Fort Langley Brigade Days 2010 ‘Bag-pipers & Fur Trade Voyagers’ Reenactment
Fort Langley BC was built in 1827 by the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) as a trading post to enable the fur trade and was later expanded to include farming, salmon and cranberry production and export. Each year during the BC Day long weekend, a reenactment of the fur trade activities is held at the fort. This year, it was on July 31 to Aug 02, 2010. The whole series of events organized in the weekend is known as Brigade Days, although the actual brigade arrival generally only happened on one day in history and that was in September and not August each year. Bag-pipers, soldiers in uniform, staff and volunteers dressed in authentic pioneer and frontier costumes gather at the banks of the Fraser River to greet the fur trappers (aka voyagers) who would arrive in canoes to bring back pelts of otters and other small animals they have caught or traded with the First Nations to Fort Langley before shipping off the finished products to England and other markets.
Fort Langley gradually lost its influence as a trading post when other cities and areas such as New Westminster, and Victoria were developed. By the time Vancouver was incorporated as a city in 1886, Fort Langley pretty much ceased to be a trading post. Nevertheless, Fort Langley not only played a very critical role in establishing BC in the forefront of Canada’s global commerce today, the frontier outpost was also the birthplace of British Columbia.
The Fraser River gold rush brought in many miners and settlers from the United States. To deter an American take over, James Douglas and others proclaimed British Columbia a crown colony at Fort Langley on November 19, 1958. In recognizing its historical importance and heritage significance, the government of Canada established Fort Langley as a Parks Canada National Historic Site in 1955.
VIDEO – Fort Langley Brigade Days 2010 Bag-pipers & Voyagers
88 Ave. and Glover Road, Fort Langley, BC
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