Digging through the Roots

When I was searching for information on different parts of Stanley Park I found a site with important dates in not only Vancouver's history but that of British Columbia. So today I am going to share with you some photos of Stanley Park and Vancouver and just fill you in on some dates. So here we go.

Admiral Quadra sails from Mexico to Alaska and claims the Pacific Coast for Spain in 1775. 

Three years later Captain Cook sails up the west coast and becomes the first European to set foot on what is now the western shore of Canada.

July 5, 1791 Spanish explorer Narvaez anchors off Isla de Langara now called Point Grey.

June 12, 1792 Captain George Vancouver arrives, charts and names Point Grey, the Strait of Georgia, Point Atkinson, English Bay and Burrard Channel.


Two days later Spanish explorers Galiano and Valdes arrive at Point Grey and meet Captain Vancouver upon his return from charting Howe Sound and Jervis Inlet. This occasion was marked by the naming of Spanish Banks.

1793 - Alexander Mackenzie becomes the first European to reach the west coast of Canada by land at what is now Bella Coola.

July 2, 1808 was the day that Simon Fraser becomes the first European to reach the area now known as Vancouver by land.

These facts, as dry as they may seem, are important because the chart how Vancouver and BC came to be.

Hudson Bay Company trading post Fort Langley on the Fraser River is established in 1827. I will be writing more on this company which still exists today and is so connected with Canada and its growth.

June 15, 1846 The 49th parallel as the border with the US is extended west of the Rockies.

Some Canadians feel that being patriotic means being anti American but that isn't necessary. As can be seen by a monument I saw today at Stanley Park.

The US side reads:

What an object lesson of peace is shown today by our two countries to all the world. No grim faced fortifications mark our frontiers, no huge battleships patrol our dividing waters, no stealth spies lurk in our border hamlets. Only a scrap of paper recording hardly more than a simple understanding safeguards lives and properties on the Great Lakes and only humble mile posts mark the inviolable boundary line for thousands of miles through farm and forest. Your protection is in our fraternity, our armour is our faith, the tie that binds more firmly year by year is...

The Canada side reads:

everincreasing aquaintance and comradeship through interchange of citizens and the compact is not of perishable parchment but of fair and honorable dealing which, God grant, shall continue for all time."

Erected by Kiwanis International in memory of a great occasion in the life of two sister nations. Here on July 26, 1923 Warren Gamaliel Harding, twenty ninth president of the United States of America and first president to visit Canada, charter member of the Kiwanis Club of Marion Ohio spoke words that are worthy of record in lasting granite. Dedicated September 15, 1925. Beautiful words and something to really think about. Of course over the years our borders have had to have security increased and immigration between the two countries is more difficult AND we do have our differences. Yet we are sister nations and like sisters we may disagree but when we do help each other. Like siblings we are there when needed. 

In 1846 Vancouver Island is made a Crown Colony with Fort Victoria as its capital.

1858 is the Gold Rush on the Fraser. The discovery of that wealth making rare mineral helped to not only make people wealthy it helped to create communities. When the fortune seekers arrived they needed all sorts of essentials from food to gold panning equipment to female company to bedding to whatever you can think of. And the smart ones, instead of chasing the gold, found ways to supply those needs. Once the rush was over many stayed on to create the cities and towns that  now exist.

August 2, 1858 is when the Crown Colony on the mainland of British Columbia is established. On February 14, 1859 Queensborough becomes the capital of that colony. On July 20 of the same year the name is changed to New Westminster.

Also in 1859 Colonel Tom Moody constucts the first road in the area, now known as North Road, which connects New Westminster with the Burrard Inlet.
July 16, 1860 New Westminster is incorporated.

1860 was also the year that Colonel Moody was charmed by a dancer named Lulu so he named an island after her. Lulu Island now makes up much of Richmond. According to Wikipedia this is a Colonel Richard Moody not Colonel Tom Moody.

On September 26, 1862 the area's first settlers, the McCleery family, arrive on the north arm of the Fraser. To pay tribute to those brave souls that land is now the McCleery Golf Course.
And to finish off today in July of 1865 Captain Edward Stamp establishes the Hastings Mill what is generally accepted to be the origin of Vancouver. Though some of us like to give credit to the saloon owner Gassy Jack too.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Hastings Mill, Captain Edward Stamp,Gold Rush,Colonel Moody,North Road,history,