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Vancouver is a young city by many standards but the growth of the city and the surrounding suburbs has been astounding in its short life.
Although the First Nations have lived here for over 10,000 years, the newcomers, the Europeans, first arrived in 1792 and by the 1860's sawmills were exploiting the rich forest and miners were exploiting the gold and silver found in the mountains.
Vancouver was incorporated in 1860 and by the 1890's streetcars were being introduced to handle the needs of the people to get around Vancouver and its immediate suburbs.
Further to the east in the Fraser Valley, pioneer settlements like Cloverdale, Bradner, Mt. Lehman were only acessibil by a ferry ride across the Fraser River from the north shore where the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) ran daily through to Vancouver.
By 1809 - 1810 the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) has pushed through tracks as far as Chilliwack and was running Interurban street cars to these "remote" settlements.
While Ken and I have visited and followed many sections of these tracks over the years, today we limited our day to just three of these locations.
Our starting point was Matsqui, just south across the Fraser River from Mission. Matsqui is a floodplain which provided fertile soil for farmers to grow crops for their own use. With the coming of the Interurban line, the farmers could now expand and begin to sell their crops commercially into the big city of Vancouver.
We had a late breakfast in Abbotsford, just south of the Matsqui Prairie area, and then headed west to our next stop of Mt. Lehman. Like so many parts of our history, the community and the historic buildings which centered on the rail line have mostly gone.
In Mt. Lehman we were able to visit the old Mt. Lehman Community Hall and the Mt. Lehman United Church. Sadly, even some of the buildings that were still standing not so many years ago have now been knocked down and only an empty field remains
Our next stop to the west was Bradner where all that remains to identify a busy pioneer centre is the general store located right next to the tracks. Further north on Bradner Road is the Bradner Community Centre, and right next to that is the old Bradner Elementary School.
While the community centre and the school are still in use, unless you know the original history of the area, you would be hard pressed to conjure up the ghosts of the settlers which have been so neatly pushed aside.
Final stop of the day was the community of Fort Langley. While Fort Langley was not actually on the BCER Interurban line, it still represents a major part of the growth of the Vancouver area, in particular the province of BC.
Fort Langley was the birth place of the province, and the first capital of BC before that title was given to the downstream community of New Westminster, and then eventually to Victoria on Vancouver Island.
Today the quaint shops remind us of the early days, and the actual fort itself on the hill above the town reminds us of the original days of BC
The one thing that rings true is that the railways still play a big part of the Fraser Valley's daily life, with the main lines of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) running along the riverside right next to the original Fort Langley train station building
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