| Port Alice | |
| Official Name: | Village of Port Alice[1] |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Image Alt: | Port Alice looking out to Neurotsos Inlet |
| Pushpin Map: | Vancouver Island#Canada British Columbia |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Port Alice in British Columbia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Canada |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | British Columbia |
| Subdivision Type2: | Region |
| Subdivision Type3: | Regional district |
| Subdivision Name3: | Mount Waddington |
| Leader Title: | Governing body |
| Leader Name: | Port Alice Village Council |
| Leader Title1: | Mayor |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 1917 |
| Established Title2: | District municipality |
| Established Date2: | 1965 |
| Established Title3: | Village |
| Established Date3: | 1971 |
| Area Land Km2: | 7.03 |
| Population As Of: | 2021 |
| Population Total: | 739 |
| Population Density Km2: | 105.1 |
| Timezone: | PST |
| Utc Offset: | -8 |
| Coordinates: | 50.4267°N -127.4881°W |
| Blank Name: | Highways |
Port Alice is a village of approximately 739 (2021 census) located on Neroutsos Inlet, southwest of Port McNeill, on Vancouver Island, originally built by Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills of Vancouver. The community is known for its natural environment, pulp mill, and salt water fishing.
Historically, before 1750, the area was home to the Hoyalas, followed by the Koskimo people in the late 1800s.[2]
It was named after Alice Whalen, the founders' mother. The brothers Whalen began their construction of the mill at its present site in 1917,[3] with first pulp produced in 1918. The mill at Swanson Bay, on the Inside Passage farther north, was also a Whalen operation.
Due to heavy rainfall and the surrounding steep slopes, Port Alice experienced mud and rock slides in 1927 and 1935, which contributed to the decision to relocate the town site away from the mill in 1965. Landslides continued to occur in the area and at the new townsite in 1973, 1975, 1987, and 2010.[2]
In 1965, Port Alice became a district municipality and was incorporated as a village on January 1, 1971.[4]
Port Alice bears a resemblance to Port Annie, the fictional town described by Vancouver Island author Jack Hodgins in his novel The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne. The new orchid hybrid "Port Alice" has been officially listed at London England in the Royal Horticultural Society's "Book of Registered Orchid Hybrids". This slipper-type flower is the result of crossing a complex hybrid Paphiopedilum "Western Sky" with a species Paphiopedilum appletonianum.
Devil’s Bath, a flooded sinkhole near Port Alice, is an example of a cenote[5] and is the largest in Canada at 359 meters in diameter and 44 meters in depth.[6]
There are a number of hiking destinations in the area. They include Devil’s Bath, Eternal Fountain, Vanishing River & Reappearing River. These are a series of ancient karst and limestone formations. The access is through dirt roads.
Port Alice has an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) and is one of the mildest and wettest places in Canada, receiving 3.4m (11.2feet) of actual rainfall per year and exceptionally little snow, which amounts to as much as 33 percent more rainfall than infamously wet Prince Rupert and only marginally less than Southeast Alaska’s wettest cities of Ketchikan and Yakutat which each average around 3.8m (12.5feet) and receive much more snowfall.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Port Alice had a population of 739 living in 415 of its 538 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 664. With a land area of, it had a population density of in 2021.
