We are visiting Fort Langley, which is referred to as the 'Birthplace of BC.'
This plaque says: Fort Langley was built by the Hudson's Bay Company 2 1/2 miles below this site in 1827 and
moved here in 1839. It burned and was rebuilt in 1840. As fur resources were exhausted, supply replaced trade
as the fort's major role. Here the company operated a large far, began the west coast salmon packing industry,
and exported produce to ports in Alaska, Hawaii and other Pacific areas. Fort Langley was also a terminus of
the first practical, all-British route from the coast to the interior. On 19 November 1858 the colony of
British Columbia was here proclaimed.
This is a piece of the Beaver, the first steamship on the Pacific Northwest.
The plaque reads: The Beaver, the first steamship on the North Pacific Ocean, was a wooden paddle boat of 109
tons built in England, in 1835, for the Hudson's Bay Company. For over 20 years she was supply ship to Company
posts on the Northwest Coast. During and after the 1858 gold rush she carried freight and passengers between
vancouver Island and the mainland. Subsequentlychartered to the British Admiralty, she was used as a
hydrographic survey ship between 1863-70. Sold in 1874, and in her final years used as a towboat, she was
wrecked at Prospect Point, at the entrance to Vancouver Harbour, in 1888.
This mural is on the side of the Fort Langley giftshop attatched to the actual fort, of what the area would have
looked like at the fort's peak. We are not going inside today because Abby and Erin have other things planned.
This is the fort from the West side. The white building you can just see on the right was the house of the head
of the fort.
This statue is of James Douglas, the first Governor of BC.
In downtown Fort Langley is the Community Hall. It was built in 1931 and has been featured in many movies.
