Fort Langley

 

Fort Langley Field Trip

By Trinity Brinkman

My brother, my Mom, my Dad and I came into the gates of Fort Langley looking for our tour guide. We saw a woman dressed in old-fashioned clothing banging a pot with a spoon and yelling, “Fort Langley tour starting now!” We walked over to her with some people and she explained that we would go into a big white storage house first. We went into it. On one side of the room there was gunpowder, blankets, packages, and chairs. On the other side of the room was a map and furs.  There were fox furs, beaver furs, wolf furs, and many others.

The Hudson’s Bay Company traded the gunpowder, blankets and other things for the furs.

 

 

Next we went to three types of houses that belonged to French, Scottish, Hawaiian workers, and there family. There was a stove in the middle of the room, a children’s bed was in a corner and a doll’s bed was on a little wooden table beside it. They all had families of five living in a similar room. 

After that we went to the main building where the boss lived. He had a family of three and the only European wife in the whole fort.  The rest of the workers’ wives were First Nations women. This building was where British Columbia became a separate colony in 1858.

Just after that we heard guns go off and we ran outside. The demonstration was done but he did it again for us. The guns went off again with a loud bang but we covered our ears. Then he showed us his tent he told us that it was his hobby collecting antiques and having them made for him.  He also let Kyler and I spring a trap.   

  

     Next we panned for gold in dirty water I found seven little painted rocks. To pan I’d put my dish in the water and I’d get a little dirt on it and swish it around.  Since the pretend gold pieces were actually rocks they’d sit on top of the sand and dirt in the trough.

 

          After that we went over to a play. A woman in a purple dress said, “who would like to be Samuel Robertson? ”  He was Fort Langley’s ship builder.  I put up my hand and as you can see in the picture I was a boy for an hour or so. I learned that Sam risked his life for gold and never found it.  Then he learned that he did not have to risk his life for it he could just sell coffee.

  

  After that we visited his grave. 

Maybe you would like to visit it some day.