THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE

Aboriginal people have lived in British Columbia for thousands of years. They were hunters and fishers who relied on the land and its many resources to provide everything they needed for their survival.

About 250 years ago the first Europeans arrived in British Columbia. They thought that they "discovered" the territory because no other explorers had been there before them. But British Columbia was already occupied by many different groups of people when the explorers arrived. They were the Aboriginal people, the ancient ancestors of the First Nations people who live in British Columbia today. More Aboriginal people lived in British Columbia in ancient times than in any other part of Canada.

These original people did not need to be discovered. They had been living in their territories for as long as anyone could remember.

Who were the original people? Where did they live? What was their life like in British Columbia before the Europeans arrived?

DIGGING UP THE PAST

Archaeologists have found evidence that people were living in British Columbia at least 10,500 years ago. This evidence consists of stone tools and spear points found buried in the ground at ancient hunting camps. The people who made these objects were big game hunters. They tracked down giant bison, moose, caribou and mountain sheep, killing them with stone spears. They ate the meat and used the skins to make tents and clothing. They were the distant ancestors of today's Aboriginal people.

As time passed the number of people living in British Columbia grew. They inhabited the valleys of the interior and the islands and inlets along the coast. Slowly they developed different languages and different ways of life. Over the years they evolved into the many Aboriginal groups that were present in British Columbia when the first explorers arrived.

PEOPLE OF THE COAST

The Aboriginal groups living along the seacoast followed a way of life that was different in many ways from groups living in the interior. On the coast the climate is mild and wet. Warm air blows in off the ocean and as it rises to cross the mountains it drops its load of moisture as rain. The BC coast is one of the wettest spots on earth. The moisture produces lush forests of cedar, spruce and hemlock trees. This is what is known as the coastal rain forest. It contains some of the tallest trees in the world.

The land on which the people lived had a strong influence on the way in which they lived. The rain forest provided the coastal people with everything they needed. They built large houses made from planks cut from the trees. They used the trunks of the trees to make their canoes, and bark and roots to weave clothing, mats, fishnets, rope and baskets. Today the people still use wood to carve the totem poles and masks that are such an important part of their culture.

On the coast, people lived by fishing, collecting shellfish and hunting seals and sea lions. Some even hunted the giant whales far from shore. Every spring a silvery fish called the eulachon swarms in huge numbers at the mouths of the rivers. These fish are very greasy. They provided fuel to burn for light, as well as oil to spread on food. When they dried, the eulachon burned just like a candle. The coastal people traded eulachon oil to other groups living in the interior.

The people of the coast were sea-going people. Sometimes they lived on islands. Their villages were always at the water's edge. They had no roads or wheeled vehicles. They traveled everywhere by water in their log canoes. These canoes were beautifully shaped, polished and decorated with designs and carvings. They were works of art, made by trained artisans.

During the winter the people lived in large villages of many houses. It was during the winter, when the weather was bad, that they socialized and carried on their dances and religious ceremonies. When better weather came in the spring, they moved to smaller camps to fish, hunt seal and gather shellfish. Sometimes these camps were built atop middens. Middens are piles of discarded clam and oyster shells many metres deep. Archaeologists dig into the middens and discover evidence that people have used them for thousands of years.

PEOPLE OF THE INTERIOR

In the interior of British Columbia, Aboriginal groups lived a different kind of life. Here the climate was drier. It was much colder in the winter, and hotter in the summer. The people lived in small groups of one or two families. They moved around a lot, pursuing the deer, moose and caribou on which they depended for food.

In the interior, people lived in lodges made from animals skins, or sometimes in pit houses. Pit houses began with a shallow hole dug in the ground. A frame of poles was erected over the hole and covered with animal skins or dirt. The entrance was through the roof. This made a cosy shelter that kept the people warm in the winter.

Salmon was an important food for people in the interior. Salmon are born in the freshwater streams of the interior, then follow the rivers out to the sea. They remain in the oceans until it is time for them to return to fresh water to spawn near the same spot where they were born. As they made their way up the rivers of the interior, the Aboriginal people caught them in nets or speared them at the rapids. The people of the interior dried the salmon in the sun, or smoked them over open fires. Preserved in this way, the fish made a delicious meal all through the winter months.

During fishing season, the interior people came together in central villages. Here they met with their relatives, feasted and carried on important ceremonies. When the fishing was over, the people went away in smaller groups to hunt animals and to gather berries and roots.

NUU-CHAH-NULTH WHALERS

The Nuu-chah-nulth are a coastal people. For as long as anyone can remember, they have lived on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Like other coastal people, the Nuu-chah-nulth made their living from the sea. They fished for salmon and herring, hunted seals and sea lions, and gathered clams and oysters from the rocky shore. The meat and oil from these animals was stored for use during the winter months.

The Nuu-chah-nulth had a special skill. They were the only people on the coast to hunt whales. These giant animals swim past the coast of British Columbia on their way to and from their summer feeding grounds in Alaska. Standing on the beach, the Nuu-chah-nulth could see the whales splashing and blowing in the waves offshore.

The whale hunt required great courage and skill. Whalers enjoyed a special place in Nuu-chah-nulth society. They were usually chiefs who had spent years preparing themselves for the hunt. They learned the animal's habits and went through many rituals to try to influence the way it behaved. They bathed themselves in cold water, went for long periods without food, and sang special songs. They had to prove that they were worthy of matching themselves against the whale.

When they were ready, the members of a whaling crew climbed into their huge cedar canoe and set out into the open ocean. It was dangerous work. They would be gone for many days. A storm might blow up and overturn the canoe, or winds might carry them far from shore.

Once the whale was sighted, paddlers had to sneak up on it when it surfaced to take a breath. When they were almost on top of it, the chief thrust his long harpoon deep into the animal's back. Then the paddlers had to back away in a hurry. A wounded whale reacted with a violent slap of its tale, then dove below the surface to escape. If the canoe was too close, it could easily be swamped or smashed to pieces.

The chase was on. The harpoon was attached to the canoe by a long line. The fleeing whale pulled the hunters along behind it. They could do little but wait for the wounded animal to grow tired. When it came up for air, other harpoons were planted. Gradually the whale weakened from loss of blood until finally it died.

By this time the hunters might be far out to sea. They lashed the dead whale to the canoe and began the long paddle back to their village. It might take many days of hard labour. When finally they reached the beach, the whale was butchered and shared among all the people in the village. There was feasting and singing to thank the spirits for allowing the whale to be taken. The Nuu-chah-nulth believed that if the rituals were ignored they would be unsuccessful the next time they went hunting.

A single whale supplied tons of meat and oil for food, and bone to make tools and utensils. It was a way for hunters to show their skill and gain prestige in the village. All Nuu-chah-nulth respected a successful whaler.

MAKING CONTACT

The Haida were the first Aboriginal group in BC to meet with Europeans. This happened in 1774 when the Santiago, a small Spanish sailing ship, arrived near one of the Queen Charlotte Islands on a voyage of exploration. A canoe carrying nine Haida paddlers came out from shore to have a look at the strangers, then more canoes came out. The Haida brought food and furs to trade, but before the Spanish could land a wind blew the Santiago away from the coast.

Four years later, in 1778, more ships appeared on the coast, this time in the territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. Captain James Cook was exploring the Pacific coast for the King of England. He brought his two ships to Vancouver Island in search of a safe harbour and fresh water for his sailors.

When two people who were as different as the Nuu-chah-nulth and the explorers meet, they often do not understand each other. They are seeing so much for the first time. The Nuu-chah-nulth had not seen sailing ships before. They thought that the tall-masted vessels were floating houses. The British sailors did not understand the ceremonies that the Nuu-chah-nulth used to welcome visitors to their territory.

The Nuu-chah-nulth people used to be known as the Nootka. This name came from a misunderstanding on the part of Captain Cook and his crew. The story goes that Cook motioned in the air with his finger and asked what the area round about was called. The people thought he was asking sailing directions. They told him to sail around the island, using a word that sounded like nootka. Cook thought they were telling him that they were the Nootka. That is what he called them and so they were called for many years. Only recently have the people begun to use their own name: Nuu-chah-nulth.

NAMING PLACES

Nuu-chah-nulth is a difficult word to say. It means "all along the mountains". It refers to the territory where the people live, below the mountains on the coast of Vancouver Island.

Aboriginal people often take their names from physical features. Ucluelet is an important Nuu-chah-nulth village. It means "wind blowing into the bay". The village near where the people met Captain Cook became known as Friendly Cove. Its actual name is Yuquot, "where the wind blows from all directions". Wickaninish, one of the beaches on the coast, is named after a local chief and means "no one in front of him in the canoe". The name shows that he was the most important person in the community.

THE POTLATCH

For many Aboriginal groups in British Columbia, the potlatch was their most important ceremony. Potlatch comes from the Nuu-chah-nulth word patshatl, meaning "giving". It refers to the fact that gift giving is an important part of the potlatch. So are dancing, songs, feasts and storytelling.

The potlatch is at the heart of the Aboriginal way of life. A potlatch is held at important times in the life of the community and the individual. Some potlatches are held to celebrate weddings, or to mourn the dead. Others celebrate the raising of a totem pole, or the naming of a new chief.

In the old days, potlatches took a long time to prepare and lasted for several weeks. Nowadays they usually last for a day or two. Guests receive presents from the host before they return home. The presents are a token of thanks to the guests for attending the potlatch and witnessing the important ceremonies that took place.

When Europeans arrived in British Columbia, they did not understand the potlatch. They saw the Aboriginal people gathering together to give away their possessions and they thought it was wasteful and evil. They wanted the people to give up their old ways and become more like Europeans. In 1885, the government outlawed the potlatch. Anyone taking part in the ceremonies was sent to jail.

The ban on the potlatch lasted for 65 years. It was a great blow to Aboriginal culture. The ceremonies which were such an important part of their life could not be held. The people were known for their wood carving of masks and headdresses. Most of these carvings were made for the potlatch ceremonies. Since they were no longer needed, the arts of the Aboriginal people went into decline.

The law did not stop the potlatch altogether. The people continued to hold a few ceremonies in secret, but they had to break the law to do so. Finally the government decided that the law was unjust. In 1951, the potlatch again became legal. Today it continues to be an important ceremony among the Aboriginal people, and once again the arts of the people are flourishing.

TOTEM POLES

One of the most familiar parts of Aboriginal culture in British Columbia is the totem pole. These tall pillars of carved wood stood in front of the villages. They were made by skilled carvers from a single cedar log.

Totem poles depict figures from Aboriginal history and legend and important crests and designs from the owner's own family. Anyone who understands what the designs mean can read a pole like a book.

There were different kinds of poles. Some stood on the beach in front of the village to welcome visitors. Others stood in front of a house to show the family history. Still others stood in the graveyard to honour dead relations. In all cases, the poles had great significance for the people.

Young carvers learn their skills by studying as apprentices with older carvers. They learn techniques handed down through many generations. In this way the Aboriginal people keep their traditions strong.

STORYTELLERS

Long ago the Aboriginal people had no system of writing. Instead, they recorded their history and passed on their traditions in stories, songs and dances. Instead of reading books, an Aboriginal person learned by listening to the elders, watching the ceremonies and studying the objects made by artists.

Aboriginal art and stories often are about animals. The people believe that the way to learn about life is to study nature and learn from it. The lessons of nature are expressed in the art and ceremonies of the people.

Elders are very important people in Aboriginal society. They are respected advisors who use their knowledge and experience to guide the people. Elders keep alive the traditions of the people.

A NEW BEGINNING

The arrival of Europeans brought great changes to the Aboriginal world. The newcomers brought many things that were of value to Aboriginal people. Metal kettles, knives, guns and blankets were useful items that were quickly adopted by the people. In return they traded furs and food and shared their knowledge of what Europeans called the New World.

For many years life for the Aboriginal people went on much as before. The newcomers came from time to time in their ships, or set up small forts in the interior. The Aboriginal people traded with them from time to time, but their way of life did not change a great deal.

More and more outsiders arrived in British Columbia, however. They spread disease, used up the resources and threatened to take away the land. This presented a new challenge to the Aboriginal people. They had welcomed the newcomers into their land. Now they were learning to live with the consequences.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE TRADERS

Traders from many countries were attracted to British Columbia. They came in search of sea otter and beaver skins which the Aboriginal people offered in trade. The fur trade brought many changes for the Aboriginal people.

When Captain James Cook arrived near the village of Yuquot in 1778, some of his men traded with the Nuu-chah-nulth people who lived there. The sailors offered knives, blankets and metal tools. In return, they received food and furs.

After leaving the coast of British Columbia, Cook sailed his ships back across the Pacific Ocean to China. At the famous market city of Canton, his men sold their furs at a great profit. Chinese merchants were most impressed with the quality of the sea otter pelts. Thick and soft, they made the finest fur coats.

Before long word spread to other trading nations about the valuable furs. The result was a rush of ships to the coast of British Columbia.

IN SEARCH OF A PASSAGE

While the trade in furs flourished, exploration of the coast continued. The Spanish, who already owned Mexico to the south, hoped to expand into the north. The Russians were planning expeditions down from their posts in Alaska. And the British, thanks to Captain Cook's visit, thought that they had a claim on the area.

Into this confusing situation sailed Captain George Vancouver. He was one of the leading explorers in Great Britain. He came with orders to survey the coastline of North America between California and Alaska, and to enforce Britain's claim to ownership.

From 1792 to 1794 Vancouver and his men spent three summers on the coast. While their ship, the Discovery, waited offshore, they used smaller rowboats to look into every cove and inlet. The sailors sweated at the oars under the hot sun or through the driving rain. At night they camped in tents on the hard, rocky shore. It was exhausting work, but necessary. When they were finished, they had drawn the first accurate map of the British Columbia shoreline.

Meanwhile, the Russians withdrew from the coast, leaving the British and the Spanish to come to an agreement. Eventually the Spanish agreed to give up their claim. The two nations signed a treaty. Anyone could trade on the coast, but the area now belonged to Great Britain.

Of course, no one asked the Aboriginal people. As far as they were concerned the land belonged to them. After all, it had belonged to their ancestors for thousands of years. This different view of things continues right down to the present.

THE SEA OTTER TRADE

The traders came mainly from Great Britain and the United States. Each summer they sailed their small ships along the coast. When they came near a village, they sounded cannon to announce their arrival. The local Aboriginal people came out in canoes, bringing with them their furs to trade. When all the goods had been exchanged, the ship moved on to the next village. Before the autumn storms arrived, traders sailed across the Pacific to China where they bartered their furs for tea, silk and spices. These goods were much in demand in Europe.

The Aboriginal people were smart traders. They were used to trading among themselves and knew how to drive a hard bargain. They knew the goods they wanted, and how to haggle for the best price. At the height of the trade, vessels swarmed all over the coast. If one trader would not offer a fair price, the people could always wait for another vessel to come along.

The trade for sea otter pelts only lasted a few years. The demand was so high that thousands were slaughtered every year. By about 1820 so many of the animals had been killed that they were becoming hard to find. Sea-going traders were replaced by permanent trading posts. The focus of the fur trade shifted from the coastal villages to the rivers and lakes of the interior.

CROSSING THE CONTINENT

At the same time as the sea otter traders were cruising the coastal waters in their ships, other traders were trying to find a route to the Pacific by land. For many years they had been trading with the Aboriginal people of the Plains and the eastern woodlands. The Rocky Mountains, however, threw up an impassable barrier that kept the traders out of the interior of British Columbia.

The fur trade in the rest of Canada was dominated by two large companies. The Hudson's Bay Company, owned by British financiers, traded from the shores of Hudson Bay. The North West Company was based in Montreal. Both companies operated a network of trading posts across the continent. And both companies wanted to discover a way across the mountains to the Pacific.

The North West Company sent one of their most experienced traders to find a route to the ocean. His name was Alexander Mackenzie. With the help of Aboriginal guides, Mackenzie made his way on foot through the snow-bound mountain passes. He came down out of the mountains to a great river, what is now called the Fraser. The explorers set off by canoe to see where the river would take them.

GREASE TRAILS

The Aboriginal people knew British Columbia well. They followed a network of footpaths that led from the coast to the interior. Along these trails they carried food and other items for trade between the different tribes. One of the most important trade items was oil from the eulachon fish. Each year the eulachon swarm in huge numbers at the mouths of the major coastal rivers. The eulachon is very greasy, and the Aboriginal people used the oil as fuel for lighting and also as a food delicacy. People from the coast carried the oil to the interior where it was much in demand. This is why the trails they followed became known as "Grease Trails".

It was down one of the Grease Trails that the Aboriginal guides led Alexander Mackenzie all the way to the Pacific. On July 22, 1793, they reached the mouth of the Bella Coola River where it empties into the Pacific. This made Mackenzie the first European to cross North America from the East. Strangely enough, he arrived at the ocean by land just a few weeks after Captain Vancouver's men had arrived at exactly the same spot by sea.

Mackenzie paddled to a rock and used a mixture of grease and dye to write: “Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.” Visitors to the place can still read the message scrawled on the rock. Today it is preserved as an historic site.

RIVER TO THE SEA

Other traders followed Mackenzie into the western mountains. In 1805, they established the first trading post west of the Rocky Mountains, at a place called McLeod Lake.

One of the traders, Simon Fraser, led another expedition in search of a route to the Pacific. The route followed by Mackenzie was too difficult. Fraser hoped to find an easier passage.

In 1808, Fraser and his men set off by canoe down the river that now bears his name. Once again they relied on Aboriginal guides to show them the way. It was a terrifying trip through steep canyons and over swirling rapids. He stopped at several villages along the way. At one of these, a place called Kumsheen, the people were so excited to see him that he had to shake hands with every person in the village.

At last Fraser and his group reached the mouth of the river, near a place called Musqueam. But once again the river had proved to be too dangerous for regular use by fur trade canoes. Another trader later said of it, “I consider the passage down the river to be certain death, in nine attempts out of ten.”

The riddle of the rivers was finally solved by a third explorer, David Thompson. In 1811, he traveled down the Columbia River to the ocean. Unlike the other rivers, the Columbia turned out to be safe and convenient. Traders began using it as the main corridor connecting the interior with the coast.

FUR TRADE IN NEW CALEDONIA

When Simon Fraser arrived in northern British Columbia he called the area New Caledonia. The lakes and hills of the interior reminded him of his mother's stories of her home in Scotland, also known as Caledonia. Other traders called this area "the Siberia of the fur trade" because it was so far from home and so cold in the winter.

Fraser and his men were Nor'westers. They belonged to the North West Company, one of the two giant trading companies that controlled the trade. In New Caledonia the Nor'westers had a monopoly. For many years their rivals from the Hudson's Bay Company did not follow them across the mountains.

The Nor'westers built a string of trading posts across the interior of New Caledonia. One of these posts is now the modern city of Prince George. Another, Fort St James, is an historic site where some of the original building still stands.

Most of the men who worked for the North West Company were French-Canadian voyageurs.Or they were Metis, a mix of French and Aboriginal. For this reason the working language of the fur trade in British Columbia at this time was French.

It was difficult and expensive to import food to feed the traders at their isolated posts. They grew a few vegetables, but for the most part they relied for their survival on the Aboriginal people who brought fish, deer meat, berries and other food.

Aboriginal hunters also supplied the furs on which the trade was based. Mostly the traders wanted beaver furs, used to make fancy hats in Europe. But they also took muskrat, marten, fox and bearskins. During the winter the Aboriginal people traveled to their hunting grounds in small family groups. In the spring they brought their furs to the post where they traded for tools, guns, blankets and cloth.

Every summer the voyageurs loaded their canoes with the furs they had traded and began their long trip east. They crossed the Rocky Mountains by one of the high passes and descended to one of the company's trading posts in Alberta. There they dropped off the furs and picked up more trade items to take back with them to New Caledonia. It was the fur trade that first tied British Columbia to the rest of Canada.

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY

In 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company absorbed its longtime rival, the North West Company. As a result of the merger, the Hudson's Bay Company took over all the Nor'west posts in New Caledonia. From 1821 the fur trade belonged solely to the Bay Company.

One of the changes made by the HBC was to set up trading posts closer to the coast. The first of these was Fort Langley, built on the Fraser River in 1827. It was followed by Fort Simpson and Fort McLoughlin in the north.

A FUR TRADE LANGUAGE

When fur traders arrived on the coast they found many different Aboriginal groups speaking many different languages. The traders themselves spoke either French or English. In order for everyone to understand one another, people came up with a new language. It was called Chinook jargon.

Chinook jargon was mix of words—some English, some French, some Aboriginal, some entirely new. Anyone wanting to do business on the coast had to learn it. At one time Chinook jargon was spoken by a quarter of a million people. It died out with the end of the fur trade and now only a few people know it.

In Chinook jargon, tyeemeans chief; tillikum means friend; klahowyah means greetings, or hello; and cheechako means newcomer, or stranger. These are just a few of more than 700 words in this unique language.

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND THE FUR TRADE

Traders and Aboriginal people were partners in the fur business. Each needed the other. Traders supplied the Aboriginal people with goods they could not get elsewhere. Guns, kettles, blankets and needles were just some of the items the Aboriginal people came to value.

For their part, the Aboriginal people supplied the traders with valuable furs. As well, they guided the outsiders on their trips into the wilderness, and they provided food to the posts. The traders would not have been able to survive without the help of the Aboriginal people.

The fur trade did not lead to settlement. It required only a few posts scattered around the territory. The Aboriginal people did not have to fear that the traders were going to take their land.

Still, the fur trade did bring important changes for the Aboriginal people. They came to rely on goods from the outside world, and this gave the traders power over the Aboriginal people. As well, the trade introduced diseases that were common in Europe but unknown in North America. The Aboriginal people had no immunity to measles, smallpox, tuberculosis and whooping cough and they died in great numbers.

The worst epidemic occurred in 1862. In March, a sailor infected with smallpox arrived in Victoria aboard a sailing ship from California. The infection spread to the Aboriginal people who were camped around the outskirts of the fort. When they returned to their villages up the coast, they carried the disease with them. By summer the smallpox was passing up the rivers into the interior. For two years the epidemic raged. When it was over, about one third of all the Aboriginal people in British Columbia had died.

The spread of disease was the worst result of the contact between Europeans and Aboriginal people.

CREATING A COLONY

Even though the border between Oregon and British territory was established in 1846, the British feared that Americans might move north and claim even more territory. They decided the best way to prevent this was to send out British settlers to live on Vancouver Island.

In 1849 the British declared the island to be a British colony. The Hudson's Bay Company received control of all the trade in the area. In return, the British government asked the company to bring out settlers and pay to get them established as farmers. For the time being the mainland was left to the Aboriginal people and the few traders who lived there.

Government of the colony was in the hands of Governor James Douglas and a few officials. The British insisted that an elected government should exist. In 1856, the first elections were held. According to the law at the time, a person needed to own at least eight hectares of land to qualify for the vote.This meant that only 43 colonists could cast a ballot in the election. Seven people were elected, and on August 12, 1856, the first elected government in what would become British Columbia held its first meeting.

Colonists on Vancouver Island grew crops to feed themselves and the fur trade posts. In the north of the island, coal mines produced coal that was sold to the British navy and in San Francisco. There was also some logging and sawmilling. Otherwise, Vancouver Island was a fur-trade outpost at the far edge of the world. One person described it as “a kind of England attached to the continent of North America.” Not many settlers wanted to come to live in such an isolated spot. It was left to the Hudson's Bay Company to rule pretty much as its own private fiefdom.

GOLD RUSH!

In 1858 prospectors arrived in British Columbia to look for gold. The rush of gold seekers lasted for several years. It led to the growth of business, the construction of roads and towns, and the creation of the first government on the mainland.

FROM FURS TO GOLD

The fur trade attracted very few settlers to British Columbia. Traders were interested only in collecting furs, not in starting farms or building towns. Besides, the interior of British Columbia was a sea of mountains. There did not seem to be a lot of good land for growing crops.

It was gold that brought the first flood of newcomers to British Columbia. During the 1850s, First Nations people began bringing pieces of the precious metal to trade. They found nuggets in the gravel banks of rivers flowing through the interior. For several years prospectors had been busy in California where rich finds of gold had been discovered. The California treasure trove was playing out, however, and gold seekers were looking elsewhere for new finds. When word leaked out that gold was present in the rivers of British Columbia, it touched off a stampede of miners.

NEW ARRIVALS

The first group of gold seekers arrived at Fort Victoria by ship from San Francisco in March 1858. These men hit the jackpot when they found a rich deposit of gold in the Fraser River gravel at a place called Hill's Bar not far from Yale. When word of this discovery leaked out, the rush was on. As many as 30,000 newcomers arrived in Victoria in the space of a few months. Most were prospectors who immediately headed for the mainland. Others were business people who hoped to make a profit selling supplies. They purchased land and built stores and warehouses. Tiny Fort Victoria blossomed into an instant city. "Innumerable tents covered the ground as far as the eye could see," reported one observer. "The sound of hammer and axe was heard in every direction."

Prospectors heading for the gold fields had to cross Georgia Strait to the mainland using whatever means possible, whether it was paddlewheel steamboat, canoe, rowboat, or homemade raft. Some drowned in the headlong rush to be first to the gold. One eyewitness described the gold seekers. "Every man had his revolver and many a large knife also, hanging from a leather belt. I should say that the mining costume consists of a red shirt (flannel), blue trousers, boots to the knee and a broad brimmed felt hat, black, grey, or brown, with beard and mustache."

Once they reached the mouth of the river, they traveled upstream about 150 kilometres to the Fraser Canyon above Fort Hope where the water narrowed into a deep gorge. This was where the first gold was found, on the gravel banks and sand bars like Hill's Bar. Camps sprang up beside the river with names like Boston Bar, China Bar, Texas Bar and many others. The sleepy village of Yale became headquarters for the rush where prospectors bought supplies, banked their gold and caroused in the bars and saloons. Gamblers and thieves were as plentiful as miners, and most people slept with a gun under the pillow. In the opinion of one reporter, “a worse set of cut-throats and scoundrels never assembled anywhere.”

The First Nations people who lived in the area were not sure what to make of so many American gold seekers flooding into their land. The Fraser River between its mouth and Fort Yale was the territory of the Sto:lo people. Farther up the river beyond Yale was the territory of the Nlaka'pamux, “the people of the canyon ”. Both groups relied on the plentiful runs of salmon in the river for their livelihood. They were dismayed at the arrival of so many outsiders, who disrupted the fishery and overran their camps. The First Nations also came to believe that they should receive something in return for the gold that was in their territory. They blocked the river and drove the prospectors from their diggings. It was war, and lives were lost on both sides before peace was made.

But nothing could stop the miners, who moved like a rising tide north up the river, seeking gold in all the streams and valleys nearby. Most of all they were looking for the mother lode, the big vein of gold that was the source of all the grains and nuggets they had been collecting from the river. They traveled on the trails shown to them by the First Nations. Eventually they arrived at the Cariboo Mountains east of Quesnel where they made several of the biggest strikes. By the 1860s the Cariboo was the centre of the gold rush.

In the Cariboo, mining changed from the early days on the Fraser. Panning no longer produced most of the gold. Instead the miners began digging into the ground in search of the veins of precious ore that ran through the rock. They had to sink deep shafts and buy heavy equipment. All of this cost a lot of money. It was beyond the means of the lone prospector with not much more than a packsack of food and a pick axe. Gradually large companies bought up the mines, and prospectors became paid employees, labouring for a wage.

BUILDING THE CARIBOO ROAD

A look at the map shows that the Cariboo was a long way from the coast. Steamboats could come up the river as far as Yale, but after that it was untracked wilderness. There were no roads, and the paths used by First Nations people were steep and dangerous. Pack horses fell and broke their legs. The woods were full of bears, and the mosquitoes and black flies drove prospectors crazy. The cost of carrying supplies to the mining camps was very high

Governor James Douglas decided to build a wagon road to the gold fields. Work began at Yale, the southern end of the road, in the spring of 1862. For part of its route the road followed the Fraser River. It had to be carved out of the steep sides of the canyon walls. There was no heavy machinery. The road was built by hard labour, using explosives to blast a passage through the rock, then pick and shovel to remove the debris. Most of the work was done by Royal Engineers, a troop of soldiers sent out from England to enforce the law, survey the town sites, and build roads and bridges.

After three years of construction, the Cariboo Road reached Barkerville. It was 650 km long and cost well over $1 million to build. It greatly reduced the cost of carrying supplies to the gold fields. Travelers rattled along in stage coaches pulled by teams of horses. Every few kilometres there was a hotel, called a roadhouse, providing a meal and a bed to stay overnight.

For fifty years, a familiar sight on the road were the red stage coaches belonging to Frank Barnard's express company, known simply as “The B.X.” Barnard's stages carried mail, freight, passengers and gold, lots of gold, between Yale and Barkerville. He even had his own ranch where he raised the finest horses. In winter, sleighs replaced the stagecoach. The B.X. was considered to be the longest stage line in North America.

BARKERVILLE: CAPITAL OF THE GOLD RUSH

Gold was discovered on the banks of Williams Creek in the heart of the Cariboo Mountains in the summer of 1862. Immediately a town sprang into being. It was called Barkerville after Billy Barker, one of the miners who made the big strike.

Barkerville was a typical gold rush town. The buildings were thrown together from whatever building materials were ready at hand. There were general stores, barber shops, laundries, restaurants, blacksmiths, churches, a newspaper and a sawmill. There were also several dance halls and saloons where the miners came to spend their earnings on liquor and gambling. At one end of town was a Chinatown where the Chinese miners lived. The sidewalks were made of boards, the streets of dirt. Animals wandered among the buildings feeding on garbage.

In a short time Barkerville was the largest community north of San Francisco with a population of 10,000 during the summer mining season. But it was struck by a devastating fire. In less than two hours, most of the town was burned to the ground. One eyewitness said that the fire started when a miner tried to kiss one of the girls in a saloon, fell against a stove and sparks from the chimney set the roof ablaze. The town was rebuilt, but the highpoint of the gold rush had passed. Prospectors began to drift away to look for gold elsewhere. Barkerville became a ghost town.

In 1958 the government of British Columbia rescued Barkerville. Because it had been such an important place during the gold rush, the government decided to make it a living museum. Workers restored many of the decaying old buildings. Today the entire town looks just as it did during the rush. Visitors can chat with actors dressed up as townspeople, stop in at the local saloon, go shopping at the general store, or find out how a mine really worked.

THE OVERLANDERS

Most prospectors who hurried to the gold rush were Americans, but not all. Some made the long trip across the continent from eastern Canada. These trekkers, inspired by the hope of striking it rich in the gold fields, were called Overlanders.

In June, 1862, a group of 150 Overlanders set off from Fort Garry in Manitoba to cross the Plains. Among them was one woman, Catherine Schubert, who was traveling with her husband, Augustus, and three children. She was pregnant with a fourth child, but she refused to be left behind.

The Overlanders traveled by cart, horseback and foot. There were no roads, only dusty trails baked by the sun. Every morning they broke camp before dawn and trekked all day. Catherine carried her two babies in baskets slung over the back of a horse. Supplies had to be ferried across the many rivers on makeshift rafts. When rain came the rivers flooded, turning the prairie into a sea of mud. At the mountains, the travelers struggled up narrow trails and through deep canyons. Their supplies ran out and they had to survive on animals they killed along the way.

At last the Overlanders reached Fort Kamloops. At the First Nations village near the fort, Catherine gave birth to her baby. Then she and Augustus settled at Lillooet where they cleared a farm. While Augustus was away from home looking for gold, Catherine ran the local school and looked after the children. None of the Overlanders ever struck it rich in the gold fields, but many remained in British Columbia where they had successful careers.

CHINESE MINERS

Among the first boatload of prospectors to arrive in Victoria in 1858 were about 30 Chinese from San Francisco. These pioneers were followed by others, until by the height of the rush almost 3,000 Chinese were making a living in British Columbia, a place they called Gold Mountain. Most of them panned for gold in the creeks and riverbeds. They did not have the money necessary to sink the more permanent, underground mines.

Not all the Chinese newcomers were prospectors. Many were merchants who supplied food and supplies to the gold fields. Others ran businesses, such as laundries and restaurants. Still others worked as labourers on the Cariboo Road and other construction projects. In Victoria, Yale, Quesnel and Barkerville, they settled in their own neighbourhoods, called Chinatowns.

The Chinese suffered prejudice at the hands of White pioneers. They received lower pay for their work, and sometimes the other miners tried to keep them away from the diggings by force. But the Chinese miners were hard working. They often found gold where other miners had already given up. In time many earned enough to bring their families to live in British Columbia. These early pioneers formed the beginning of what is today the province's large Chinese community.

CREATION OF A COLONY

When the American miners first arrived, Governor Douglas worried that the gold fields might become part of the United States. To avoid this happening, the British government in 1858 declared the mainland to be a British colony. Douglas was now governor of two colonies—Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

Governor Douglas took steps to create a stable society in British Columbia. He appointed officials to enforce the laws. He built roads to the interior, and established towns. He was assisted by Judge Matthew Begbie, a stern, bearded figure who traveled from mining camp to mining camp making sure that laws were being obeyed and peace was observed. "Boys," he once told a group of miners, "I'm here to keep order and administer the law. Those who don't want law and order can git. For boys, if there is shooting, there will be hanging." They called him "The Hanging Judge", but he was respected for being honest and fair.

The colony attracted mainly men to its mining camps and fur trade posts. There was very little family life because there were so few women. Some of the newcomers took First Nations wives. But church and government leaders wanted to establish a European society in the colony. One answer was to import women from Britain. In 1862, several dozen young women arrived from London aboard two ships, called “brideships”. The plan was that they would work as servants and schoolteachers and eventually marry. Some of these women were widows whose husbands had died and left them in need. Others were working women who sought adventure or opportunity in the new colony. Still others were orphans, or young girls whose parents were too poor to look after them. In the end, most of them did marry and raise families.

The gold rush reached its peak in 1863 when about 10 tonnes of gold came out of the Cariboo creeks. After that the excitement began to cool off. Prospectors slowly began to drift away in search of other strikes, or to take up other professions.

But the gold rush changed British Columbia forever. It brought the first settlers to the mainland and led to the development of many communities. It provided customers for merchants, ranchers and farmers. A transportation network connected the interior to the coast. A legal system, a mail service and a police force were all in place. British Columbia was ready for the next stage in its development.

JOINING CANADA

Faced with a decision, people in British Columbia debated their future. Should they join the United States, or remain a colony of Great Britain? In the end they decided to join the new country of Canada that was taking shape on the other side of the mountains.

UNION OF THE COLONIES

Mainland British Columbia was created as a colony separate from Vancouver Island in 1858. The experiment soon turned out to be a failure. The construction of the Cariboo wagon road and all the other public works that followed the gold rush cost a lot of money. Both colonies were deeply in debt, and they were not attracting enough settlers to raise money from taxes or the sale of land. It seemed a waste to have the double expense of separate governments. In 1866, the colony of Vancouver Island merged with the mainland as a single colony called British Columbia.

As a colony, British Columbia was expected to provide wealth and services to Great Britain, the “Mother Country”. This was the basis of the system of colonies by which the great European powers carved up the globe. Overseas trade produced much wealth for the European economies. British Columbia, for example, produced gold and furs. It also was important for its location on the Pacific Ocean where it was a handy base for Great Britain's naval fleet. The lush forests provided timber to build ships and masts. When coal was discovered on Vancouver Island, mines were developed to provide fuel for the new steam engines that were being installed on British ships. Then, in 1862, the British navy decided to move its headquarters in the Pacific from Chile to Esquimalt, a protected harbour next door to Victoria. Ever since, Esquimalt has been an important naval base.

In return for these benefits, Great Britain paid for the defence of its colony and paid the cost of running the government. But increasingly, colonists in British Columbia grew unhappy with this arrangement. The world was changing around them. The gold was running out. The colony was deep in debt. Jobs were scarce and businesses were going broke. Colonists felt forced to make a decision about their future.

British Columbians felt that they had three options:

1. The colony was squeezed between two American territories: Oregon in the south and in the north, Alaska, purchased by the United States in 1867. Many residents were Americans by birth who had come to BC for the gold rush. The United States had a large, prosperous economy and, by 1862, a railway running right across the continent. Some British Columbians saw many advantages in becoming Americans.

2. Across the Rocky Mountains the new Dominion of Canada, created in 1867 out of four eastern provinces, was spreading across the interior. There was talk of a new railway running all the way to the Pacific. If they could make a good deal, there were advantages to becoming Canadian.

3. A small number of people wanted to leave things the way they were. These people were deeply attached to Great Britain. Many of them were officials in the old government who feared they would lose their positions under a new regime.

CONFEDERATION

The faction in favour of joining Canada was led by the fiery newspaper editor and politician, Amor de Cosmos. In 1868, he and some allies formed the Confederation League to build support for union with Canada. Their movement received a boost by the arrival of a new governor sent by the British to coax British Columbians into Confederation.

It soon became clear that most people favoured union with Canada, but not union at any price. In 1870, three delegates traveled to Ottawa to negotiate the terms under which British Columbia would become a province of Canada. They asked that Canada take over British Columbia's bulging debt and pay the new province an annual sum of money. They wanted a wagon road built across the Prairies to the west coast. And they asked for a more democratic form of government. Much to the surprise of the delegates, the Canadians not only agreed to these terms, they promised to build a railway instead of a wagon road.

Back home, the delegation was applauded for its work. Elections were held to find out how the people felt. The result was a complete victory for the supporters of Confederation, and the Canadian offer was quickly accepted. On July 20, 1871, British Columbia became Canada's sixth province.

DISEASE AND DEFIANCE

At the time of Confederation there were about 25,000 Aboriginal people living in the new province. That was far more than the non-Aboriginal population, but it was far less than the number of Aborginals who had lived there only a few years earlier. What had happened to make the number of BC's first inhabitants fall so rapidly?

In a word, the answer to that question is disease. Aboriginal people in North America had no immunity against many of the common illnesses brought to their land by Europeans. Epidemics of measles and smallpox swept away whole villages. One of the worst of the epidemics occurred in 1862. It began in Victoria where Aboriginal people from all over the coast gathered in the summer to trade and socialize. An American sailor from one of the ships was sick with smallpox and the disease spread to the Aboriginal camps. Once it was known that the camps were infected the townspeople chased away the visitors back to their villages. In this way the disease spread all over the territory, claiming thousands of lives before it finally petered out. It is estimated that this one epidemic killed one third of all the First Nations people living in British Columbia at the time.

The survivors tried to adjust to the arrival of settlers in their lands, but it was difficult. The newcomers had little respect for Aboriginal lifestyles. They did not understand how the people made their living from hunting and fishing. They did not know the deep attachment that Aboriginal people had to the land. Between 1850 and 1854, Governor James Douglas made agreements with several Aboriginal tribes on Vancouver Island. In return for blankets, small reserves and the promise that they could go on hunting and fishing, the tribes gave up their land to the newcomers. But these were the only agreements made in British Columbia for many years. For the most part settlers did not ask permission before taking possession of Aboriginal territory and imposing new forms of law and government.

From time to time Aboriginal people fought back. In 1864, a group of Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) attacked a road crew as it tried to build a road across the Chilcotin plateau in the central interior. It is not known for sure what caused the local people to take up arms. Apparently, members of the building crew were mistreating them. Perhaps, too, the Tsilhqot'in were fighting to protect their land from the intruders. At any rate, a group of soldiers marched to the area, arrested the murderers and, after a trial, hanged them.

On the coast there were similar acts of rebellion against the newcomers. And similarly the authorities responded with cannon and gunboats, forcing the tribes to give up their resistance. One elder spoke for all his people when he said:

AT WAR OVER A PIG

Lyman Cutler was an American farmer who lived on San Juan Island, one of the islands lying between the mainland and the south end of Vancouver Island. One day in June, 1859, a pig wandered onto his land from a neighbouring farm. Perhaps thinking that pork chops would taste pretty good, Cutler shot the pig. And almost started a war.

The dead pig belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, owner of the farm next door. The Company wanted to be paid for its loss and a judge was sent from Victoria. In response, American soldiers arrived to protect the rights of American citizens. Soon British warships were cruising offshore and Britain and the United States stood at the brink of war.

Obviously, the issue was much bigger than just a pig. The dispute was really over who owned San Juan Island. Was it part of British Columbia, or part of the United States? No one knew for sure. The border between the two follows the 49^th parallel of latitude between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. When it reaches the ocean, the border dips south through Georgia Strait and around the bottom of Vancouver Island. But there is a maze of islands lying in the strait, San Juan Island being one of them. No one had ever decided for certain on which side of the border the islands lay.

In the end, war was averted. The island was shared until the true border could be decided. Finally, many years after Lyman Cutler shot his neighbour's pig, the United States took official possession of San Juan Island.

FINDING A ROUTE

British Columbia entered Confederation on the promise that a railway would be built linking the province to central and eastern Canada. But the railway was slow in coming. Politicians in Ottawa complained about the cost and tried to delay it. They called British Columbia "the spoiled child of Confederation" for demanding such an expensive project. This angered people west of the mountains, who began to wonder why they had bothered to join Confederation.

While the politicians argued, work on the railway did go ahead. The first step was to decide what route the track would follow. British Columbia was a sea of mountains from the Rockies to the coast. The only way through were the footpaths used by the Aboriginal people and a few rough wagon roads made by the gold miners. "It is going to cost you money to get through those canyons," one surveyor said. He was right.

Finding a route through the mountains was a job for the surveyors. They were trained engineers, but they were also adventurers. They trekked through parts of the country that no white person had ever seen before, climbing tall mountains and wading across raging streams. One of these surveyors, Walter Moberly, found a pass through the Monashee Mountains. He called it Eagle Pass because he was drawn to it by following the flight of some of these majestic birds. Another surveyor was Major A.B. Rogers. His discovery of a route through the Selkirk Mountains is now called Rogers Pass.

BUILDING THE RAILWAY

Finally, after a decade of bickering, British Columbia got its railway. A new company was formed to build it—the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, the CPR. In BC, construction began on May 15, 1880, at the town of Yale in the canyon of the Fraser River. Yale was as far up the river as steamboats could carry supplies from the coast before the rapids stopped them. From there the old Cariboo Road was used to haul building materials to the construction site.

The person in charge of building the western section of the line was Andrew Onderdonk. He was an engineer from New York. The challenge facing Onderdonk was immense. He had to push a rail line along the steep walls of the Fraser River and through the mountains of the interior. On the flat prairies, rail builders were laying track at a rate of 10 kilometres every day. In the Fraser Canyon, it took 18 months just to blast four tunnels along a 2.5 kilometre stretch.

A century ago there were no machines to build the line; no bulldozers, cranes or trucks. Everything had to be done by workers using pick and shovel and horse-drawn wagon. The route followed the banks of the major rivers, but these banks were steep and rocky. At some places workers were let down on ropes over the side of the canyon to place dynamite charges for blasting. They worked in bare feet to improve their footing. Hundreds of wooden bridges carried the track across the deep gorges. Workers got so fast at building these bridges it was said that trains would run across a bridge in the evening that was made of timbers which had been trees just that morning.

One of the greatest challenges was the Big Hill. This was a very steep incline in the Rocky Mountains near the town of Field. It was almost 13 kilometres long, and was steeper than any other section of railway track in the world. The first train to come down it lost control and plunged into the river at the bottom, killing three people. Four powerful engines were needed to pull a train to the summit. On the downward run, special brakes were used and the trains crept along at slow speed. It was twenty years before the railway reduced the danger by replacing the Big Hill with a series of tunnels through the mountains.

CHINESE WORKERS

Faced with a shortage of workers, Onderdonk imported about 17,000 Chinese labourers to work on the railway. They were paid $1 a day, which was much less than the other workers received. The foremen gave the Chinese the most dangerous job of laying dynamite to blast a path through the rock. About 600 Chinese workers died, crushed in landslides, blown up in explosions, or sick with scurvy in the camps.

Without the Chinese, the railway might not have been built at all. It would have been too expensive. Yet they were considered transients, allowed in the country only to build the railway. When they were no longer needed, they were simply laid off. Once the railway was finished, the government introduced laws making it very difficult for Chinese to enter Canada.

THE LAST SPIKE

While Onderdonk and his workers were building the railway from the coast toward the interior, other crews were building west across the mountains from the plains. The two ends met in the middle of the province at a place called Craigellachie on November 7, 1885. The president of the railway, Donald Smith, came out from Montreal. In front of a small group of dignitaries, he hammered the last spike to complete the job. The dream of a railway running right across the continent from Montreal to Vancouver was now a reality.

The impact of the railway on British Columbia was profound. It was an iron thread attaching the Pacific province to the rest of Canada. All along the route, towns sprang into life. Vancouver, the western terminus of the line, grew into a bustling port city. Wheat from the Prairies was carried out to the coast to be exported by ship around the world. In the other direction, timber from coastal forests was carried to the Prairies to build homes for the new settlers arriving there. The money used to build the railway gave a boost to the local economy. It seemed to British Columbians that they had chosen wisely by choosing to make their future as Canadians.

RESOURCES AND THE ECONOMY

From the earliest days, British Columbians have relied for their livelihood on the resources of the land and sea. This was true of the Aboriginal people, just as it was true of later settlers. Fish, timber and minerals were three of the province's richest resources. They became the foundation of British Columbia's wealth.

HARVEST FROM THE SEA

For hundreds of years, the First People of British Columbia relied on fish for their livelihood. It is no surprise that when the new settlers moved into the province they recognized the value of the fishery, not only for their own use but also as a resource that could be sold to customers around the world.

Before salmon could be shipped to other countries for sale, a way had to be found to keep it fresh. Otherwise, it would rot before it reached market. The Hudson's Bay Company made the first attempt to export fish. The company bought salmon from Aboriginal fishers, then salted it in barrels for shipment to Hawaii.

In the 1870s, canning was introduced. Fish packed in cans could be cooked to last a long time and was easy to handle for export. Many canneries went into operation at the mouth of the Fraser River, then all along the coast to the north. By the 1920s, there were more than 50 canneries operating along the coast of British Columbia.

INSIDE THE CANNERY

Canneries were huge factories where hundreds of people worked. The fish were gutted, cleaned and chopped up at long tables. Using a razor-sharp knife, a skilled butcher could process 2,000 salmon during a 10-hour workday.

Meanwhile, other crews made the cans from sheets of tin. The cans were filled with pieces of fish, soldered shut, then heated in huge pressure cookers to cook the contents. Afterwards, labels were pasted on the cans and they were packed in cases ready for shipping.

Salmon from British Columbia ended up in kitchens around the world as far away as Great Britain and Australia. Sockeye in particular was popular with consumers who loved its rich, red colour and delicious taste.

The fishery was a vast United Nations of people from different backgrounds. Many of the fishers were Japanese or Aboriginal people. Inside the cannery, the workers were mainly Chinese and Aboriginal women. Children also worked in the canneries doing menial jobs.

Canneries were only open during the summer salmon season, from about May to October. At this time Aboriginal people came from all over the coast to settle at the canneries. Families lived in separate cabins or camps, called rancheries. The Chinese lived in their own bunkhouses, known as Chinahouses, where each worker had a small cubicle with a bed and a table. When the canning season ended, Aboriginal workers returned to their villages, while the Chinese found other kinds of work as farm labourers, mill hands, miners or storekeepers.

FISHING FOR A LIVING

Each cannery was supplied with fish by its own fleet of fish boats. These boats dropped their nets at the mouths of the rivers to catch the salmon as they passed in the millions upriver to spawn. During the day, scows came from the canneries to collect the fish that had been caught. The earliest fishers used sails and oars, so they could not venture far from the cannery. With the addition of gasoline motors, boats were able to go farther offshore.

Fishers used three different techniques for making their catch. Some boats used gill nets. These are mesh nets with weights at the bottom and cork floats along the top so that they hang in the water like a wall. Fish swimming into the net get their gills entangled in the mesh and cannot escape. In the early days nets were hauled back into the boat by hand, a backbreaking job.

Other boats were seiners. They used larger nets that were played out behind the boat in a circle. When the circle was closed, the bottom of the net was tightened to form a bag, or purse. Any fish caught within the circle could not escape.

The third method was called trolling. Instead of nets, trollers used a series of lines, each set with several baited hooks. Boats dragged several lines at once slowly through the water, waiting for the fish to strike.

Today, gillnetting, seining and trolling are still the three main techniques used by fishers on the Pacific coast.

ANOTHER RAILWAY TO THE SEA

In April 1912, one of the worst shipping disasters in history took place in the North Atlantic Ocean. The giant liner Titanic, on its first voyage out of England on the way to New York, struck an iceberg. The Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable, but the berg smashed a hole in its steel hull and the vessel sank. There were not enough lifeboats to hold all of the 2,200 people on board. More than 1,500 passengers drowned.

One of the victims of the Titanic disaster was Charles Hays, a railway executive in Canada. Hays was president of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway (GTPR), a company that was building a second rail line across Canada to the Pacific. The GTPR crossed the Great Plains in the north and took the Yellowhead Pass through the Rocky Mountains into BC. Then it wound across the centre of the province and down the valley of the Skeena River until it arrived at the brand new city of Prince Rupert on the coast.

Hays had great plans for Prince Rupert. He foresaw the day when it would become a major seaport with ships arriving from around the world. Some say Hays' dreams went down with him on the Titanic. Prince Rupert did not develop the way he had hoped. The GTPR, completed in 1914, soon went bankrupt and had to be rescued by the government. However, the rail line did provide access to and from the north-central part of the province. And many interior communities owe their origins to the coming of the Grand Trunk Pacific.

DISAPPEARING FISH

In the early years, there were so many salmon that it seemed as if they would last forever. Nobody gave any thought to preserving their numbers. Vast quantities were wasted every year. But still the fish returned to the rivers.

Then, disaster struck. Up the Fraser River there is a narrow gorge known as Hell's Gate. Here the fish fought their way up the rapids to reach their spawning grounds in the interior. In 1913, railway builders were laying track beside the river through Hell's Gate. Blasting caused rock slides into the river, making it impossible for the fish to pass. Millions of fish died, unable to spawn. It was 30 years before the damage was repaired. Even then the Fraser never again produced as many salmon as it did before the slides.

The fishers and the cannery owners soon realized that steps had to be taken to slow down the slaughter. They wanted to keep on profiting from the fishery. Many jobs relied on the canneries. However, they also realized that if the salmon disappeared, there would be no industry at all. The history of the salmon fishery ever since has been an attempt to balance the needs of the industry with the long-term survival of the fish.

TALL TIMBER

Another important resource from British Columbia was wood. Most of the province was cloaked in thick forests of tall timber. Visitors were over-awed by the size of the trees. “We are pygmies among the giant pines and cedars of this country,” wrote the explorer David Thompson.

Aboriginal people made the tall trees into totem poles, canoes and planks for their cedar houses. Later, the British navy used them for masts for their sailing vessels. Then, as settlers moved into the province in greater numbers, the demand for lumber increased. Everything was made of wood in those days: houses, ships, buildings of all types, even sidewalks.

WORKING IN THE WOODS

Logging began first along the coast where timber grew especially tall. Loggers felled the trees on the steep slopes, then rolled them down into the water. They were called handloggers because they had no machinery; everything was done by muscle power. Where land was flat, logs were hauled to the water by teams of horses or oxen. Floating logs were joined together in large rafts, called booms, and towed down the coast to the nearest sawmill for cutting into lumber.

The arrival of the railway made a big difference to the loggers. Track was laid into the woods and special logging railways carried logs to the water, or directly to the mills. Railways also opened up the interior so that logging spread throughout the province.

One important market for British Columbia wood was the Canadian Prairies. After 1900, hundreds of thousands of new immigrants arrived in the Prairie West to homestead farms. The railway connected the Pacific Coast across the mountains to this expanding region where there was a huge demand for lumber.

UNION STEAMERS

Along the coast of British Columbia, people lived at canneries and in small fishing and logging camps. There were no roads. Coast dwellers relied on boats to bring in their supplies and keep them in touch with the outside world.

These boats belonged to the fleet of the Union Steamship Company. The company was created in Vancouver in 1889. Before long its fleet of steamers were cruising the coast all the way north as far as Prince Rupert.

Boat day, the day the Union steamer arrived, was an exciting time for the people who inhabited these isolated communities. “Old and young live, wait and listen for that ship's shrill whistle,” wrote one pioneer. “It means our food supplies, mail, familiar faces returning home. On boat days our children are restless at school, coaxing their teacher to let them go down to the wharf to watch the ship come sliding in.”

Union steamers operated on the coast until the 1950s. By then most of the logging camps and fish canneries had closed and the steamers were replaced by more modern car ferries.

COAL WAS KING

British Columbia's third important resource industry was mining. Gold was the most important mineral in the early days. It was gold, after all, that led to the creation of British Columbia. But most of the gold soon disappeared, and coal became the most important mineral in the province.

Coal was like black gold. It was extremely valuable as a fuel to drive the steam machinery of the industrial age, whether it was the blast furnaces in the factories or the steam engines on the transcontinental railways. One steady customer for British Columbia coal was the British navy who used it to fuel their warships patrolling the Pacific.

Nanaimo on Vancouver Island became the centre of coal mining. The town itself sat on a giant coal field and mine shafts formed a network of underground passages beneath the ground. Some tunnels even ran out under the harbour.

TROUBLE UNDERGROUND

Coal mining was very dangerous work. It was not unusual for the walls of the tunnels to collapse, trapping the miners underground or burying them alive. Poisonous gases built up in the mines and a stray spark could ignite them in deadly explosions. On one occasion in 1887, an explosion in a Nanaimo mine killed 148 miners. Owners, anxious to make profits, did not always take the safety precautions they should.

Workers wanting higher wages and safer working conditions formed unions and went on strike. The longest conflict began in 1912 when Vancouver Island miners walked away from the mines and did not return to work for two years. Mine owners evicted the strikers from their homes and brought in replacement workers to keep the mines open. The government sent in soldiers to prevent violence. It was one of the worst periods of labour unrest in British Columbia history.

THE KOOTENAY MINING BOOM

Coal was not the only mineral mined in British Columbia. Starting in the 1880s, prospectors discovered a series of rich deposits in the southeast corner of the province in an area known as the Kootenays.

The Kootenays was a region of high mountains, beautiful lakes and narrow river valleys. It was far from the main cities and difficult to reach. But once rail lines were built and paddlewheel steamboats cruised the lakes, it became possible to start mining the plentiful supplies of silver, lead, copper and zinc.

Some of the richest mines in the world were in the Kootenays. The Sullivan mine at Kimberley was the largest lead-zinc mine in the world. It is still in operation. Silver was discovered at the Silver King mine near the city of Nelson, and gold at the LeRoi mine at Rossland. More than half of all the copper produced in Canada came from British Columbia. At Trail, the mine owners opened a huge smelter to separate the precious metals from the ore in which they were found. A whole new area of British Columbia was suddenly alive with activity.

A NEW ECONOMY

Railways opened up the interior of British Columbia and connected the province to markets in the rest of the continent. Trains carried timber, minerals and fish across the Rockies, and returned with grain and other products. Railways spread into isolated parts of the province, making possible new mining and logging ventures.

Once British Columbia had relied for its prosperity on a single product: first it was fur, then gold. Now a variety of different industries developed. Salmon canneries opened on the coast. Logging camps and sawmills spread through the forests. New mines produced coal and other minerals.

Between 1881 and 1921, the population of British Columbia increased by over ten times. Most of these newcomers got jobs in the new mines, mills, farms and logging camps. The province was no longer a pioneer outpost. It had entered the modern industrial era.

THE GROWTH OF THE LOWER MAINLAND

British Columbia is a huge province, but most of its population lives in one small area. This area, where the Fraser River empties into the Pacific Ocean, is known as the Lower Mainland. It also includes the south end of Vancouver Island, where Victoria grew from a fur-trade post to a modern city. This corner of British Columbia is where most newcomers to the province came to live and where most of the economic activity was located.

BOOM TIME

At the beginning of the twentieth century, British Columbia enjoyed a period of rapid expansion. Newcomers poured into the province. Between 1881 and 1911, the population increased from 50,000 to 392,000 people.

Most of the newcomers settled in British Columbia's three main cities: New Westminster, Victoria and Vancouver. By the turn of the century, these were all growing communities with the latest modern conveniences: electric streetcars, electric lights, telephones and fresh drinking water.

THE ROYAL CITY

British Columbia's first city was New Westminster. It was founded in 1859 to be the capital. It is the oldest Canadian city west of Ontario. Originally it was called Queensborough, after England's Queen Victoria, but the Queen herself preferred New Westminster so that was the name that was used. As a result, New Westminster has always been known as “the Royal City”.

New Westminster is located on a hill overlooking the Fraser River not far from its mouth. It used to be the site of an ancient Aboriginal village. The capital of the province moved to Victoria in 1868, but New Westminster continued to grow as an economic centre. Steamboats traveling on the river stopped there. The salmon canning industry flourished nearby. Several sawmills were built to make lumber out of logs from the surrounding forest.

East of New Westminster lay the fertile valley of the Fraser River. As this land filled with settlers growing vegetables and fruit and raising dairy herds, the city became the main market where the farmers brought their produce for sale.

A century ago, cities were mostly wood. The buildings were made of lumber, and even the sidewalks were plank. Fire was a constant threat. On the night of September 10, 1898, fire started in a steamboat moored on the waterfront. Flames spread from the boat to a pile of hay stored on the dock. From there the fire swept through the centre of the city, destroying all the buildings in its path. By morning, most of downtown New Westminster lay in ashes.

But fire could not destroy the spirit of the residents. Immediately they began rebuilding. Donations came from across Canada. Within a year most of downtown New Westminster was rebuilt and the Royal City was back in business.

ELECTRIC STREETCARS

For many years, travel around the Lower Mainland was by horseback or wagon on dirt roads littered with stumps and boulders. In rainy season, the roads turned to impassable mud.

In 1891, an electric railway opened between New Westminster and Vancouver. It was called an interurban railway because it operated between two urban communities. At the time, it was the only interurban in North America. Interurbans ran on steel tracks, just like a steam railway, but they were powered by electricity passing through overhead wires. Each train connected to the wires by trolley poles.

The Westminster and Vancouver Tramway was just the beginning. Soon there were electric trains running between Vancouver and Richmond, and in 1910 a line opened to connect New Westminster out the Fraser Valley 100 kilometres to the town of Chilliwack. Farmers used the line to carry their produce to the larger centres. Special trains raced in daily from Valley farms carrying milk for urban households.

Meanwhile, electric streetcars were also put into operation in the major cities. Victoria was first. In February 1890, Car #1, loaded with dignitaries, rattled down Store Street. It was the official opening of the third street railway in Canada, the first in British Columbia. Four months later, Vancouver opened its street railway, followed by New Westminster the next year.

Street railways had an important effect on the shape of the modern city. They were the first means of moving large numbers of people quickly and cheaply. People no longer had to live close to where they worked. They could live at a distance from their jobs and commute to work by streetcar. Wealthier residents left the inner city altogether, moving to suburbs away from the hustle and bustle of downtown.

CAPITAL CITY

Victoria has always had a reputation as a British city. Many fur traders from the Hudson's Bay Company retired to farm there. In the days of the colony, most government officials came out from England and many stayed on with their families. Their palatial homes were the centre of fashionable society.

Another British influence was the naval base at Esquimalt, next door to Victoria. For many years it was the headquarters of the British navy in the Pacific Ocean. Warships visited the harbour to take on supplies and allow the sailors some time on shore. In 1910, the Canadian navy took over the base and today Esquimalt remains a naval centre.

The arrival of the railway in Vancouver in 1886 attracted industry to the mainland city. As a result, Victoria took second place as an economic centre. But it held centre stage as the capital of the province. In 1898, the new Parliament Buildings opened. They featured marble walls, stained-glass windows, mahogany carvings, and on the top, a golden statue of Captain George Vancouver. Today the buildings remain the place where the government meets.

ASIAN NEWCOMERS

Among the newcomers pouring into British Columbia were thousands of Chinese people. They came to work on railway construction, in the salmon canneries and coal mines, and as merchants and farmers.

For the most part the Chinese newcomers lived together in their own neighbourhoods, called Chinatowns. They wanted to be in familiar surroundings, close to relatives. Victoria had the first Chinatown in Canada, and until 1910 it was the largest. Vancouver also attracted many Chinese. Its Chinatown surpassed Victoria's as the largest in Canada and one of the largest in North America.

The Chinese were not the only newcomers from Asia. Immigrants from Japan and India also settled in their own areas of the city.

By 1911, people from east Asia made up eight percent of the population of British Columbia. This was not a large number, but it was enough to raise fears among the white majority. White British Columbians believed that people from Asia, because of their different customs and languages, would not mix with the rest of society. Workers were afraid that the newcomers would take their jobs. Some white people believed that if Asian immigration continued, the newcomers would soon control British Columbia society.

In response to these fears, the government made laws to restrict immigration to British Columbia from Asia. In 1885, a new tax was introduced requiring Chinese to pay $50 each to enter Canada. This was the so-called “head tax”, and over the years it rose to $500. No other immigrant group had to pay such a tax. Then, in 1923, the government halted all immigration from China. Similar restrictions were put in place against newcomers from India and Japan. At the same time people of Asian background were not allowed to vote or to hold certain jobs.

The restrictions against Asians remained in force until 1947.

PACIFIC PORT

Few cities have appeared as suddenly as Vancouver. In 1881, a few dozen loggers and sawmill workers lived along the shore of Burrard Inlet. Then the railway arrived, followed by merchants and builders of all descriptions. By 1900, the population numbered 27,000 and was growing fast. Where a lonely forest once stood, there were solid stone buildings, paved streets, and houses spreading in all directions. “Chop, chop, chop. The forest vanished, and up went the city,” wrote novelist Ethel Wilson.

Vancouver faced in two directions at once. It looked outward across the Pacific to the Orient and Australia where there was a ready market for its products. Vancouver was a busy port, welcoming ships from around the world. The Canadian Pacific Railway operated a fleet of ocean-going steamships. These vessels, called the Empress ships, set a new standard of speed and elegance. They steamed between Vancouver and the Orient, carrying passengers, mail and cargo of all types. Vancouver's harbour shipped lumber, salmon, coal, and other minerals to many countries.

At the same time, Vancouver looked to the interior. The CPR, and the other railways that followed, connected the port city to the rest of the continent. Goods came by ship to be loaded onto the trains that carried them across the mountains to the Prairies and beyond.

One especially exotic product was silk. It was imported on the Empress ships from the Orient, then loaded on trains for shipment to eastern Canada and the United States. Raw silk spoils very quickly. Speed was crucial. When a train carrying silk was passing, all other traffic on the railway stopped.

Vancouver was more than a port city. It was also the centre of the province's industrial activity. The large salmon canning companies had head offices there. The lumber industry provided more jobs than any other industry. By 1915, three railway lines from across the continent entered the city. Three quarters of all the goods manufactured in British Columbia were made in Vancouver.

Automobiles began appearing on Vancouver streets as early as 1904. The first gasoline car was purchased by John Hendry, a sawmill owner. They rumbled through the streets at 10 kilometres an hour, coughing smoke and frightening the horses. For some years, only the wealthy could afford one. By the 1920s there were enough motorcars so that the city's first traffic light had to be installed.

WORLD WAR

World War One began in 1914 and lasted four years. The fighting occurred far from Canada in Europe, where the armies of Britain, France and Russia struggled against the German and Austrian empires. Many Canadians felt strong ties to Britain and volunteered in large numbers to join the conflict.

At first the war seemed like a big adventure. Young soldiers hurried to sign up because they feared it would all be over before they could see any action. Only slowly did the true horror of the conflict sink in. Far from ending quickly, the war dragged on year after year. Millions of lives were lost, and millions more soldiers were badly maimed.

After three years of war, Canada was running short of volunteers willing to fight. In 1917, the government passed a law forcing young men who were not married into the army. This was called conscription, and it was unpopular with many people who for one reason or another opposed the war. One person who refused to fight was Ginger Goodwin. Goodwin was a radical labour leader whom the government wanted to see shipped overseas to the battle front. Instead, he hid in the woods near his home on Vancouver Island. A party of police went looking for him and shot him dead. The police said it was self defence, but to Goodwin's friends, it was murder. A jury set free the officer who pulled the trigger. Meanwhile, workers staged a huge anti-war protest in Vancouver.

British Columbia was divided by the impact of war. In some ways the province prospered. Shipyards hummed with activity, as many vessels were needed for the war effort. The conflict created a huge demand for raw materials produced in British Columbia: copper, lumber, coal and wood.

But the cost in human lives was high. British Columbia had more volunteers per capita than any other province in Canada. By war's end, 6,225 British Columbians were dead, and more than 13,000 more suffered horrible wounds.

WOMEN AND THE WAR

The outbreak of World War One opened new opportunities for Canadian women. With so many men away in the armed forces, women were called upon to take their place in the work force.

Up to this time, most women had worked in the home, raising children and looking after the household chores. Women with jobs had worked as schoolteachers, nurses or at one of a few other traditional jobs. Most of the work world was closed to them.

This changed with the war, and the urgent need for workers in the factories and war industries. Women became airplane mechanics and munitions makers. They took jobs in business offices. Some went overseas to serve in the front lines in the medical corps or as ambulance drivers.

Their new importance in the work world gave women new influence in the political world as well. Until the war, only men were allowed to vote in elections. That changed in 1917 when British Columbia women received the right to vote in provincial election. The next year the same right was extended to federal elections.

Changes to the law meant that women could run for elected office. In 1918, Mary Ellen Smith of Vancouver became the first woman anywhere in Canada elected to a provincial parliament. A few years later she became a cabinet minister in the government, another first.

Of course, this right was not won by all women. First Nations women and women of Asian background were still denied the vote, along with their men folk.

KILLER EPIDEMIC

With the end of war came a new killer. An outbreak of deadly influenza began in Europe and spread to Canada with returning soldiers. Before it was over, the flu killed 21 million people worldwide, 50,000 in Canada.

The first cases appeared in British Columbia in October, 1918. People easily caught it from each other, so health officials asked everyone to avoid public places where they might be infected. Schools, shops, churches and theatres all closed. All public meetings were banned. Hospitals filled to overflowing. People wore masks over their faces to keep from spreading germs. Doctors were powerless. There was no drug or vaccine; patients could only stay in bed hoping to get better.

By the time the epidemic faded away in the spring of 1919, about one out of every three people had been sick. In Vancouver alone, 900 people died. It was the worst public health disaster since the smallpox epidemic many years earlier.

THE NEW CITY

Industry and immigration together created a new kind of city. New Westminster, Vancouver and Victoria were very unlike the small farming and trading communities of British Columbia's early years. They were bigger, noisier, richer and more varied.

The new city was divided into neighbourhoods of rich and poor. Immigrants from China, Japan and India lived in their own sections. For some, the city presented great opportunities. For others, it brought poverty and injustice.

One of the biggest changes was the rapid growth of the Lower Mainland. When British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, not many people lived in that part of the province. Then, with the arrival of the railway, the Lower Mainland boomed. By the 1920s, Vancouver and its surrounding area was home to about half of all the people who lived in British Columbia, and its industries were producing most of the wealth.

PROTEST AND WAR

Hard times came to British Columbia during the 1930s. The Great Depression brought unemployment, poverty and business collapse. It was not until the outbreak of the Second World War that the economy improved. Then war brought suffering of a different kind.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

For most British Columbians, the 1920s was a prosperous decade. Jobs were plentiful, industry thrived and the province grew rapidly.

The good times came to an end, however, with an abrupt crash. In October 1929, the stock exchange in New York City collapsed with echoes heard around the world. Businesses went bankrupt. People lost their life savings. At the same time, the prices of natural resources—lumber, minerals, and grain—began to fall. Canada, and particularly British Columbia, could not rely on the sale of its resources to support the economy.

Factories, mines and logging camps closed and workers lost their jobs. By 1933, almost one out of every three workers in Canada was unemployed. Those lucky enough to remain at work earned less money. Poverty and hardship was widespread. It was a time known as the Great Depression.

LIVING IN THE JUNGLE

When they were unable to find jobs where they lived, many young men and women left home to seek work elsewhere. Without any money, they could not afford to pay for train tickets, food or hotel rooms. Instead they sneaked aboard freight trains and rode for free. This was called “riding the rails”.

When they came to a town, they begged for food going door to door. They slept outside in camps of unemployed people known as “jungles”. “In every town there was a 'jungle' where no one bothered you,” recalled one man who lived this life for several years. “This is where I cooked my meals over a jungle fire and had a short nap while waiting for the next freight train out.”

The wandering jobless tended to gather in cities, where they hoped work might be available. The police worried that so many strangers might cause trouble. City officials did not want to pay for taking care of them. As a result, the jobless were often hassled and hurried on their way.

ON THE RELIEF

With so much unemployment, the government had to do something. Public assistance was a new idea in Canada in the 1930s. Unlike today, there was no social welfare, no employment insurance, nothing at all to help people who were down on their luck and had spent all their savings.

Faced with a crisis, government began a system of relief. When people became penniless, they could apply to their local government for assistance. It did not amount to much, but for thousands of families it was better than nothing. In 1933, at the peak of the Depression, about 15 percent of the entire population of Canada was getting relief.

Another response by the government was to set up work camps for single men. They were located away from the cities. The men who stayed there received meals, a bed and 20 cents a day in return for working on road building and logging projects. There were more than 200 camps across British Columbia. No one was forced to go to them, but for many men it was their only way to feed and house themselves.

RUM RUNNING

One job that was always available for the adventurous was rum running. Between 1920 and 1933, it was illegal to sell or produce liquor in the United States. This period was called Prohibition. Americans who wanted a drink of liquor had to smuggle it into the country from outside—which is where the rum runners came in.

Rum runners were smugglers from British Columbia who carried liquor down the coast into the United States. In the dead of night they raced their speedy boats across Juan de Fuca Strait to hidden harbours in Washington State. There the cargo was picked up by trucks and carried to customers in the city. Sometimes large freighters loaded with cases of liquor anchored far offshore where the American Coast Guard could not seize them. Smaller boats rushed back and forth between the freighters on “Rum Row” and the shore, delivering their illegal freight.

The liquor traffic produced large profits and soon attracted big-time criminals. Rum runners fought with one another for control of the business. The Coast Guard did its best to chase down the boats and arrest the smugglers. It was a bit like the Wild West at sea, and rum runners had to be people who liked danger and adventure.

When finally the American government ended Prohibition in 1933, there was no longer a need for smuggling and the rum-running era ended.

PROTEST

As the Depression grew worse, the unemployed began to grow angry. They demanded answers to their problems. They resented being cooped up in relief camps which they said were no better than jails. They did not like being treated like criminals when their only “crime” was being jobless.

In April 1935, an army of unemployed left the interior camps and marched down to Vancouver. They demanded “work and wages”. From Vancouver the protestors set out riding the rails across Canada. They planned to carry their demands to the prime minister in Ottawa, and so the protest was called the On-To-Ottawa Trek.

As the train rolled through British Columbia and the Prairies, it picked up more protestors along the way. In Regina, the capital city of Saskatchewan, things came to a head. Police ordered the train to halt, while a small delegation of protestors went ahead to Ottawa to talk with Prime Minister R.B. Bennett. Bennett was not sympathetic. He sent the delegation away empty-handed.

Back in Regina, the protest turned violent. At a huge outdoor rally, police charged the crowd, swinging clubs and making arrests. One police officer was killed; many protestors were injured. The so-called Regina Riot marked the end of the On-To-Ottawa protest.

BLOODY SUNDAY

There was no end in sight for the Depression. Back in Vancouver, unrest continued. In April 1938, the government closed its work camps. Men who were unemployed and not married could not receive relief. The government did offer to pay for these men to travel to other provinces to look for work. But there was no work, so protestors gathered in Vancouver instead.

On May 20, about 1,200 men entered the city post office, the art gallery and a downtown hotel. They sat down on the floor and refused to move until the government did something. Such a large number of people could not be arrested. It would fill the jails to overflowing. Instead, officials decided to wait and see what happened.

At last the police lost patience. Early on the morning of June 19, RCMP and city police moved in to evict the sit-downers. Some left peacefully, having made their point. At the post office, however, police used tear gas and clubs to drive protestors into the street. Hundreds were injured. Furious at the police, a crowd marched through downtown streets breaking store windows.

Bloody Sunday, as it was called, ended with thousands of dollars damage, hundreds of people injured, and 22 protestors in jail. A huge outdoor rally condemned police violence. “We want something done for these people,” one speaker declared, referring to the unemployed. The government responded with emergency relief and tempers cooled.

FISHING STRIKE

Not all protest during the Depression was violent. Many workers staged peaceful strikes to try to improve their wages and working conditions. One of the most important strikes in British Columbia during the 1930s was the fishing strike of 1938.

Fishers sold their catch each summer to the canneries that were located all along the coast. The owners of the canneries were used to paying whatever they decided for the fish. In 1938, the owners suddenly reduced the price of salmon. This time, the fishers did not accept. Instead, they tied up their boats and refused to produce any fish.

It was a bitter strike. In many small fishing communities, the only store was owned by the canning company and these were closed to strikers. Owners brought in other fishers to try to keep a supply of fish coming into the canneries. At the height of the strike, dozens of boats got together and traveled down the coast to Vancouver where they entered the harbour in two long lines. This defiant action carried the protest right to the heart of British Columbia's largest city.

As more and more fishers joined the strike and tied up their boats, the canners had to give in. An agreement was reached that gave fishers a better price for their salmon. It was the first time that fishers on the Pacific Coast had acted together to challenge the power of the owners.

A NEW PARTY

During the Depression, people all across the country decided that the political system needed a change. Some of these people took part in protests like the one in Vancouver. Others decided to form new political parties.

In 1933, a group of workers, farmers and reformers got together at Regina, Saskatchewan, to create a new party. They called themselves the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, or CCF for short.

The CCF wanted a much larger role for government in the lives of Canadians. It blamed banks and large corporations for the Depression. CCFers wanted to make sure that all Canadians, rich and poor alike, had jobs, education and health care.

The CCF had a lot of support in British Columbia. It became the second most popular party with voters. In 1961, the CCF changed its name to the New Democratic Party (NDP). It is still active in politics today.

CREATING THE WELFARE STATE

Eventually the worst of the economic crisis passed. But no one who lived through the Depression would ever forget the hard times. Canadians were determined that never again should so many people suffer so much hardship.

The Depression changed many peoples' minds about the role of government in society. It showed that many people could lose their livelihood through no fault of their own. Canadians came to accept that government had a role to play helping people when times were bad.

In the years that followed, a number of government programs were created to help the poor, the sick and the jobless. Taken together, these programs are what is known as the welfare state. They include health care insurance, pension plans and schemes to help the unemployed. The welfare state tried to create a safety net so that no one could lose everything they had because of sickness or job loss.

WORLD WAR, AGAIN

In 1939, World War Two broke out. Once again, the battleground was Europe, where Germany and Italy, known as the Axis, fought against Great Britain, France and their allies. And once again, Canadians volunteered by the thousand to fight for the Allies.

War went a long way towards solving the country's economic problems. The number of people who were unemployed fell as men and women hurried to join the armed forces. The demand for war goods increased. Industries geared up to produce ships, airplanes, munitions, building materials and many other items.

Women were called on to step into the jobs left by their brothers and husbands who had gone to war. Women went to work in war industries, on the farm and on construction projects. In peacetime, this kind of work was considered unsuitable for women. During wartime, they kept the economy going.

More than that, women were accepted into the Canadian armed forces for the first time. The army created the Canadian Women's Army Corps, followed by the navy and air force. By 1945, more than 43,000 Canadian women were in uniform.

THE HOMEFRONT

The war caused shortages in the everyday life of Canadians. Products such as rubber, gasoline, iron, and many food items were in demand for the war effort. Back at home, consumers had to go without.

In 1941 rationing became a fact of life for Canadians. Every person was given a ration book. It contained a number of coupons that could be used to obtain things like coffee, milk, sugar, butter and so on. Gasoline, which was so vital for the war, was also rationed, along with rubber tires. Many people just stopped driving for as long as the war continued.

No one was allowed to waste anything. People tried to grow as much of their own food as they could. Children went door-to-door collecting scrap metal that might be used for making military equipment. The war was an all-out effort.

WAR IN THE NORTH

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on an American naval base in Hawaii called Pearl Harbour. Canada, along with the United States, immediately declared war on Japan. It was truly a world war now.

The Americans worried that Japan might invade North America through Alaska. In order to get troops and supplies to the North, the Americans decided to build a highway across the top of British Columbia.

The Alaska Highway, as it came to be called, ran from Dawson Creek to Watson Lake in the Yukon. It was built very quickly by thousands of American soldiers. After the war it was taken over by Canada. Today the Alaska Highway is still an important route through northern British Columbia.

THE GUMBOOT NAVY

When World War Two began, Canada's navy was centred on the Atlantic Coast. The coast of British Columbia was defenceless against attack or invasion. What the coast did have was a lot of fishers, and no one knew the area better. The government decided to transform the fishing fleet into a navy.

Officially they were the Fishermen's Reserve, but everyone knew them as The Gumboot Navy. In total, there were 42 fish boats and 975 fishers. They were given guns and sent out in all kinds of weather to look for enemy submarines.

After the attack on Pearl Harbour, people in British Columbia had a real fear of an invasion by Japan. While the invasion never came, the Gumboot Navy took seriously its role as the first line of defence. By 1944, as the threat of invasion eased, the force disbanded and the crews went back to fishing.

TREATMENT OF THE JAPANESE

Japanese people were never completely welcome in British Columbia. Strict limits were set on the number who were allowed to enter from Japan. Like other Asian newcomers, and the Aboriginal people, they were not allowed to vote, or to hold certain jobs.

When war began, this suspicion deepened. Many British Columbians wondered how Japanese Canadians would behave now that Canada was at war with Japan. There was a great fear on the Coast that Japanese war ships might invade across the Pacific. If that happened, would the Japanese living in British Columbia be loyal to their new home, or their old?

At the outbreak of war there were about 23,000 people of Japanese background living in British Columbia. Most of these people were citizens of Canada. Many had been born in British Columbia. They considered Canada to be their home. So they were shocked early in 1942 when the government announced that all people of Japanese background living along the coast of British Columbia had to move away.

Over the next few months, about 20,000 people were forced from their homes. They were loaded on trains and sent to live in camps in the interior of the province. Some were sent to the Prairies and Ontario. They were treated like prisoners and not allowed to move around without written permission. Once they were gone, the government sold all their possessions.

As it turned out, Japan did not invade. After the war, Japanese Canadians were allowed to return to the Pacific Coast. Prejudice against them slowly weakened. In 1949 they received the right to vote, like every other citizen.

Finally, in 1988, the federal government admitted that the treatment of Japanese Canadians during World War Two was unjust. It apologized and agreed to pay compensation to every person who had to move during the war. It also set up a fund to support the Japanese-Canadian community.

THE WAR IS OVER

On August 14, 1945, Canadians celebrated V-J Day, Victory Over Japan Day. In every city and town across the country, people poured into the streets, honked their car horns and threw paper streamers into the air. After six long years, it was the end of World War Two, and the beginning of peace.

The previous fifteen years had been hard ones. First there was the economic crisis of the Great Depression when so many people went jobless, losing their homes and life savings. The Depression was followed by war, when everything had to be sacrificed to ensure victory.

As they celebrated a return to peace, British Columbians hoped for a return to prosperity as well. After so much turmoil and suffering, they just wanted life to be normal again.

BOOM TIMES

With the end of the Second World War, British Columbia entered a period of economic expansion. A new railway reached into the North. New mines, highways, dams and mills were built. At the same time, many of the barriers that once divided different groups began to come down. First Nations people and newcomers from Asia and other parts of the world took a greater role in society.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

At the end of the Second World War, British Columbians decided it was time for a change. During the war, the two major political parties — the Liberals and the Conservatives — had formed a coalition. Together they had run the government for many years. With the emergency of war over, the partnership began to come apart. A new force emerged on the political scene.

SOCIAL CREDIT

The new force was called Social Credit. It was a new political party, formed early in the 1950s. Its leader was W.A.C. Bennett, a hardware store owner from Kelowna. In the 1952 election, Social Credit won one more seat than the CCF and formed a new government. W.A.C. Bennett became premier, a job he held for the next 20 years, longer than anyone else in BC history.

Bennett was a born salesperson. He was full of energy and loved to give long speeches. More than that, he liked to get things done. His rivals called him “Wacky”, but “Wily” would have been a better nickname. He was a clever politician who seemed to understand exactly what the voters wanted.

Bennett's government embarked on a massive building program. New highways spread through the interior. New bridges spanned the rivers. Social Credit opened universities in Burnaby and Victoria, built a railway to the north, and created a fleet of coastal ferries. At times it seemed as if the whole province was under construction.

DAM BUILDER

Premier Bennett needed a way to pay for all this development. He believed he found the way with the construction of large hydroelectric dams. Hydroelectricity is electricity produced by water. A dam blocks the flow of water in a river to create a large lake, or reservoir. As the water flows out of the reservoir, it is transformed into electrical energy by a giant machine called a turbine. The electricity that is produced is used in homes and as a fuel for industry.

In 1961, Bennett took over a private electrical company and created BC Hydro, a government agency. BC Hydro went to work building huge dams on the Columbia River in the south and the Peace River in the North. Vast areas of land were flooded to create reservoirs behind the dams. One of the dams, named for Premier Bennett, created Williston Lake, the largest lake in BC. The underground powerhouse was the largest in the world when it opened in 1968. Another, the Mica Dam, stands as tall as an 80-storey building. The electricity produced by these dams fuelled the growth of British Columbia. Whatever was left over was sold in the United States.

THE LITTLE RAILWAY THAT GREW

Another Social Credit project was British Columbia's own railway, the Pacific Great Eastern. The idea was to connect the south coast with the northern interior. Construction began on this railway long before Premier Bennett came to power. But work went slowly, and the line went bankrupt after laying just a few kilometres of track.

People made fun of the little railway that seemed to go from nowhere to nowhere. They called it the Please Go Easy, or the Prince George Eventually. The government took control of the line, but still not much work was done.

Premier Bennett's government realized how important the railway could be. It finally completed the work from North Vancouver all the way to Fort St John and Fort Nelson, two towns in the far northeast corner of the province. By 1971, the remote north had its first rail connection to the coast. Coal, wheat and other products began flowing south by train. The railway played an important part in tying together the different parts of the province.

Today the PGE is called BC Rail. It operates more than 2,000 km of track. Along with freight, it carries travelers from North Vancouver to Prince George through some of the most beautiful landscape in Canada.

RESOURCE TOWNS

The end of the war brought a great demand for British Columbia's resources. Minerals and timber were needed to build homes and fuel factories across Canada and around the world.

Many of the mines and logging camps were located in remote parts of the province, far from the main cities. Companies created instant towns for their workers to live in.

One such town was Kitimat. Early in the 1950s the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) chose to build a smelter at the head of Douglas Channel far up the north coast. An aluminum smelter is a large plant where ore called bauxite is melted down to produce aluminum metal. This process requires a lot of electrical power, and there was a good source of power near the Douglas Channel site. Alcan called the smelter, and the town it built to house the workers, Kitimat, named for the local First Nations people.

Bauxite was brought to Kitimat by freighter from mines in Jamaica, Guyana and Australia. After processing, the refined aluminum was shipped to customers around the world. Today about 11,000 people live in Kitimat, mostly working for the Alcan smelter.

Another resource town on the north coast was Ocean Falls. It was the site of a large pulp and paper mill that operated on electricity produced from a waterfall nearby.

Ocean Falls was the rainiest community in Canada. It was known for producing world-class swimmers, as well as pulp and paper. At its peak, the population was about 4,000 people. Then the mill closed. Without work, people had to move away. Today hardly anyone lives where Ocean Falls used to be.

Instant towns were not all on the coast. Mackenzie is located in the Interior close to the Rocky Mountains. It was created in 1966 when logging companies began operations in the surrounding forests. Mackenzie has two pulp mills, a mill that produces newsprint (the kind of paper used to print newspapers) and several sawmills. The town, with a population of 6,000, is named for the explorer Alexander Mackenzie.

THE NORTHEAST

The northeast corner of British Columbia is especially rich in natural resources. During the 1950s large amounts of oil and natural gas were discovered in this area. These two fuels run the machinery of industry, produce heat for our homes and drive our cars. Oil and gas are both found in pools deep under the ground. Crews dig wells to tap into these pools and bring the oil and gas to the surface. Then it is carried in pipe lines to the large cities where it is needed.

Fort St John is the centre of this industry. It is located on the Alaska Highway and calls itself the Energy Capital of BC. The Peace River flows eastward through this corner of the province into Alberta, so it is often called the Peace River Country.

Coal is another valuable resource that comes from the Northeast. The town of Tumbler Ridge sprang to life in 1981 to provide homes for mining families from two huge coalmines that opened nearby. Much of the coal that was mined at Tumbler Ridge was sold in Japan.

A SOCIETY OF MANY CULTURES

Following the Second World War, the Japanese Canadians who had been sent away from the coast were allowed to return. British Columbians came to realize that they had to become more open to people of different cultural backgrounds.

In 1947, people of Asian background were allowed the vote in elections. Then, in the 1960s, limits on the number of immigrants from Asian countries began to be relaxed. Since that time, British Columbia's population has become much more diverse as people have come to live here from many parts of the world. This is what is meant when BC is described as a multicultural society.

One sign of the different attitude was the arrival of the “boat people” in the 1970s. They were Chinese and Vietnamese refugees who fled Vietnam by boat to escape the war and the political troubles there. Many made their way to British Columbia where they were welcomed with generosity. Groups of residents got together to help the newcomers adjust to their new life. About 7,400 “boat people” came to live in BC during this period.

THE DOUKHOBORS

Not everyone adjusted with ease to life in British Columbia. The Doukhobors were a group of newcomers from Russia who practised their own religion. Among their ideas was a strong belief in non-violence. When the Russian government forced the Doukhobors to fight in the army, many of them left their homeland for Canada where they were promised they could live in peace.

In 1908, a group of several thousand Doukhobors settled in eastern British Columbia. They lived together in large houses and operated farms and businesses. For the most part they avoided contact with the wider society. They preferred to follow their religion and educate their children themselves.

As time went on the government began to force Doukhobor children to attend public schools. Some parents resisted, and a long period of unrest began. Schools were burned, protest marches were held and many Doukhobors were arrested. They wanted to be left alone to follow their own lifestyle. The government felt that the Doukhobors had to conform to the rules like everyone else.

Finally, in the 1960s, the protests petered out. Younger Doukhobors adjusted to life in the wider society and other British Columbians grew to accept their differences. Doukhobors still live in towns such as Grand Forks and Castlegar. Many still speak Russian, practise their religion and work to keep their traditions alive.

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE

In the years following the Second World War, Aboriginal people came to be more accepted by non-Aboriginal people in British Columbia. Many First Nations people had fought for Canada in the war as soldiers and it seemed unfair to deny them equal rights. In 1951, the ban on the potlatch was ended. First Nations were now able to practice their own ceremonies without fear of going to jail. In 1960, First Nations people were given the vote in elections.

Another change that took longer to bring about was the closing of the residential schools. These schools had been in operation since the previous century. First Nations children were taken from their families and sent to live at the schools. They were not allowed to speak their own languages and they were taught that their own cultures were inferior. The purpose of the schools was to force Aboriginal people to become part of the mainstream society.

Some residential schools turned out to be terrible places. Disease was common, and many youngsters died. Some of the teachers were cruel and mistreated the children.

In the 1960s the government began to close the residential schools. The last one closed in BC in the mid-1980s. The government recognized that it was wrong to try to destroy First Nations culture.

BENNETT TOO

No government lasts forever. After 20 years in office, W.A.C. Bennett lost the support of the voters in the 1972 election. Some people felt that he was using up the resources of the province just to remain in power. Others felt it was time to give someone else a chance at running the government.

Bennett retired from politics after his defeat. But the Social Credit Party remained in the family. His son Bill became leader, and in 1975 led the party to an election victory. Bill became premier like his father, and Social Credit began another 16 years as the government.

EXPO '86

In the summer of 1986, Vancouver turned 100 years old. The city celebrated by welcoming the world to a huge party. It was called Expo '86, and it was the first international fair ever held in British Columbia.

Expo '86 took place along the waterfront of False Creek in the middle of downtown. False Creek was once the site of sawmills, lumber yards and factories. It was made over for the fair to become a bustling centre of pavilions, restaurants, plazas and thrill rides. Forty-one countries took part, along with 20 million visitors.

Expo '86 brought a surge of tourism to the province. After the fair was over and the visitors went home, Vancouver was left with a new transit system and many new buildings. The site of Expo was sold and the fairground was replaced by highrise condominiums.

The fair seemed to express a new confidence in the city, and the province. British Columbians were happy to be the centre of the world's attention. They were proud to show off what the years of prosperity had accomplished.

MODERN TIMES

History is the study of the past. It tells us how people used to live in times before our own. History also tells us about the present. It tells us how the world we live in came to be the way it is. Not only that, history can prepare us for the future. By helping us to understand how things changed in the past, it helps get us ready to deal with changes yet to come. Change brings new challenges. As the world becomes different, we have to adapt to new situations. What are some of the important changes that are happening in British Columbia today, and how are people in British Columbia responding to them?

A LONG, HOT SUMMER

Clayoquot (pronounced Clay-kwat) Sound is a wilderness area of islands, beach and forest on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It is in the territory of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. Its unspoiled beauty attracts whale watchers, hikers, kayakers and other kinds of outdoor adventurers.

In the summer of 1993, another type of visitor arrived in Clayoquot. They were protesters who were angry that loggers were allowed to cut trees in the river valleys running into the Sound. The protesters set up blockades across the dirt roads and would not let the logging trucks pass.

Loggers asked the courts to open the roads so they could do their work. Police arrested more than 900 protesters during the summer. It was the largest number of people arrested at one time in Canadian history. Some had to pay fines; others received time in prison. As a result of the summer of protest, the government made stricter rules for logging companies in Clayoquot. As well, some of the companies promised to make changes so that logging would be less damaging to the landscape.

SAVING THE FORESTS

The Clayoquot protest was one of many taking place in the forests of British Columbia during the 1990s. For years logging had been a mainstay of the province's economy, producing jobs and income for many people. But as more and more of the forest disappeared, people began to worry that soon it would all be gone. What would be left for their children and grandchildren to enjoy?

Protests also stopped a copper mine near the Tatshenshini River in the far north of the province. The “Tat” is one of the best places in the world for seeing grizzly bears and other wild animals. Scientists worried that the mine might destroy the habitat where the bears lived. In response, the provincial government created a provincial park to protect some of the watershed.

Meanwhile, the salmon also seemed to be in danger of disappearing. For decades the fishing fleet had harvested these valuable fish as they made their way back to the rivers and streams to spawn. But during the 1990s the numbers of salmon dropped. The government stepped in to set a limit on the number fishers were allowed to catch. Many people predicted that salmon fishing would have to stop completely to allow the fish time to recover.

British Columbians have always relied on their natural resources to produce wealth. But natural resources do not last forever. The quest for wealth may lead to their destruction. If resources are not preserved, they will be used up and there will be nothing left for future generations.

In the 1990s more and more people began talking about sustainable development. Instead of using up all the resources, sustainable development says that we must replace the resources at the same rate at which we are using them. In this way, we leave something for future generations to enjoy. And if certain resources cannot be replaced, then we must find ways to preserve them.

The challenge faced by British Columbians is to maintain a decent level of wealth without at the same time destroying the natural resources which were once so plentiful.

MAKING TREATIES WITH THE FIRST NATIONS

When Europeans first arrived in British Columbia, they found many different First Nations groups living here. Gradually the newcomers took over the land, forcing the First Nations to live apart on small plots of land called reserves.

In the prairie provinces and in most of eastern Canada, the First Nations signed treaties with the government. They gave up their land in return for reserves, money and other benefits. In British Columbia, however, only a very few First Nations made treaties with the government. The rest have no treaties.

The government argued that First Nations in British Columbia had no rights to their lands. On their side, First Nations argued that they had never given up their territories. The courts ruled several times in favour of the First Nations. As a result, in 1993, the BC government agreed to discuss treaties. It set up a BC Treaty Commission to supervise the discussions.

It will take many years to make agreements with the First Nations. People on both sides hope that the treaty-making process will result in better relations between First Nations and other residents of British Columbia.

A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY

During the 1990s, the population of British Columbia grew faster than any other province in Canada. Most of the growth was the result of immigration, the arrival of newcomers from other places. Immigrants had been coming to British Columbia ever since the beginning. The difference was that in the 1990s, most of the newcomers came from countries in Asia.

As a result of immigration, by the end of the 1990s about 20 percent, or one in five, of British Columbians came from Asia, places like Hong Kong, China, India and Japan. Most of the newcomers lived in Vancouver and the surrounding area. By 2001, there were as many people for whom English was a second language as there were people who spoke English at home. In some neighbourhoods, there were as many as 80 different languages spoken.

This is news because British Columbia has always considered itself a “British” province, as its name suggests. For a long time most of the people living here came from Great Britain, the United States or eastern Canada. They had always considered themselves the majority. Now statistics were showing that British Columbia was a very multicultural province.

Of course, British Columbia has always been a mix of people from different backgrounds. Chinese miners and railway workers, Japanese farmers and fishers, mill workers from India, Black homesteaders, Doukhobor settlers from Russia, all these and many others have been part of the society. However, since the 1960s, many more people from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean came to live in BC. In the process they created a very mixed society of people from many backgrounds.

A multicultural society is a society where people of many different backgrounds live together. The differences create variety and interest. Sometimes they also create misunderstanding and conflict. People from different backgrounds with different beliefs may find it difficult to get along with one another.

The challenge for British Columbians is to create a society where everyone feels they are able to participate, where no one is held back by the colour of their skin, what religious beliefs they have or where they come from.

THE MODERN ECONOMY

The economy of British Columbia has changed dramatically during the past decades. The economy used to rely on producing natural products: timber, minerals and fish. These are still important, but less so than they once were.

Today, many more jobs are in the knowledge industries. These are jobs that make and share information. Examples are computer programmers, medical researchers, and engineers. These people do not catch fish, or cut down trees, or dig up minerals. Instead, they work with information to produce new products.

The number of jobs in the resource industries are dropping. This is because the resources themselves are becoming more scarce. It is also because machines are doing much of the work once done by people. Mills need far fewer workers to produce their lumber. As stocks of fish appear to be in decline, far fewer fishers are needed to bring in the catch. The question is: will there be new jobs to replace the ones that are lost?

The challenge for British Columbians is to adjust to the new economy. New jobs have to be found for young people just entering the workforce. And many people who were fishers, loggers or miners will have to learn jobs for the new industries.

LIVEABLE CITIES

Another challenge facing British Columbia is to keep the cities liveable. Three quarters of the population of the province lives in Greater Vancouver, a huge, sprawling mass of highways and highrises. Every year, 50,000 more people come to live in the city. All these newcomers need somewhere to live. They need more roads to drive on, more parks to relax in, more buses to take to work, and more dumps to take care of all the garbage.

Every hour two new cars are added to the traffic already crowding Vancouver's streets. This makes it harder to move around the city. It also means that the air is getting dirtier and harder to breathe.

Air pollution is just one of the problems caused by rapid growth. Another is the disappearance of green spaces — park and farm land that is gobbled up to build houses for the newcomers.

The challenge for British Columbians is to make room for all the newcomers, while at the same time keeping their cities clean, safe places to live.

THE OLYMPIC GAMES

On July 3, 2003, British Columbia held its breath and waited. Finally the envelope was opened and the announcement was made. The 2010 Winter Olympic Games would be taking place in Vancouver and the nearby mountain resort of Whistler.

The announcement ended five years of planning and debate. It takes a lot of preparation to host an Olympics. Sports arenas and ski hills must be built, along with housing for all the athletes who will arrive from all over the world for the 16-day event. What's more, Vancouver and Whistler will also host the Paralympic Winter Games for athletes with disabilities.

Not everyone wanted BC to host the Olympics. It will cost billions of dollars to pay for the Games, much of which will come from the government. Some people argued that the money should be spent on other, more important things. Olympic supporters argued that, in the end, the benefits will outweigh the costs.

Whoever is correct, British Columbia will be hosting the 2010 Olympics. The challenge is to have everything ready on time, and to put on a good show for all the people around the world who will be watching on television.

A HISTORY OF CHALLENGES

As British Columbians begin a new century, they face important challenges.

Some of these challenges are:

• saving the natural environment from being spoiled.
• making fair agreements with the First Nations people.
• learning to live with people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
• making the cities safe, clean places to live.
• training for jobs in a new economy.

History shows us that British Columbia has always been a place where people had challenges to face. The story of the province is the story of how these challenges were met and solved.

History gives us confidence that we can meet the challenges of the present, just as our parents and their parents before them met the challenges of the past.