Events from the year 1858 in Canada.
Events from the year 1859 in Canada.
The history of British Columbia covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day British Columbia were inhabited for millennia by a number of First Nations.
Yale is an unincorporated town in the Canadian province of British Columbia, which grew in importance during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush.
Sir James Douglas was a Canadian fur trader and politician who became the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia. He is often credited as "The Father of British Columbia". He was instrumental to the resettlement of 35 African Americans fleeing a life of racial persecution in San Francisco who arrived in the province aboard the steamship Commodore in what later became known as the Pioneer Committee. In 1863, Douglas was knighted by Queen Victoria for his services to the Crown.
British Columbia gold rushes were important episodes in the history and settlement of European, Canadian and Chinese peoples in western Canada.
The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance was a vigilante group formed in 1851. The catalyst for its formation was the criminality of the Sydney Ducks gang. It was revived in 1856 in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal government of San Francisco, California. The need for extralegal intervention was apparent with the explosive population growth following the discovery of gold in 1848. The small town of about 900 individuals grew to a booming city of over 20,000 very rapidly. This growth in population overwhelmed the previously established law enforcement, and led to the organization of vigilante militia groups.
The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's confluence with the Fraser River at present-day Lytton. The rush overtook the region around the discovery and was centered on the Fraser Canyon from around Hope and Yale to Pavilion and Fountain, just north of Lillooet.
The Colony of British Columbia was a British Crown Colony that resulted from the amalgamation of two former colonies, the Colony of Vancouver Island and the mainland Colony of British Columbia. The two former colonies were united in 1866, and the united colony existed until its incorporation into Canadian Confederation in 1871.
The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America from 1858 until 1866 that was founded by Richard Clement Moody, who was selected to 'found a second England on the shores of the Pacific', who was Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works for British Columbia and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Prior to the arrival of Moody's Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, the Colony's supreme authority was its Governor James Douglas, who was the Governor of the neighbouring colony of Vancouver Island.
The Fraser Canyon War, also known as the Canyon War or the Fraser River War, was an incident between white miners and the indigenous Nlaka'pamux people in the newly declared Colony of British Columbia, which later became part of Canada, in 1858. It occurred during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, which brought many white settlers to the Fraser Canyon area. Largely ignored by Canadian historians, it was one of the seminal events of the founding of the colony. Although it ended relatively peacefully, it was a major test of the new administration's control over the goldfields, which were distant and difficult to access from the centre of colonial authority at Victoria in the Colony of Vancouver Island.
Richard Clement Moody was a British governor, engineer, architect and soldier. He is best known for being the founder and the first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, being the Commanding Executive Officer of Malta during the Crimean War and being the first British Governor of the Falkland Islands.
Spuzzum First Nation is a Nlaka'pamux First Nations government located near Spuzzum, British Columbia. It is a member of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration, one of three tribal councils of the Nlaka'pamux people. Other members of the Fraser Canyon Indian Administration are the Kanaka Bar, Skuppah and Nicomen First Nations.
The Rock Creek Gold Rush was a gold rush in the Boundary Country region of the Colony of British Columbia. The rush was touched off in 1859 when two US soldiers were driven across the border to escape pursuing Indians and chanced on gold only three miles into British territory, on the banks of the Kettle River where it is met by Rock Creek, and both streams turn east to where in times since developed the city of Grand Forks. The first claim was filed by an Adam Beam in 1860, and the rush was on, composed mostly of Americans and some Chinese, all of whom had come overland from other workings, either at Colville or Oregon or all the way from California.
Gold commissioner was an important regional administrative post in the colonies of the British Empire where extensive gold prospecting took place, including in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and in South Africa. The key responsibilities of gold commissioners were to uphold the law, provide access to the gold fields, issue mining licences, and register gold claims. Such a role was required due to the lawlessness that often followed gold rushes.
Robert Burnaby was an English merchant, politician and civil servant in British Columbia, where he served as private secretary to Richard Clement Moody, the founder and first Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia. Moody named Burnaby Lake, in British Columbia, after Burnaby, and the city of Burnaby was subsequently named after Burnaby, as were at least ten other urban and geographical features, including a mountain, Robert Burnaby Park, a Haida Gwaii Island, and a street in Vancouver.
The Columbia Detachment of the Royal Engineers was a contingent of the Royal Engineers of the British Army that was responsible for the foundation of British Columbia as the Colony of British Columbia (1858–66). It was commanded by Colonel Richard Clement Moody, FICE FRGS RIBA, Kt. (France).
Edward "Ned" McGowan was an American lawyer, Pennsylvania assemblyman, Judge of the California Court of Quarter Sessions, poet, Fraser Canyon gold seeker, adventurer, assistant sergeant-at-arms in the United States Congress, newspaper publisher and bon vivant instigator of the eponymous McGowan's War in colonial British Columbia.
Hill's Bar is a long-abandoned ghost town located in the Fraser Canyon region of British Columbia, Canada. The site of the former boomtown is situated near the right bank of the Fraser River, between Yale and the mouth of Emory Creek. The eponymous bar was the first active placer mining site at the onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, and was the scene of the Boatmakers of San Francisco claim, which included Ned McGowan of McGowan's War, and involved a dispute with Kowpelst, chief of the Spuzzum people.
Mount Begbie is a 2,733-metre (8,967-foot) mountain summit located in the Gold Range of the Monashee Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. Situated west of the Columbia River high above the shore of Upper Arrow Lake, this prominent peak is visible from the Trans-Canada Highway, Revelstoke, and Revelstoke Mountain Resort ski area. Mt. Begbie Brewing Company, a brewery, was named after the mountain. The nearest peak is Mount Tilley, 3 km (1.9 mi) to the west, and the nearest higher peak is Blanket Mountain, 14.0 km (8.7 mi) to the south.
