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| The small village of Masset is the largest town on the Queen Charlotte Islands. Located at the northern end of Graham Island, the largest of the more than 150 significant islands that comprise the Queen Charlotte Islands/Haida Gwaii, Masset is the northern gateway to North Beach and Naikoon Provincial Park.
The small community is one of the two incorporated settlements on the islands, incorporated in 1961, and is the oldest municipality on Haida Gwaii.
Originally known as Graham City, it was named in June 1909 after the president of the Graham Steamship, owned by the Coal and Lumber Company and Benjamin Graham. Graham City eventually became known as New Masset, as it was located a few kilometres south of the Haida village of Old Masset.
A story told in Haida today of how the name "Masheet" came into existence relates that one of the first ships to come into Masset Harbour anchored off what is now the Village of Masset. One of the officers, a man named Masseta, died and was buried on the little island off which the ship lay anchored. The Haida named the island after him, but finding it difficult to pronounce, they corrupted the word to "mah-sh-t". From this, George M. Dawson, a geologist and naturalist well known in the vicinity, named the island "Maast" in 1878.
A Canadian Forces Base was established here in 1971, operating until its downsizing in 1997, when the base houses were sold off to interested investors and homeowners. Logging and fishing are the main industries in Masset today, with tourism becoming an increasingly important industry.
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