Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada
Overview
Fort Langley was built by the Hudson's Bay Company 2 1/2 miles below this site in 1827 and moved here in 1839. It burned and was rebuilt in 1840. As fur resources were exhausted, supply replaced trade as the fort's major role. Here the company operated a large farm, began the west coast salmon packing industry, and exported produce to ports in Alaska, Hawaii and other Pacific areas. Fort Langley was also a terminus of the first practical all-British route from the coast to the interior. On 19 November 1858 the colony of British Columbia was here proclaimed.
Description of Historic Place
Fort Langley National Historic Site of Canada is the site of a Hudson’s Bay Company post located on the south banks of the Fraser River approximately 48 km east of Vancouver. It contains an original log warehouse as well as several newer evocations of historic structures within a reconstructed wooden palisade.
The Storehouse
Heritage Value
Fort Langley has been designated a national historic site because: it was founded in 1827 to drive off the fur-traders from Boston who had monopolized the Maritime trade; it was from Fort Langley, rebuilt in 1840 (sic 1839) further up the river, that the Hudson’s Bay Company began to export salmon, supplying the forts of the Company and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii); after the abandonment of the Columbia River as a trade route in 1848, the Company forwarded their goods to Langley for transhipment to their forts in British Columbia; and the act creating the colony of British Columbia was proclaimed at Langley in 1858.
The Cooperage
The storehouse, Exhibits building and Café.
The heritage value of Fort Langley lies in its historical associations as illustrated by the site and surviving resources. Originally constructed in 1827 at a location 4 km upstream of its present site, the post was relocated and rebuilt in 1839, only to be destroyed by fire in 1840 requiring it to be, once again, rebuilt. The Hudson’s Bay Company continued to run a post on this site until 1886, although in later years its focus shifted from fur to agricultural trade and fish packing. Since it became a national historic site in 1923 the location of Fort Langley’s palisades have been identified through archaeological investigation, as have the remains of many of its buildings and structures. The site has gone through two major periods of expansion; firstly in the 1950s in conjunction with the provincial centennial celebrations, and again in the 1990s.
Information retrieved from the Fort Langley National Historic site, 2019. Sources: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, May 1955; Commemorative Integrity Statement, October 2003
Logging Requirements
To claim this virtual cache, you will need to complete 2 requirements.
- Take a photo of yourself or a sign with your geocaching username with the fort entrance in the background and post it with your log. You are NOT required to go inside the Fort itself (there is an entry fee).
Please answer the following questions and send me the answers through the message center. Answers can be found at the statue approximately 90 meters to the Southeast of the GZ. Please do not post the answers in your log.
- What is the name on the plaque at the base of the statue?
- What year was this individual born, what year did this individual die?
- What is etched on the bottom, back of the statue?
NOTE: A response from me is not required to log this find, but failure to send the answers to the questions within a reasonable amount of time (5 days) will result in the deletion of your log.
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.