupert, named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, was founded by Charles Melville Hays, the general manager of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) and was incorporated on March 10, 1910. Prior to the opening of the GTP, the business centre on the North Coast was Port Essington on the Skeena River. After the founding of Prince Rupert at the western terminus for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, Port Essington returned to being a fishing community and is now a ghost town.
Charles Hays had many grand ideas for Prince Rupert including berthing facilities for large passenger ships and the development of a major tourism industry. These plans fell through when Charles Hays perished April 15, 1912 on the RMS Titanic. Mount Hays, the larger of two mountains on Karen Island, is named in his honour, as is a local high school, Charles Hays Secondary School.
Local politicians used the promise of a highway connected to the mainland as an incentive and the city grew over the next several decades. American troops finally completed the 100 mile stretch of road between Prince Rupert and Terrace during World War II to facilitate the movement of thousands of allied troops to the Aleutian Islands and the Pacific. Several forts were built to Protect the city at Barrett Point and Fredrick Point. Following World War II, the fishing industry, particularly salmon and halibut, and forestry became the city's major industries. Prince Rupert was the Halibut Capital of the World until the early 1980s. A long-standing dispute over fishing rights in the Dixon Entrance to the Hecate Strait (pronounced as "hack-et") between American and Canadian fisherman led to the formation of the 54-40 or Fight Society. The United States Coast Guard maintains a military base in nearby Ketchikan, Alaska.
Over the years, hundreds of students were said to have largely paid their way through school by working in the then lucrative fishing industry. Construction of a pulp mill began in 1947
