Terrace is a city in the Skeena region of west central British Columbia, Canada. This regional hub lies east of the confluence of the Kitsumkalum River into the Skeena River. On BC Highway 16, junctions branch northward for the Nisga'a Highway (BC Highway 113) to the west and southward for the Stewart–Cassiar Highway (BC Highway 37) to the east. The locality is by road about southwest of Smithers and east of Prince Rupert. Transportation links are the Northwest Regional Airport Terrace-Kitimat, a passenger train, and bus services.

History First Nations and early explorers The Kitsumkalum and Kitselas, who have inhabited the area for about 6,000 years, traded with other villages along the Skeena. From the 1780s, European and Russian fur traders passed through. From the mid-1800s, the forestry, mining and salmon resources drew new settlers.

The Kitsumkalum First Nation own the Kitsumkaylum Indian Reserve No. 1 which is immediately west of Kitsumkalum River. The Tsimshian word for Terrace is ganeexs (meaning "ladder" or "steps"), likely a reference to the stepped terraces of the surrounding landscape.

Steamboat era

The first sternwheeler to attempt the Skeena was the Union in 1865, which transported supplies for the construction of the Collins Overland Telegraph line. The Mumford, which was the replacement the next year, may have reached upstream on the Skeena from the Kitsumkalum mouth (Terrace), but travel beyond the mouth may have been by canoe only.

Over the following decades, river traffic increased. Settlements and woodpile fuel stops developed along the riverbanks. In 1912, the only two sternwheelers remaining on the Skeena were the Hudson's Bay Company's (HBC) Port Simpson and the chartered Foley, Welch and Stewart (FW&S) Inlander, which the Skeena segment of the railway made redundant that year.

Inaugurated in 1970, the Riverboat Days festival held each summer acknowledges this steamboat heritage.

Pioneer settlers In 1892, Tom Thornhill was the first European settler in the area, establishing a homestead on what became Thornhill Landing and is remembered in the naming of Thornhill and the creek. Formerly, the general area was known as Little Canyon. named such to identify as not being the big canyon.

In 1898, George Little journeyed west from Ontario for the Klondike Gold Rush. He left the Yukon in 1905 and landed at Kitimat, from where he came north to the Skeena. That year, he pre-empted centred around the foot of present Kalum Street. Harry Frank, who had taken up the first pre-emption in the district that year, had been visiting the area since 1894. Over the following decades, the Frank Bros Dairy, immediately west of the village, became the preeminent farm.

Arriving in 1907, Edward (Ed) Eby established a settlement in the vicinity of present lower Frank St. The place was briefly called Forester before becoming Kitsumkalum. He built a small hotel and general store. The next year, the post office opened in the store. In 1912, the hotel and store at the landing closed and were demolished.

Designated a national historic site in 1996, the cemetery was established in 1909. That year, George Little began sawmilling in the area. The next year, he opened a general store and laid out the townsite on his property. The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTP) surveyors originally intended the townsite be near Kitsumkalum, but when George offered to donate of his land for the railway right-of-way, station, and railyard, the GTP gladly accepted. In appreciation, the GTP allowed him to name the station. The earliest newspaper mention of the Littleton station name was August 1911 and of the Terrace location name was September 1911.

George Little was the inaugural postmaster 1912–1931. Since a Lyttleton post office existed in New Brunswick, the postal authorities demanded a new name. George chose Terrace to highlight the surrounding stepped landforms.

Earlier community In 1913, a constable was stationed during the GTP construction. Designated a national historic site in 2006, some accounts indicate the former British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) building on the Lakelse Ave / Kalum Street corner was erected in 1912. However, 1913 appears more precise. That year, Knox Presbyterian Church and St. Matthews Anglican Church were also built and a co-op store established.

A Roman Catholic church was dedicated in 1915 but was replaced by a new building at a different location in 1917. Terrace Drugs opened next to the Terrace Hotel around 1918. The next year, a branch of the Bank of Montreal arrived.

In 1921, the legion hall was built. The next year, the liquor store opened and the co-op closed. In December 1927, Terrace was incorporated as a village.

In early 1931, fire destroyed the Agar's Garage and months later the power plant, putting the town in darkness. That year, Fred Bishop built a 100-seat theatre to show silent movies. He had been using the Oddfellows Hall since 1923. In 1933, he relocated and his theatre closed. Restored in early 1932, the electricity generating plant was again destroyed by fire late the following year. Agar's Garage was also badly damaged at this time. A lengthy delay occurred before power was restored.

During the mid-1930s to mid-1940s, Terrace had no bank after the Bank of Montreal closed. In 1938, the government liquor store and government telegraph office were destroyed by fire. The next year, heavy snow collapsed the legion hall roof.

In 1942, a military camp was constructed which would house about 3,000 soldiers during World War II. In 1943, Charlie Adam built a theatre to entertain the troops and highway workers. In 1944, the one-week Terrace mutiny occurred at the military camp and a new co-op store opened. In 1945, fire destroyed the village power plant, and the BC Power Commission took over the electricity supply the following month.

Post-World War II community In 1946, a surplus Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) appliance became the first village fire truck. That year, a branch of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) opened. In 1949, Knox United Church burned down.

In 1950, the rebuilt Knox United Church opened. In 1954, Charlie Adam built the then Tillicum Theatre in its present location. In 1955, the civic centre (former army mess hall) was destroyed by fire. In 1958, a new civic centre was built in George Little Park. From 1958 to the late 1970s, the Tillicum Drive-in existed. In 1959, a dial telephone system replaced switchboard operators. St. Matthews Anglican Church building was relocated within town in the late 1950s and to the Gitanyow Reserve in 1971.

In 1960, the BC Hydro electricity supply switched from a local diesel plant to transmission lines from the Kemano Generating Station. In 1964, the present municipal building opened. About this time, the Anglicans bought the Dutch Reformed building when that congregation relocated. In 1965, the Knox United Church building was moved to the present site, enlarged, and dedicated the next year. At that time, Terrace had six hotels and seven motels. In 1967, the present Terrace Public Library and Museum building opened. Bill Young, who took over the movie venues that year, added a second indoor theatre in 1974. In 1968, The Terrace Shopping Centre opened on the former LH&K sawmill site.

In 1971, a blaze consumed the older section of the Terrace Hotel. Opening the next year were the new six-storey Terrace Hotel and the Terrace Arena (since renamed Terrace Sportsplex). In 1978, the Skeena Mall opened. The former Roman Catholic Church had been located in what became the parking lot.

Established in 1983, the Terrace Heritage Park Museum was designated a national historic site in 1996. Terrace incorporated as a district municipality in January 1987.

In 1993, a fire razed the 3200 block of Kalum Street destroying several historical commercial buildings.

In 1998, the co-op store closed.

Later community In 2003, a time capsule was buried in Heritage Park to be opened in 2078. The next year, the Walmart store opened. In 2005, the SAAN store, present in Terrace since 1979, closed. The city bought the co-op property in 2005, and demolished the shopping centre structure in 2011 and former garden centre in 2022.

In 2006, the Terrace & District Credit Union, which was founded in 1945, merged with Northern Savings. In 2007, Phase I of the Terrace Sportsplex, which included a new ice arena, was completed.

In 2010, Terrace hosted the BC Winter Games. In 2017, fire destroyed the building which housed the original Bank of Montreal branch.

In 2023, the Métis negotiated a deal to buy the former co-op property, arranging finalization in June 2024.

Geography In the vicinity, the Skeena River includes rock outcroppings, gravel and sandbars, wetlands, sloughs, and islands. Significant regular floods have eroded the riverbanks, destroyed landings, and exposed archaeological sites. Over 25,000 years ago, the river cut through glaciers to create the benches (stepped terraces) and deposited well-drained sandy loamy soils suited for agriculture.

The surrounding ecosystem is a hybrid coastal-interior rainforest, which consists primarily of western red cedar, western hemlock, amabilis fir or "balsam" and Sitka spruce. The Hazelton Mountains are to the east, and the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains are to the west. The north–south active fault line through the Kitsumkalum-Kitimat Valley has created many hot springs in the area.

Climate Being close to the Pacific Coast, Terrace has a continental climate (Köppen Dfb), closely bordering on an oceanic climate (Cfb) depending on the isotherm used. It has wet, cold winters (though much milder than inland places) and drier, warm summers, with an annual normal mean temperature of varying between average temperature in January of and in July . Average summer (June to August) temperatures are around , but temperatures over have been recorded in every month from May to September and a maximum of was recorded on 29 July 2009. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 16 December 1964.

Terrace receives an average annual rainfall of and snowfall of , water equivalence of ; totalling of precipitation, which is enough to sustain the lush vegetation of the area. October to February are the wettest months. Predominant winds are from the west and southwest, but occasional northerners during the winter bring snow in.

Demographics

In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Terrace had a population of 12,017 living in 4,873 of its 5,200 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 11,643. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Religion While many Sikhs in sawmill-based towns throughout the interior relocated to urban areas during the 1990s and 2000s, Terrace experienced growth in the Sikh population between 2011 and 2021 after two decades of decline.Nayar, The Punjabis in British Columbia, p. 27. + Religious groups in the City of Terrace (1991−2021)Religiousgroup2021201120011991 Irreligion 6,520 5,185 3,995 3,105 Christianity 4,410 5,745 7,505 7,470 Sikhism 390 265 350 610 Hinduism 145 0 40 65 Indigenous 65 0 Buddhism 45 35 25 20 Islam 40 0 20 15 Judaism 30 0 10 0 Other 185 70 90 50 Total responses 11,825 11,305 12,020 11,330 Total population 12,017 11,486 12,109 11,433

Ethnicity As of the 2021 census in the Terrace census agglomeration area, the panethnic breakdown is European (), Indigenous (), South Asian (), East Asian (), Southeast Asian (), African (), Latin American (), and Middle Eastern ().