Viewing Object

See Also: school portraits
Term Source: Sears List of Subject Headings (16th. Ed.)

www.parkscanada.gc.ca/langley ***** The Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Langley in 1827 about 50 km. from the mouth of the Fraser River. The Company's first fort was established on the Fraser River in present day Derby Reach Regional Park, two miles downstream from what is now the village of Fort Langley. Recognition that the site of the fort was vulnerable to flooding and too far from its farming operations resulted in its relocation further upstream on a higher piece of land. A second fort was thus established at the site of the current reconstructed Fort in 1839. It burned in 1840 and was immediately rebuilt in the same location. The Fort mainly served as a provisioning post producing agricultural products and Salmon. The Hudson's Bay Company Fort went to pasture after the company moved its operations to the village of Fort Langley in 1886. From 1888 to the 1920's, the Mavis family farm occupied the land that would later become a National Historic Site. In the late teens and early 1920's, many became interested in the preservation of the historic fort site. Fort Langley was recognized by the federal government's Historic Sites and Monuments Board. At the Board's urging, the local community raised money to purchase three acres of the fur trading post in 1924, including the last remaining building. The HSMB and Native Sons unveiled a plaque commemorating the site in 1925. Between 1931 and 1958, the Native Sons operated a museum display in the Store House, the last remaining Hudson's Bay Company building. In 1955, the Fort was declared a National Historic Site. During the 1958 Centennial (the 100 year anniversary of Governor James Douglas declaring the mainland of present-day British Columbia a British colony), the federal government undertook the partial reconstruction of palisades and buildings at the Fort. The same year saw the construction of the Langley Centennial Museum.

Duncan C. Mackenzie was the Fort Langley National Historic Site's custodian. He was appointed curator in October 1957, 10 months before the official opening of the partially reconstructed historic site. At his retirement at the end of May 1966, he had been an employee of the federal Department of Northern Affairs for 11 years. Before that he had many occupations, including prospecting, gold dredging, truck building, boiler making in shipyards, timekeeper, and with the British army in Europe after the First World War. During his time in Fort Langley he was active on the Board of Trade and on the Langley Centennial Museum advisory board. After his retirement, he and Mrs. Mackenzie (active in her own right in the Fort Langley Community Improvement Association and the Fort Langley Women's Institute) retired to White Rock.