An artist's rendition of the ceremony at Fort Langley, November 19, 1858, showing Judge Begbie swearing in James Douglas as the colony's first governor.

During 2008, British Columbia is celebrating its sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the creation of what became the province. Communities from Sooke to Fernie, from Fort Nelson to Fort Langley, are hosting hundreds of commemorative events, including art shows, museum displays, historic reenactments, totem pole carving, operas and concerts, even a sled dog trail run. But what's it all about? Exactly what were the events that led to the birth of BC 150 years ago?

At the beginning of 1858 the mainland of what is now British Columbia was an unorganized territory occupied by the different Aboriginal groups who had lived there for as long as anyone could remember. A handful of Europeans operated a scattering of fur- trade posts along the spectacular coastline and in the mountainous interior. Otherwise, the only non-Aboriginal presence was on Vancouver Island where about 800 settlers were maintaining a British colony, created in 1849 and administered by the Hudson's Bay Company.

Everything changed when word leaked to the outside world that gold had been discovered in the gravel shoals of the Fraser River. In the spring of 1858, tens of thousands of prospectors, mainly Americans, flooded into the area in search of instant wealth. The newcomers arrived by ship in Victoria, then made their way by boat, raft and canoe across the Strait of Georgia and up the river to the gold fields. Others came overland from Oregon and Washington. Instant camps sprang into being with names like Hill's Bar, Boston Bar, Texas Bar and China Bar. The sleepy village of Yale became headquarters for the rush, where prospectors bought supplies, banked their gold and celebrated in the bars and saloons.

	To learn more about British Columbia's colourful history, consult our other online resources in the Encyclopedia of British Columbia. In the BC Primer section of the site, you can read a concise history of the province prepared for the EBC by noted UBC historian Jean Barman. Also, at the IEBC's learning layer, you will find Far West, a history of BC written for young readers by the Encyclopedia's editor, Daniel Francis. For the provincial government's 150th anniversary celebrations, see www.bc150.gov.bc.ca.

It was a rough-and-tumble world where the typical gold seeker slept with one eye open and a pistol under his pillow. The local First Nations people were dismayed to see so many newcomers invade their territory, disrupting the fishery and overrunning their camp sites. For a time it seemed that full-scale war might break out.

James Douglas, governor of Vancouver Island, decided that he had to act to assert British authority over the gold fields. He appointed magistrates to keep the peace and required the prospectors to purchase mining licenses. That summer he visited the gold camps to make sure that the miners understood they were in British territory where British law prevailed.

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The British government responded to the gold rush by creating a new colony on the mainland, calling it British Columbia. Douglas was named the first governor. Queen Victoria gave her royal assent to the colony on August 2, 1858. In November Matthew Begbie arrived from England to take up his position as judge carrying with him Douglas's commission, signed by the Queen. The two men travelled together by steamboat to Fort Langley where, on November 19, Begbie read the document to the assembled dignitaries and British Columbia was officially born.

The name of the new colony, by the way, was chosen personally by Queen Victoria. It was initially thought that New Caledonia would be an appropriate name. After all, that was what early fur traders had been calling the mountainous interior for years. But the name had already been claimed by some French possessions in the Pacific. Columbia was the next suggestion but to avoid confusion with the South American country the Queen decided to make it "British" Columbia instead.