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23277 Mary Ave |
British Columbia Tourism Region : Vancouver, Coast, & Mountains
Description From Owner:
- Fort Langley - After Thomas Langley, HBC director (1800-30). In October 1824 Governor Simpson of the HBC, under the misapprehension that the Fraser River provided a navigable route to the Interior, wrote:
- 'I imparted to Mr. McMillan my views in regard to extending the trade to the Northward of Fort George [Astoria] and pointed out to him the importance of having an Establishment at the mouth of Frazer's River.
- Later the same year, Chief Trader McMillan made a reconnaissance of the lower Fraser Valley and in 1827 founded Fort Langley. In 1839 the original fort was abandoned and a new establishment (present Fort Langley) built several miles farther up the river,
- where the land was better for agriculture. The colony of British Columbia was proclaimed here in 1858, but the capital was soon after moved to New Westminster. Fort Langley then went into a slow decline.
- The HBC closed its store here in 1896, and the old fort began to rot away.
- Restoration of the fort began in 1957-8 as part of the centennial of British Columbia, though by then only one of the original buildings was still standing. Fort Langley is now a National Historic Park administered by the federal government.
- With permission from G.P.V and Helen B. Akrigg 1997 British Columbia Place Names. UBC Press.
Address of this page: http://bc.ruralroutes.com/FortLangley