Fort Langley National Historic Site in BC

Family Fun Includes Activities, Demonstrations, Exhibitions & Tours

Aug 13, 2008

Historic Building at Fort Langley, Simone Keiran

BC's birthplace provides children with many early Canadian things to see, learn and do at this beautifully restored and preserved fur-trading fort on the Fraser River.

Trained guides, well-planned activities and an interesting variety of interactive exhibits make Canadian history an entertaining and educational experience for the whole family at this fully restored Hudson's Bay Co. fort and fur trading outpost first established by James McMillan in 1827 on the Fraser River. The desire to please and impress visitors, however, extends past the spiked walls of the palisade.

A blacksmith from the local Kwantlen tribe tempers a hook from iron. She holds the red-hot metal with tongs over the edge of the anvil, and calls an eight-year-old from the audience to help finish. He dons a thick apron, safety glasses and gloves. A few strikes with the mallet puts a right-angle kink into the spike. After it sizzles in its cooling tub, she hammers it into a chink in the wall to show how it works. Excited, the boy pulls his parents over to the sluice-box set up by the heritage-seed vegetable garden, where they pan for gold. Fort Langley's attractions also include:

The depot filled with different furs; trading goods like guns, blankets, or cooking pots; and an authentic fur press where visitors can watch and even take part in demonstrations of how pelts were bundled for their long voyage back to Britain. The storehouse is arguably the oldest European-built structure remaining in BC.

A cooperage where a barrelmaker planes the slats of wood for the barrels which packed the popular dried salmon once shipped all over the world. Strings of dried salmon hang from the ceiling as well as oolichan, or candle-fish, tiny sardine-like fish so saturated with oils that they were literally substituted for the valuable and hard-to-get candles. Little oddities like this make the experience memorable.

The Big House, comfortable living quarters for the chief traders, as well as Servants' Quarters, the spartan dwelling where lower status employees lived, both fully furnished with items appropriate to their time period and purpose. The contrast is a provocative subject for children.

A large, sturdy wooden boat used by fishermen on the Fraser, and canoes, like the sort used by the courier-de-bois and Sto:Lo people, the Upper Coastal Salish nations who populated the riverbanks. Visitors were involved in the boatmaking process.

The palisades and lookout, which surrounded the outer perimeter of the fort in the event of an attack, are perfect places for children to run and climb over.

A gift-shop and café.

Countless Klondikers streamed through Fort Langley during the Gold Rush of 1858. For fear it would be annexed by Americans, the British government signed a Treaty officializing their claim to the territory, and an RCMP garrison was set up to enforce it. Fort Langley is the birthplace of British Columbia.

Visitor information, including ticket prices, hours and days of operation, and detailed instructions of how to get there are all available online at the Fort Langley National Historic Site website.

The Heritage Townsite of Fort Langley

Cafés, boutiques and antique stores line the streets. Attractions include a fully restored CN Railway Station, the Fort Wine Co. and the Langley Centennial Museum. Fort Langley should not be confused with the City of Langley, however, west of the historic townsite.

Visitors Touring by Car

Highway 7 which bypasses the Transcanada's heavier traffic at Hope, BC, is more scenic and sedate. This route swings closer to Harrison Hot Springs, and the Albion Free Ferry, on the river bank between Mission and Maple Ridge, offers sweeping panoramas of the Fraser River.

The copyright of the article Fort Langley National Historic Site in BC in British Columbia Travel is owned by Simone Keiran. Permission to republish Fort Langley National Historic Site in BC in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.