British Columbia’s First Capital City

Victoria hasn’t always been our capital city. Even before New Westminster’s short-lived reign as the capital of the crown colony of mainland BC and Vancouver Island was a separate entity, there was another contender: Derby.

Established on the original site of Fort Langley, Derby was conceived in the summer of 1858 by a land speculator. In September the Victoria Gazette reported that James H. Ray had “pre-empted” 1,200 acres near Fort Langley and was in the process of dividing them into town lots.

Ray certainly was a man of initiative and innovation; too bad for him that his vision was never fulfilled.

But it does make a good story—as you’ll see in this week’s BC Chronicles.

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PHOTO: Today, Fort Langley is a National Historic Site and popular tourist attraction—but not our provincial capital, alas, alas.—parkscanada.ca