The Edge of the World: BC's Early Years | Knowledge Network

[Music] british columbia an immense wilderness at the far edge of the world for thousands of years this has been home to first nations people it was one of the last places on earth to be discovered by europeans in the 19th century immigrants began arriving from across the globe it was a time of cultural collision vast wealth for some great hardship for others these are the stories this is where we come from a reflection of who we are today [Music] [Music] a long time ago there were no salmon on mother earth our people were often hungry so they sent four brothers across the sea to visit the chief of the salmon people they implored him to send his children to feed their village the chief agreed but only on condition that his children be honored and respected we consider the salmon a people like all animals there's a spirit and we're a part of that spirit the fraser river what we call stolo once sustained millions and millions of salmon which drew people from all up and down the coast my skagit esquimalt qualcomm seashell squamish and stolo all fished here our ancestors said that the salmon used to be so plentiful that you could walk across the water in the backs of the salmon at the height of fishing season 500 canoes passed each week it was really vital to economy and trade after catching the salmon we would dry it on racks fish we caught in the summer fed our village for the rest of the year our culture could flourish the abundance of salmon allowed us to go into our longhouses and develop very intricate ceremonies and rights and rituals [Music] before they left the chief of the salmon people spoke to the four brothers you must gather up all the salmon bones place them on cedar bark and return them to the river you have to give thanks to the salmon people if you don't show your respect the salmon will not return [Music] sailing north from the strait of juan de fuca you'll see the san juan islands then saturna galliano gabriola and tuxedo why so many spanish names before captain cook first arrived the spanish had already been there by the 1770s most of the globe had been mapped with the exception of one place wanting to expand its territory spain sent explorers sailing north from mexico in 1774 they reached bc they were greeted with songs by the new chalnuth people the spanish were unaware that these chants were meant to chase away evil spirits it took another four years for british explorer captain cook to find his way to the same place shortly thereafter the americans arrived and all three nations fought for control of the territory since spanish merchants had little interest in bc spain left britain and the u.s to fight it out and as the 19th century approached the spanish returned south to a more agreeable climate at the turn of the 19th century the fur trade was expanding west the northwest company sent explorers to find an overland trade route to the pacific one of them was a young man from montreal simon fraser in 1805 at the age of 29 fraser embarked on an epic journey he was joined by two first nations guides and 19 french canadian voyageurs three years later he began descending the river that would one day bear his name having made every preparation for a long voyage we embarked at 5am in four canoes fraser had numerous friendly encounters with first nations along the river but locals thought he was crazy they knew how deadly the river could be after passing the first cascade the canoe was drawn into the eddy the men had no power over her he then continued to fly from one danger to another until the whirlpools fostered the gates of projecting rock upon this the men debacked and saved their own lives we had to pass where no human being should pass through the gates of hell as fraser approached the mouth of the river he came in sight of the village of mosquian the natives began making their appearance from every direction howling like so many wolves several followed in canoes armed with bow and arrows we saw nothing but dangers and directed our thoughts towards home here i must acknowledge my great disappointment in not seeing the ocean having gone so near it is to be almost within view despite never reaching the pacific simon fraser's death-defying journey became legendary and the river which he explored came to be called the mighty fraser in the early 1840s the united states and britain were locked in a struggle for control of the northwest the british claimed ownership down to oregon the americans driven by dreams of manifest destiny sought to expand their territory north of the 49th parallel to the alaskan border at 54 40. both seem to forget the region was already occupied by tens of thousands of first nations people to assert their control the british sent chief factor of the hudson's bay company james douglas to establish a fort on vancouver island he discovered the ideal location the place itself appears a perfect eden in the midst of the dreary wilderness one might be pardoned for supposing it had dropped from the clouds on that spot in 1843 douglas established a fort which he called camosun its native songi's name british authorities preferred something more colonial in honor of the queen they changed the name to victoria the establishment of fort victoria helped britain assert its claim in 1846 they settled their dispute with the united states drawing the border at the 49th parallel in the 1850s there were only a few hundred white settlers west of the rockies while first nations people numbered close to a hundred thousand the largest british settlement was fort victoria a sleepy trading post of 300 but in 1858 everything changed gold was discovered on the fraser river as victoria's townsfolk were returning from church a steamship sailed into port carrying 450 gold seekers from california in an instant the town's population doubled [Music] i elbowed my way amidst the unkempt throne in all directions with canvas tents gamblers swindlers and thieves waiting for means to take them to the far famed fraser river [Music] from victoria gold seekers found their way up the fraser river to yale the riverbanks overflowed with thousands of eager prospectors almost entirely men the colonial governor james douglas was worried they are with some exceptions a specimen of the worst of the population of san francisco douglas believed the influx of american miners would lead to demands for u.s annexation and conflict with first nations he wrote to his superiors in britain urging them to act quickly they responded by declaring the mainland an official colony with douglas appointed its governor on august 1 1858 british columbia was born i traveled all over this country prospecting and digging for gold a tunneled hydraulic and cradle and i have been frequently sold dreams of gold in british columbia lured many a man from his home one such young man joseph halpani left his family in ontario to brave the untamed lands of the west dear father i have only received one letter from you since i left home that letter is a treasure to me whenever i feel alone it is almost impossible to come to this country and those who are not healthy hearty and strong need not attempt it if they do their bones shall most likely lie bleaching on the almost boundless plains or on the snow clad peaks of the rocky mountains arriving flat broken midwinter i found it enveloped and fought was covered all over with timber thickest hair on the back of a dog i've come from the headwaters of the fraser to the mountain a distance of one thousand miles through douglas yale hope all small miserable places it is the most wicked country in the world cursing drinking sometimes shooting i have saw some killed dead and walked over graves as unconcerned as i have through a potato field at home [Music] i have a claim on the far-famed williams creek though like thousands i may not succeed here you may sink a hole to 60 feet and you must shovel underground until you find the lead and you strike it [Music] i am more disappointed than anyone to be deprived of the treasure i long to carry home to you and which i cannot find courage in myself to go home without i'm going to spend another season in the cariboo and after whether successful or not i will bid farewell to british columbia and seek the home of the civilized for each man who got rich by mining receiving that hundreds grew poor i made up my mind to try farming the only pursuit was sure the only pursuit that was you were the only pursuit that was you i made up my mind to try farming the only person like the majority of gold seekers joseph halpani returned home without a penny in his pocket in the spring of 1858 tension was rising in the fraser canyon the ancestral territory of the inca kaplan people had been invaded by tens of thousands of well-armed gold seekers many prospectors came from the american west where the indian wars had wiped out large populations of first nations people we killed everything that looked like an indian dog or anything else little as well as big in the fraser canyon two thousand warriors had gathered preparing for battle hostilities erupted when a young inkle kapmoth woman was raped warriors retaliated down river at yale the morning light disclosed the headless bodies of two white men later in the day three more decapitated bodies floated downstream fearing for their lives many miners fled the banks of the river but some retaliated with the indiscriminate slaughter of men women and children in yale hundreds of miners organized into five regiments and marched to the inca catmull capital kamshin where litton now stands in kamshin local chiefs and their allies were holding council some wanted to wipe out the white men once and for all when the army of miners arrived they met with the chiefs we stated this time that we come for peace but if we had to come again we'd come by the thousands and drive them from the river forever that threat convinced the incla kapworth council to end the conflict they reluctantly agreed to white settlement in their territory bringing an end to the short-lived fraser canyon war at the beginning of the gold rush british columbia was on the verge of chaos thousands of miners had arrived from the american west bringing the threat of vigilante justice on my way from caribou i seen four indians hung as for leveling pistols at each other it's an everyday occurrence among a certain class such as gamblers governor james douglas needed law and order so he put one man in charge of administering british justice matthew bailey begbie bagby was an imposing man of six foot five and spoke several indigenous languages first nations people called him big chief during the trial of a california man charged with the possession of a bowie knife begbie spoke out i understand that the mining class of the western states looks upon liberty as a condition of life which gives them the right to defy the law we have a law which prohibits the use of bowie knives and pistols and i will punish most severely all of those who coming into the british colony make use of such deadly weapons as the only judge for hundreds of miles bagby traveled up and down the fraser river in some places he had to make do with a jury of seven there was a shortage of men who were both british and sober during one trial the jury had delivered a verdict of manslaughter instead of murder prisoner your crime was unmitigated diabolical murder had the jury performed their duty i might now have the satisfaction of condemning you to death and you gentlemen of the jury you are a pack of horse thieves it would give me great pleasure to see you hanged each and every one of you although widely respected as honest and impartial these occasional outbursts helped begbie earn his nickname the hanging judge [Music] courage my little soul let me yeah on the eve of the civil war the black community of san francisco led by businessman mifflin gibbs met to consider an exodus from california [Music] they were looking for a new home free of injustice one possibility emerged when governor james douglas invited them to immigrate to vancouver island with gold recently discovered on the fraser river douglas feared a tidal wave of american fortune seekers he was eager to attract immigrants who would be loyal to the british being part black himself douglas sympathize with the plight of in african-americans mifflin gibbs and 34 other black representatives arrived in victoria they visited douglas to evaluate his offer of land and freedom and returned to san francisco to report whereas the continued policy of our mother country is to degrade and entrap us we have therefore determined to seek asylum from the relentless persecution that has pursued us for more than two centuries we now cast our lots in the land of strangers where slavery has laid aside its weapons and the colored american is unshackled that rousing speech convinced several hundred black families to immigrate to bc on his return to victoria gibbs helped organize the african rifles to make a point douglas had the all-black regiment greek gold seekers arriving from california [Music] when the civil war ended many bc blacks returned to the united states those that remained settled primarily in victoria and on salt spring island despite some racist attitudes they became respected members of the community some were prominent businessmen others became farmers teachers carpenters poets as for mifflin gibbs he went on to become the acting mayor of victoria bc's first elected black official [Music] by 1862 the fraser river gold rush was petering out news of gold in the cariboo led some of the miners north including englishman billy barker who laid a claim on williams creek barker was crazy as a loon everyone knew there was no gold down river but he hit pay dirt 62 ounces of gold the word was out and barkerville was born it became the commercial center of the caribou for nearly 50 years [Music] the town had numerous hotels and saloons for miners to spend their money on liquor and women [Music] there were few women in the cariboo and none were more adored than the hurdy gertie girls their going rate was a dollar a dance after a hard night of drinking miners could get a good breakfast at the wake up jake bake house and coffee saloon where they could read the latest news for a shave and a haircut head down to the barber shop run by william delaney moses one of the first black pioneers of dc across the street was barnard's express north america's longest stagecoach run that transported people and goods along the cariboo road to yale [Music] at one end of barkerville stood chinatown for a time nearly half the town's population was chinese nam singh came searching for gold but gave up the miner's life and sold fresh vegetables in town at the opposite end of barkerville was the anglican church with a tiny congregation of 20. their minister reverend brooks wrote numerous letters we have had a long cold snap here more than 20 degrees below zero it's a remarkable fact that two weeks of uninterrupted barkerville drives me towards mental and moral sickness it makes me little sad when i visit these unsuccessful minors they're quite alone each in his own hut most won't ever get away from the caribou there is a comfortable wooden hospital to die in as for billy barker his claims yielded over 32 000 ounces of gold worth around 30 million dollars today but he lost it all reinvesting in failed mines he died a popper at the age of 77. but the place that bears his name lives on as a preserved historic town [Music] [Music] and so after perhaps 8 000 years we saw the people building their many languages and different ways of life dreaming a world full of legend and myth after all this time in one terrible year it all came to an end when the horror came to the coast early in 1862 it found the villages flourishing as never before when it died from a lack of victims the totem poles looked down on the unburied dead and the pitifully small groups of stunned survivors the shemshan lost half their people the qui-gil two-thirds the height of three-quarters it is one of the world's greatest tributes to the strength of the human spirit but most of those who lived and their children after them remained sane and adapted to the strange new world in which they found themselves ruled by those intent on destroying all that remained of their essential lives their languages their customs and beliefs [Music] people are still here changed in appearance in language and custom but still alive a part of the present with strong roots in the magic past a part of all our lives [Music] the last spike in this iconic photograph representing the unification of canada an important group was absent most of the track between the rockies and the pacific was built by a silent majority chinese workers in the 1880s thousands of chinese immigrants came to british columbia escaping poverty famine and war without their support the families might have staffed [Music] approximately six thousands were hired to build the canadian pacific railway intolerant british columbians fought for the exclusion but the railway company insisted on chinese labor they worked hard they were cheap and they had no rights they were also seen as expendable [Music] chinese workers were given the most dangerous jobs if they weren't buried in an avalanche workers often fell to the death or died in accidental explosions along the treacherous fraser canyon four men died for every mile of track laid all told about 600 chinese workers sacrificed their lives building the railway that united the country [Music] [Music] in 1874 a huge snowstorm hit the cassiar mountains of northern bc scores of miners were stranded facing the onslaught of scurvy and starvation conditions were so dangerous not even the canadian army considered mounting a rescue but one brave gold miner refused to let them die her name was nellie cashman [Music] nelly had escaped the irish potato famine and wound up in the gold fields of california like many minors she lived a transient life never marrying and forever following news of fresh gold discoveries men are in nuisance anyway now aren't they i've nursed them scolded them and fought my own with them and you have to treat them just like boys nelly had recently arrived in bc when she heard news of the stranded cassie r minors and leapt into action at the age of 29 she organized six men to join her on an epic rescue mission starting in victoria nelly and her expedition dragged 1500 pounds of food and medicine across hundreds of miles of rugged terrain it took 77 days when they finally arrived in the casio they found nearly a hundred starving men the supplies prevented certain death and her daring act earned nelly the nickname the angel of cassier any man i ever met if he needed my help got it after all we passed this way only once and it's up to us to help our fellows when they need us potlatch is actually a chinook word for bringing people together to commemorate an important milestone birth marriage death each one of those transformations is commemorated with a feast they would prepare for a long time four years from now we'll have a big feast the gatherings were hosted by a chief and his family and included feasting songs and dances at the end of the potlatch the host will give gifts to everybody to thank them for coming to witness the ceremonies that was our way of passing down knowledge passing it down to our children it was a way for people to keep their history alive of course it makes me feel angry we weren't allowed to gather more than four people at a time people had to go underground to secretly continue our ceremonies my father held a potlatch in village island a lot of the people that attended it were arrested 26 were sent to prison i remember when we could not speak our own language wear our traditional clothes or celebrate with the potlatch they wanted to make us like them we are burdened to this day with great sadness and anger the potlatch survived only because our elders refused to be silenced we will dance when our laws command us to dance and we will feast on our hearts desire to feast let the white man observe his law [Music] we shall observe ours a is for axes and that use all know b is for boys that can use them also c is for chopping that now begins and d for the danger that we do stand in and how very are we [Applause] one of the challenges faced by lagers in the 1800s was the sheer size of the trees often 15 feet in diameter loggers had never seen wood this big much less tried to move it crawlers used axes and saws to fell leviathans that were often more than a thousand years old balancing on springboards driven 10 feet up the trunk there were buckers and barkers snipers and doggers bull punchers fallers and high riggers the high rigger's a special breed who else would be crazy enough to climb 175 feet up a trunk i seen one guy stand on his head after topping a tree branches were limbed by barkers who also stripped the bark buckers cut the tree into logs while bull punchers used an impressive variety of profanities to command the team of oxen who dragged the logs to the water's edge where they were towed to saw mills bloggers or bush apes as they were called were often heavy drinkers we used to get a lot of fallers back from vancouver after a weekend of drinking they wouldn't do anything on monday or tuesday but after they got over their booze from town they're good men [Music] working in the woods was extremely dangerous you never knew if you'd come back or not in my career in the bush i had to pack out eight guys the last one was my partner he got jammed between logs and he squeezed him about as thin as that tabletop a man don't stand much show when the end of an inch and a quarter cable snaps at him like a whiplash i seen a feller on house sound get cut square in two with a cable end once while the forests were falling a few timber barons became fabulously wealthy but as early as 1890 voices were questioning the sustainability of the industry it is difficult to realize that the vast resources of british columbia can be exhausted but the fact will sooner or later be proven the same process which leveled the magnificent forests of new england will find its way to our fair province and follow the same course by 1899 bc had exported 250 million board feet of lumber enough wood to circle the earth twice it was may 3rd 1887. near nanaimo fifteen-year-old michael lyons and his father james went to work at the wellington coal mines they had no idea what fate had in store for them that day the government mine inspector had warned colbert and robert dunsmere that his minds were not safe but production continued the scene around the shaft is most horrendous 12 bodies have been taken out some are dead and others seriously burned little hopes of rescuing any more alive are entertained those not killed immediately would likely be suffocated by the after damp toxic gases released by the explosion [Music] the first man found was alexander muir and just behind him 22 white men and 12 chinese muir had been guiding the way out just as they had come into the slope the after dam struck [Music] one young fellow had written in white chalk on his shovel thirteen hours after the explosion in deepest misery weeping wives and sorrowing fathers hovering the vicinity as each cage comes up anxious hearts look for the glad tidings that never come [Music] at 12 o'clock the body of michael lyons aged 15 was found he was badly burned about the head and hands god help the heartbroken widows and fatherless children within our gates the body of michael's father james was recovered several days later on that terrible day in may 150 men lost their lives making it the second worst mining disaster in canadian history [Music] nestled in the hills of the slokan valley lies the village of sandon now it is reduced to a handful of buildings surrounded by ruins but in the 1890s it was the thriving capital of the slokan silver boom it boasted an opera house saloons a curling rink and a multitude of gambling halls its red light district had 80 brothels sandon became known as the monte carlo of canada it was the first town in bc to be fully serviced by electricity and sand and sean brightly illuminated by the newly invented electric street lamp [Music] the slokan silver boom started a race between the canadian pacific railway and the american-owned caslow and slokan the k and s were first to complete their line to sandon the cpr was only a few days behind hostilities erupted when k s officials claimed the newly built cpr station obstructed their right-of-way they sent a crew to sandon in the middle of the night wrapped cables around the station and using a locomotive wrenched the building off its foundation sending it crashing into the creek it was the beginning of a railway war that continued for more than 10 years as sandon entered the 20th century a great fire swept through the town and the recently rebuilt cpr station was dynamited supposedly to prevent the fire from spreading to the red light district sandon never recovered its former glory with its minds in decline the population dwindled to a handful today the town is all but abandoned and few but ghosts wander at streets [Music] little more than a century ago the lonely island of darcy was prison to a handful of men and one woman who would banish there to die the only crime was that they had leprosy and they were almost all chinese the first of those afflicted were discovered in victoria's chinatown in 1891. when preparations were made for their transfer to their boat they begged for delay so fraught were they with terror that one of them seized a sharp knife and attempted to cut his throat when questioned he said he wanted to die because he could not see his friends again four years after the colony was created a journalist visited the island about 18 miles from victoria is a little green island on which seven unfortunate human beings are prisoner for life every three months a small harbour steamer bears the municipal health officer on a visit of inspection and leaves the stores that are required to keep the lepers alive these are the only breaks in the hopeless monotony of the leper's living death the buildings are divided into little cell-like cabins one for each leper here he sleeps reads does whatever he can to kill the time that separates him from death they're better off than half the white people these hard times is the observation of inspector conlon fairly contented if we keep them supplied with opium the faces of the lepers do not indicate contentment they do not indicate anything [Music] all emotions seem killed and as the ravages of the disease progress the poor victims seem little by little less a human being these seven form the leper colony of darcy island and though each day they can see the smoke of passing steamers they know that none will ever stop to bear them back to freedom when civilization [Music] darcy island remained a prison for 31 years in 1924 its remaining inhabitants were moved to a better facility a government report read all cabins burned [Music] if you lived in victoria in the late 1800s you probably had your photo taken by hannah maynard mother of five hannah was a traveler spiritualist and british columbia's first female photographer her husband richard came to bc searching for gold and she followed in 1862 shortly thereafter she opened one of victoria's first portrait studios [Music] in addition to a form of trick photography known as statuette portraits hannah produced a series of multiple exposure photographs that featured herself and her grandson in a variety of bizarre scenes though she sent samples to the st louis and canadian photographer magazine its editor merely regarded these virtuosic images as on the free quarter hannah taught her husband to use a camera and together they opened maynard's photography on pandora street for half a century hannah was victoria's most sought after portrait photographer she was even contracted to take mug shots for the police department upon finally retiring in 1912 she proclaimed i think i can say with every confidence that we photographed everyone in the town [Music] 150 years ago vancouver was an ancient rainforest with massive cedars reaching as high as modern skyscrapers the squamish musqueam and slaytooth people lived here for thousands of years i remember when vancouver was all timber and the elk would swim across the bay on the beach lots of canoes everything was plenty the indian never got hungry early european settlers were attracted by the deep waters and massive trees in 1865 the hastings sawmill opened and the trees started falling a one-time steamboat captain saw a business opportunity and arrived one drizzly afternoon with a barrel of whiskey for sale his name was john dayton but on account of his endless chatter locals called him gassy jack it was a loathsome place when i came i'd dare not look outdoors after dark gassy jack enlisted the help of the sawmill workers and within 24 hours vancouver's first bar opened at the corner of what is now carol and water whiskey was served daily with church service offered on sunday [Music] i knew this place when it was mark granville on the map but its common name was gas town there was about two dozen little shacks and the inhabitants only numbered about 50. lots were brought at auction for 100 bucks back then there were narrow trails and logging roads and i grew up my way through the dark with a lantern for almost 20 years gas town was a sleepy village on the edge of a swamp but all that changed when it was chosen as the terminal city for the canadian pacific railway and its name changed to vancouver [Music] do over the next decade the face of british columbia was transformed as the population exploded as the province entered the 20th century this rainforest at the edge of the world no longer seemed so remote [Music] the arrival of the telephone the automobile and the aeroplane connected us to the rest of the globe [Music] this modern era also brought another invention that would forever affect how our stories could be told the photographs begin to move and in a way that was never possible before our history comes alive [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] you

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Length: 50min 27sec (3027 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 24 2020