American Railroad
This old bridge and the sections of abandoned grade are mute reminders of the Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway & Navigation Co. A Great Northern subsidiary it was pushed into the promising...
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From Fort to Capital (Sign missing)
Before you lies Victoria, first settlement on Vancouver Island. The Hudson's Bay Co., seeking a new western depot, built Fort Victoria in 1843. in the 1860's it prospered as a stepping-stone...
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Cottonwood House
For over half a century the Boyd family operated this haven for man and beast. Here, weary travellers found lodging, food, and drink. Here, fresh horses were hitched to stagecoaches and miners...
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J.W. Trutch, 1826-1904 (Sign missing)
Construction of the Alexandra suspension bridge was the greatest achievement of one of British Columbia's first civil engineers, Joseph Trutch, Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works after 1864, he...
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Salmon! (Sign missing)
This site, on the world's greatest salmon river, lured many pioneer canners in the late 1860's and early 1870's. Pre-eminent was Alexander Ewen, a founder and first president of B.C. Packers,...
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The Gulf Islands (Sign missing)
Beyond the rolling farmlands of the Saanich Peninsula lies the Straits of Georgia. Among its myriad Gulf Island sailed such 18th century Spanish and British explorers as Galiano and Vancouver. In...
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To the Goldfields
In the 1860's the fabulous Cariboo goldfields were a lure to thousands. Miners, traders, and adventurers, many afoot with wheelbarrows, shared the pioneer route with mule trains, plodding...
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Historic Yale
This was the head of navigation on the Fraser River. Founded in 1848, as a Hudson's Bay Company fur post, Fort Yate later became a roaring gold- rush town and for 20 years was the starting...
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Seat of Government (Sign missing)
New Westminster, named by Queen Victoria in 1859, became the seat of government on the mainland colony of British Columbia which was created in 1858. Following union with the Colony of...
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Dr. J.S. Helmcken (Sign missing)
Helmcken, a pioneer Hudson's Bay Company doctor, played a leading role from 1856-71 in the colonial politics of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. A spokesman for those who thought Canada was...
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Paddlewheels North
Down river lay the perilous and unnavigable canyon. Up-river the Fraser was swift and strong, but sternwheelers could travel for 400 miles from Soda Creek. Men and supplies embarked here in...
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The Yale Convention
By 1868, the gold rushes that had founded British Columbia were over, the public debt was soaring and many were dissatisfied with the colonial government. On September 14, 1868, 26 delegates from...
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Greenwood Smelter
In this wilderness of rugged mountains, ore was first found in the late 1880's. Further prospects led to the building of a large smelter by the B.C. Copper Co. From 1901, copper, gold and...
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Irrigation (Sign missing)
Irrigation has been the key to development of the Okanagan. So often taken for granted elsewhere, water has magically unlocked the wealth in this dry valley, giving life and industry to...
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Gold in Nickel Plate
From the heart of this mountain, men took over $45,000,000 in gold. It started in 1904 when Hedley boomed with the opening of the mill in town and the Nickel Plate Mine on the mountain-top....
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Fairview Gold
Fairview Gold: The 1890's held high hopes for the lode gold of miles such as Stemwinder, Morning Star and Rattler. By 1902, when the Fairview Hotel or 'Big Teepee' burned, the golden years...
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Dawson Creek (Sign missing)
Once called 'The Beaver Plains', this townsite was named in honour of Dr. G.M. Dawson, outstanding Canadian geologist and scientist, whose expeditions in B.C. covered almost every field of natural...
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J.M. Robinson
When John M. Robinson, a former Manitoba legislator and newspaper editor, came to the South Okanagan in 1898, he found only dry grazing land. Seeing its potential, he introduced irrigation and led...
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Ponderosa Pine (Western Yellow Pine) (Sign missing)
The Ponderosa Pine occurs in Canada only in British Columbia where it has adapted to a zone of low summer rainfall through the southern interior of the province. The mature tree can be...
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Southern Crossroads
From BC's Stops of Interest
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