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Port Alice Road gets colourful new name

“You take the Frigon Road to see the Frigon Islands.”
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Highway 30 has been unofficially renamed by the Village of Port Alice.

After the results of the road naming contest were announced on Canada Day, the highway will now be known as Frigon Road.

Port Alice resident Valerie Eyford, who entered the winning submission, said she “thought of many names, but I thought you know - you take the Frigon Road to see the Frigon Islands.”

Eyford said Highway 30 is such a distinctive road, it needed a really distinctive name.

The Frigon Islands are located just off the shores of Rumble Beach and are named after Ned Frigon, an early settler of Port Alice.

“It’s catchy, you know, you’re not really swearing because it’s his name,” said Eyford with a laugh.

She added she thought that “by calling it Frigon road it would bring to light one of our pioneers, who is someone who had a lot to do with the colourful history of Port Alice.”

The contest was the vision of Polly Steele and Rose Klein Beekman, who are the Port Alice Village Council Delegates to the North Island Tourism Committee.

“The whole idea of the project was to do something we could use to promote Port Alice to visitors,” said Steele.

“We did it as a contest just for fun.”

Steele said they were not yet able to officially change the name, so they decided to keep it as a local initiative.

“We are hoping we can have a sign put up at the junction of the highway and at a future date have an informative sign about Ned Frigon,” said Steele.

Edward (Ned) Frigon was born in Maurice or St. Prosper, Quebec, somewhere between 1829 and 1834.

He spent many years following the gold rush in California, Panama, and the Interior of B.C. before settling in Port Alice.

He died near Port Alice around 1917.

The Port Hardy Museum is, coincidentally, currently showing an exhibit on Ned Frigon which will run until the end of September.