Interfor Mill and reflection in water with birds, circa 1990s.

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salishan Place by the River currently maintains a collection of over 9000 photographs, 2000 archival documents, 9000 objects, 500 works of art, and 300 oral history recordings. This collection, spanning hundreds of years, is a wonderful window on the past and present life of our community.

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Object Description

Object Name

Print, Photographic

Object ID

2012.056.007

Title

Interfor Mill and reflection in water with birds, circa 1990s.

Date

[between 1990 and 2005].

Description

1 colour photograph; a close-up of Interfor Mill (McDonald Cedar Mill or Fort Langley Sawmill) buildings, with Bedford Channel visible in the foreground, reflecting the Mill buildings; on right, piles of red sawdust; at the water's edge, there are wooden pilings in the water; birds fly in front of the building.

People/Subject

Bedford Channel

Bedford Landing Development

Bedford Landing Development, built by ParkLane Homes, was built on the land of the Fort Langley Saw Mill (Interfor Mill) on Bedford Channel circa 2006.

Fort Langley Sawmill

Sawmill located in Fort Langley, on the Fraser River on the west side of the Haldi Bridge. Developed in 1920s by Messers Irvin, Young and Kidd of New Westminster. Believed they started using the site as a tie mill in about 1928 or 1929, and later enlarged the operation to include dimension lumber. Wilfred (Winky) Muench used to graze his cattle on the west end of the mill site. The mill used to burn their waste on the land to the west of the mill, but with a breeze it got all of the village ladies laundry dirty. Local tradition records the mill as having a series of short-term owners in the 1930s. An Indo-Canadian, Lal Singh, bought the mill in the mid 1930s and ran it as the Fort Langley Sawmill. Singh sold the mill to a New Westminster firm (John R. Morley) who ran it as "Fort Langley Sawmills Limited" and subsequently sold it to McLellan and Fred Chadwick in about 1942. Chadwick built the water tower. The Langley Advance newspaper reported on May 11, 1939, that Langley businessmen were among the 17 who formed a company to acquire the Sawmill, which had been sitting idle for the previous 18 months. Due to flooding in the 1940s, a raised platform was built, as well as a larger dyke in 1949. The mill burned in the early 1950s and was rebuilt in 1951-52 as McDonald Cedar, by Bob and Ian McDonald. The McDonalds built the beehive burner in the mid 1950s. Sauder Industries purchased the mill in 1973, but retained the familiar McDonald Cedar name for many years afterward. The mill later became part of the Interfor network of mills. Dimension lumber ceased to be manufactured in about 1977, when the mill was retooled to become a remanufacturing plant. The mill operated until 1996 and was demolished and sold as the Bedford Landing housing development in approximately 2006. Also includes the Fort-to-Fort trail, which, in 2010, began including artifacts along the trail, including a 50 foot saw, to commemorate the mill.

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