Fort Victoria

Left: Bastion Square today, photo courtesy of Donna's Chasing Clean Air. Right: Bastion at Fort Victoria about 1860 (courtesy of Beacon Hill Park History, by Janis Ringuette)

Victoria, the capital city of BC, also began its life as a Hudson's Bay Company trading fort. Today's Bastion Square is where the old fort was built in 1843 and enlarged in 1846.

In 1849, the Colony of Vancouver Island was created by the British government. Richard Blanshard was the first governor, and was replaced in 1851 by James Douglas. Britain gave the Hudson's Bay company a contract to manage the colony for ten years.

When gold was discovered in the Fraser and Thompson Rivers in 1858, the Gold Rush began. According to John Adams, about 25,000 miners from all over the world flooded in to Victoria for supplies and created a huge boom.