72 British Columbia Women’s Institutes

dlistory of Douglas Distruct

From the Pattullo Bridge, which crosses the Fraser River at New
Westminster, the King George Highway carries the traveller south to the
U.S. border and the world-famous Peace Arch at Blaine. South of the
Fraser and eastward from the sea lies the Douglas district, comprising
hundreds of acres of fertile farm land and holding within its boundaries
the earliest history of settlement in the Lower Mainland. This is a corner
of British Columbia where Nature has indeed been bountiful. ‘Travelling
toward the border, in the Spring of the year, the sun is warmer, the breeze
softer and the growth far more advanced than in other parts of the
Fraser Valley. Along the sea-coast are extensive beaches; long, curving
crescents of sand, inviting young and old to holiday. The mountains stand
back from the sea lending majesty to the varied beauty of the valley.
Green meadows, sleek cattle, clustering farm buildings, orchards, truck-
gardens, the winding Serpentine and Nicomekl Rivers, the scattered
patches of woodland all create a picture to treasure in memory.

Factors of the Hudson’s Bay Co. were the first to recognize the wonder-
ful fertility of the soil of the Fraser Valley. In 1827 James MacMillan was
sent from Fort Vancouver to establish a trading post on the lower Fraser.
Travelling overland to Puget Sound, thence by canoe along the Nicomekl
and Salmon Rivers to the Fraser, he built Fort Langley, which became
the most important trading centre on the lower mainland. ‘This busy Fort,
crowded with gold-seekers in 1858, provided a starting point for many
settlers in their search for land; provided, also, the stability of orderly
settlement and a place where the newcomers might secure supplies. Fort
Langley’s earliest settler, Mr. Kenneth Morrison, came as a boy from Scot-
land in 1832, worked for the Hudson’s Bay Co. at $125.00 a year and his
clothing (which was durable), later taking up land for his own home near
the Fort. The food ration at the Fort in those days was dried salmon and
1 turnip daily, supplemented by game and salt pork. All tools, plough-
shares and nails were made locally.

Another link with the past is the Telegraph Trail built in 1865 to
carry telegraph wires from New Westminster, through Yale and Quesnel
to Fort Stager in the North. Parts of this trail are still in evidence and in
use, and this was for many an early settler the only travel-way other than
the river.

Although the South bank of the Fraser was heavily wooded there were
several areas of prairie land. One of these, Hazelmere, formerly called
“Hall’s Prairie” was natural grassland with occasional patches of willow.
Settlement here dates from 1870. Otter District reports a settler arriving
as early as 1820 and being burnt out by fires started by the Indians.
Because of the aftermath of this fire settlement did not become permanent
until 1880 when the district was named in honor of Colonel Otter of the
Riel Rebellion. Early settlers came from Blaine by boat to New West-