The Gold Rush of 1858 passed through the region and Port Pemberton was established as a stopping house along the Douglas Trail. Over 30,000 gold rushers passed through the region making their way to the goldfields of Lillooet and beyond. Beyond the Gold Rush of 1858 there were other major events happening in Canada and in the world.

2. • Charles Darwin publishes his paper on
natural selection titled On the Tendency of
Species to form Varieties; and on the
Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by
Natural Means of Selection, in the Linnean
Society Journal
• British empire takes over India from the
British East India Company in aftermath of
the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857.
• Senate candidates Abraham Lincoln and
Stephen Douglas debate slavery 7 times
during campaigning of Illinois’s senate seat.
Even though he lost the seat he had won the
popular vote and garnered media attention
making him the prime republican candidate
for the presidential elections. The Southern
states were infuriated by Lincoln’s position
and arguments in the debates.

3. • Theodor Roosevelt was born.
• Finger prints were first used for
identification .
• Pencil with an erasers on the end were
patented.
• Fenian Brotherhood founded in New York
by John O’Mahoney.

5. • Dollar becomes official currency of province
of Canada. The penny, nickel and dime first
minted by province of Canada.
• Canadian Club whiskey founded by
American distiller Hiram Walker escaping
prohibition. Originally called Club
Whiskey, American distillers forced a
Canadian to be printed in large letters on
the bottle to discourage American
consumers, this just made the whiskey seem
exotic and more desirable so Walker
changed the name to Canadian Club.
• The Bank of Canada founded and is now
known as CIBC.
• The Canadian colonial government imposes
revenue tariffs on US manufactured goods
to pay for railroad debts.

6. • Toronto Islands are formed after storm cuts off
Toronto peninsula permanently from the main
land.
• The Wedding March becomes popular after
Princess Vicky, daughter of Queen Victoria,
mother of Kaiser Wilhelm, had it played at her
wedding.
• Transatlantic telegraph line laid between Ireland
and NFL. First direct connection between Canada
and Europe. It failed after 28 days due to
insulation problem.
• Imprisonment for debt abolished. Was one of the
major reforms in Canadian politics.
• Fossils first discovered in the Kootenay by Sir
John W. Dawson and Thomas Chesmer Weston.
• Macdonald and Cartier propose confederation
and it’s rejected by the Colonial Office, due to
lack of support in the colonies.

7.  On New Years Eve John A. McDonald
convinced Queen Victoria to make Ottawa the
capital of Canada East and West
 In 1858 John A. and George Etienne Cartier
and their Liberal-Conservative Party
controlled Canada with George Brown and the
Clear Grit Party as the opposition
 George Brown proposed bill to ask the Queen
to reverse her decision on Ottawa as the
capital. and the bill passed and McDonald and
cabinet resigned out of protest.
 Brown Formed new government but the law
stated cabinet members had to face a by-
election giving the conservatives the majority
 McDonald passes vote of no confidence and
the Brown government resigns
 McDonald forms government but shuffles
parliament so by-elections can’t be called and
the next day shuffles them back

8. In 1844 tensions grew as American
expansionists urged President Polk
to annex the entire Pacific
Northwest to the 54°40′ parallel
north, as the Democrats had called
for in the election. The turmoil gave
rise to slogans such as "Fifty-four
Forty or Fight!“
The Oregon Treaty was signed on
June 15, 1846, in Washington D.C
to end the fights over the
Oregon Territory, which had been
shared by both Britain and the U.S.
since the Treaty of 1818.
The Oregon Treaty changed the
way shipping companies navigated
the Columbia River forever.

9. In 1846 A.C. Anderson explored
the area to decide if a lowland
route through a series of lakes from
Ft. Langley to Kamloops was
plausible.

11. • American owned Victoria
Gazette is the first paper on west
coast
• Amor de Cosmos founds Times
Colonist paper
• The Fraser Canyon War
• McGowan’s War

12. • Around 30,000 Chinese nationals
make up first major Chinese
settlement in Canada mostly
arriving from San Francisco, and
worked in the gold rush. The vast
majority of were single young
men
• About 600 African-Americans
from California move to Victoria,
by invitation from Governor
Douglas who was a mulatto
himself and invitation later
revoked after anger from white
Americans
• The British Columbia Provincial
Police are established.

13. • Royal Engineers Corps called to
BC to help with development
and security of the colony.
• Col. Richard Moody of the Royal
Engineers Corp becomes chief
commissioner of land works.
Moody often feuded with
Governor Douglas over the
development of the colony and
the role of the Royal Engineers.
• Mathew Begbie “The Hanging
Judge” sent from England to be
chief Justice for Vancouver Island
and British Columbia.
• James Douglas becomes governor
of BC and Vancouver Island
Colonies .

14. • HBC ships 22kg of gold on The
Beaver, to San Francisco worth
$1,104,392.96 today.
• The influx of Americans into British
Columbia forced the colonial office
to focus on colonization of over
commerce in BC. So that the region
could not be claimed by the USA.
• HBC Charter on New Caledonia not
renewed and it becomes the colony
of British Columbia, personally
named by Queen Victoria. New
Westminster built to be the capital.

15. Watch video 1858 Fraser River
Gold Rush

17. The 1860 Proclamation – also
known as The Road Tolls Act,
empowered agents of the
government to collect a tax from
the miners passing through as well
as enabling James Douglas to enact
policy to govern the new mainland
territory and to assert British rule.

20. The Prince of Wales 1863

26. This map shows the two routes with
posted travel distances. The Douglas
route took 40 days and was expensive
due to the transfer of freight from boat
to wagon.