Background

From AlanMacek.com Canyon
CPR in BC
Background
Surveying
Onderdonk Section
CPR Section
Postscript
Listings
People
Bibliography
Places

This project is very much a work-in-progress. The section on Surveying is the most complete, with detailed descriptions for each year, 1871 to 1879. This section only exists in rudimentary point form.

Main points

  • Vancouver and Vancouver Island joined in 1866
  • Alaska sold to the US in 1867
  • Canada sends lieutenant governor to see about joining Canada
  • delegation from BC to Ottawa (via US railway)
  • an agreement signed on July 7, 1870
"The Government of the Dominion undertake to secure the commencement simultaneously, within two years from the date of the union, of the construction of a railway, from the Pacific toward the Rocky Mountains, and from such point as may be selected, east of the Rocky Mountains toward the Pacific, to connect the seaboard of British Columbia with the railway system of Canada, and further, to secure the completion of such railway within ten years from the date of such union."
  • elections in BC approved a union, also voted by Canada parliament
  • BC joined on July 20, 1871
  • Joseph Trutch was Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia