Panning for gold

Damian tries his hand at panning for gold

In 1858 Gold was discovered on the Fraser River and there was a literal overnight onslaught of miners, the 49's, who came up from the California gold fields which were now almost played out. They arrived in Victoria then made their way across the straight of Georgia (or now the Salish Sea) in whatever boats they could get a hold of and they got themselves up the Fraser river fast. It was this onslaught of americans coming in into British territory that stimulated the Colony of British Columbia to be proclaimed. Judge Mathew Begbie swore in James Douglas to be the governor of the colony on nov 19 1858 at Fort Langley. In the rain.....

James Douglas had been a former Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver in Vancouver Washington, and also at Fort Victoria when it was decided that HBC needed to move their headquarters on the west coast into undisputed British Territory in 1843. The columbia river was looking like it may be the border between America and British territory....eventually it would be the 49th parallel , the Oregon boundary dispute settled in 1846.

In 1866 the colony of BC and the Colony of Van Island merged and the capitol was now at Victoria. Douglas would be be the first premier.

1871 was when BC joined Confederation......after the promise of a railway through the rockies.....CPR historyRead more