Treasures Everywhere

Today I want to show you some of the treasures I have found as well as informing you on bits and pieces of our history.

(This overpass is near Lumberman's Arch. I like the fact that there are washrooms available. When you walk as much as I do it sometimes gets difficult to find a washroom. This time of year most of them at parks are closed. Thankfully Stanley Park maintains theirs all year around.)

In 1865 Captain Edward Stamp logs 100 acres around what is now known as Brockton Point to make a clearing for a settlement.

The colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were united as one in 1866 under the name of British Columbia.

Canada's Constitution - the British North America Act - becomes law on March 29, 1867 when it was signed by Queen Victoria. It came into effect on July 1, 1867: Canada Federation, the day Canada was born.

The BNA serves as a base for document for our constitution which is not one document but rather a set of documents known as Constitution Acts and just as importantly as set of unwritten laws and conventions. (Huh? Unwritten laws and conventions? I'm glad I'm not into politics.)

The BNA sets out the rules for the government of the new federal nation (Canada) and established a British style of government with a House of Commons and Senate. It also sets out the division of powers between the federal government and the provincial governments. The written text of the BNA can be misleading so case law plays an important part in the division of power between the governments.

1867 was a busy year. This was also the year that Jerry Rogers begins logging at Jerry's Cove now known as Jericho.

And a very important event happened in 1867.

On September 30 John 'Gassy Jack' Deighton rowed into Burrard Inlet from New Westminster. The Yorkshire born Deighton with a muddy purple complexion arrived with his native wife, her mother, her cousin, a yellow dog, two chairs and a barrel of whiskey. He offered free whiskey to the off duty workers from Stamp's Mill if they would help him build a saloon. It is said that the Globe Saloon was built in twenty four hours.

(I took this photo this summer. I was walking along East Pender, by the MacDonald School, when I saw two people hiding among the grapes. It was my downstairs neighbour and her daughter.)

On May 25, 1868 the capital of the colony was moved from New Westminster to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

On April 11, 1869 the first telegraph message is sent from Moody's Mill on the North Shore to Hastings Townsite to New Westminster.

In 1870 Granville townsite is named. However people still referred to it as Gastown in honor of its most colorful resident. (From everything I've read I think I would have loved to meet him.)

1870 was also the year that the Vancouver townsite was named.

1871 was a banner year for British Columbia. On July 20 of that year we joined the Canadian Confederation. Gassy Jack raised a Canadian flag over his saloon and it was the first one to be seen in this area.

On October 2, 1872 the first bridge over False Creek was opened.

The first white child was born on Burrard Inlet, in Moodyville, on April 29, 1875. Mabel Ellen Springer went on to become a journalist in Vancouver for thirty years.

A month after that, on May 29,  John 'Gassy Jack' Deighton died.

In 1882, on the Granville waterfront, The Red Cross Brewing Company was built. Ten years later the company was shipping their product all over the province and outselling those imported brands. You know, the ones from Eastern Canada like Labatt, Carlson and Molson.

Teacher Agnes Cameron hung a sign on the door of the Hasting Mills school in 1883. "Irate Parents will be received after 3 pm."

Another auspicious day in Vancouver's history was September 16, 1884.

On that day CPR President William Cornelius Van Horne asked that Granville townsite, not Port Moody as was originally planned, as the terminus for the new railway. Naturally Port Moody was not happy about this development. One report I read said they went ballistic.

One story is that CPR's local land commissioner Lauchlan Hamilton rowed Van Horne around what was to become Stanley Park. Another version is that realtor Alexander Wellington Ross was at the oars and he exclaimed that this city was destined to be a great one. It was Van Horne who also suggested the name Vancouver. Van Horne said that everyone knew of Captain Vancouver's Pacific explorations and people would instantly know where this important new link in world shipping was located.

So there is a bit more information for you. I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

TAGS:Vancouver, Karen Magill, Moody's Mill, Captain Edward Stamp,Agnes Cameron,British North American Act,Brockton Point,history,