A billboard warns of the dangers of hitchhiking along the Highway of Tears. (Flickr)
The Highway of Tears is a 725-km. stretch of road that connects Prince George and Prince Rupert in central BC. Officially known as Highway 16, the name ‘Highway of Tears’ was coined by Florence Naziel during a vigil held in 1998 to commemorate the women, many of them Indigenous, who had gone missing along the route.
Naziel had observed the families of those missing crying over the disappearance of their loved ones, and their tears were strongly connected to Hwy 16.
For more than 50 years, the route through rural BC has been the site of numerous abductions and murders.