Chilliwack: the "Heart of the Valley" is made up of 14 Villages - In this series of 14 caches we will introduce you to each of those Villages. When you have solved the puzzle for all 14 of the caches your smiley faces will produce the shape of a heart in the Eastern portion of Chilliwack. In each of the 14 caches you will find information which you must record in order to find the Final cache in this series, the "Heart of Hearts" cache.
We hope you enjoy your trip around the area and the cache locations we have selected for this series. Have fun and if possible involve the whole family in solving the puzzles and finding the caches, they are meant to be "family friendly".
Bordered by the Fraser River to the north and the Hope Slough to the south, Fairfield Island is a patchwork of rich farmland. The first colonial settlers to pre-empt land in the north west corner of Fairfield Island prior to 1871 were G. Butter, Pre-emption No. 372, C. Grafton, Pre-emption No. 373, and J. Craswell, Pre-emption No. 421 and 422.
The Provincial government created the School District of Fairfield Island on May 11, 1892, and a one-room school was constructed that same year and opened in November. The first teacher at the school was Miss Ida M. Templar.
The community on Fairfield Island continued to grow, and it became necessary to construct a two-room school in 1912. Forty years later, in 1952, a new school was constructed on Fairfield Road, a short distance from the old building. This new school had an enrolment of 65 students from grades one to six, with Mr. D. Rempel as Principal.
A second school on Fairfield Island, Strathcona Elementary, was constructed as a two-room building in 1909. Strathcona Elementary sat unused for a period of years during the late 1950s, but was reconditioned and opened in September 1961, with the development of the area as a residential district. The original two-room section of Strathcona was torn down around the beginning of May 1999, to make way for the construction of a new addition.
Minutes of the Fairfield Island Community Hall for March 27, 1923, describe how a meeting was held at the home of Mr. George Clark. During that meeting an executive was elected and a business meeting held. With an executive comprised of Charles Hawthorn, President, James Swan, Vice President, and A.B. Sim, Secretary/Treasurer, they moved that Mr. Clark and Mr. Law "secure the deed to the sight [sic] and hold it in trust for the future trustees of Fairfield Island Community Hall."
The minutes of a May 10, 1923 meeting record a motion that the secretary "be entrusted to put notice of clearing bee and picnic, to be held at Hall sight [sic] on May 24th in the Chilliwack Progress."
Fairfield Island today is a mixture of residential subdivisions, commercial e.g., Minter Country Garden on Young Road, industrial, e.g., Steelhead Aggregates on Tower Road, and the continued presence of mixed agricultural lands.
All information was obtained from the Chilliwack Museum and Archives Website- Visit them "here"
Cache is at: N49 0A.BCD W121 EF.GHI
A = How many grades were taught at the school built in 1952.
B = The first school had how many rooms.
C = The month of the cleaning bee and picnic at the site of the Community Hall
D = The third number of the year the Fairfield Island School District was created.
E = The month the original section of Strathcona Elementary was torn down.
F = Strathcona Elementary had how many rooms.
G = The third number of J. Craswell's first Pre-emption No.
H = The last number of the year the original Strathcona Elementary was reconditiond & re-opened.
I = The second number of the day a decision was made to purchase the site for the future Fairfield Island Community Hall.
