FISHING
The story of British Columbia’s resource industries began in the 1840s with the preservation of salmon, first in barrels and then in cans, for export as well as home use. Commercial fishing grew rapidly with the development of the canning process, which allowed the export of salmon to the large markets in eastern Canada and Europe. Hundreds of canneries were built along the coast, from the Fraser estuary in the south to Prince Rupert and the Nass River in the north. Cold storage plants constructed at Prince Rupert and Victoria enabled even more fish to be caught and processed. Improvements to gill net boats and the legalization of purse seining increased the catch of salmon and herring. Trolling, at first by hand and then mechanically, provided fishers with another way for catching what seemed, at the time, to be an inexhaustible supply of fish.

FORESTRY
Forestry, which was to become BC’s largest and most lucrative resource industry, began with the establishment of Anderson’s Mill at the head of Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The first steam-driven sawmill in the province, Anderson’s Mill produced lumber until 1864, when it closed because of the difficulty of transporting logs to the mill. A second large saw mill, Hastings Mill, began operation in 1865 on the south shore of Burrard Inlet. For the next 33 years it was a major producer of lumber for local and export markets. Small mills along the coast and inland processed timber from trees in their own area. They also provided the lumber required to build the towns which sprang up in response to rapid economic growth. As sawmills - like the one at Chemainus on Vancouver Island - began to produce ever-greater quantities of raw lumber for export, the income to the province generated by forestry overtook mining and fishing.

By the turn of the century, and for the next 70 years, B.C. was truly the land of opportunity for men and women willing to work hard to earn their living from the resources of land and sea.

TRANSPORTATION
Travel had been a challenge since the arrival of miners during the Fraser River gold rush. From Victoria, the miners hadmade their way across the open waters of the Strait of Georgia as best they could, using rowboats, canoes or sailing dinghies. A steamship service was started, providing transport up the Fraser as far as Yale. Prompted by the gold rush, the construction of the Cariboo Road in the 1860s opened up the interior of the province, reducing travel time to the mining towns of Wells and Barkerville. On the coast, ships from the Union Steamship Company carried passengers, food, equipment, medical supplies, and mail to isolated communities, canneries and logging camps from 1889 to 1958. 1889 also saw the first transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway passenger train reach its west coast terminus in Vancouver’s Yaletown.

MINING
By 1858 thousands of gold miners were arriving from California to seek their fortunes, first on the gravel bars of the Fraser River and then in the mines of Lillooet and the Cariboo region. Deposits of coal, silver, lead, zinc and copper ore on Vancouver Island and in the Kootenays attracted American, English, Irish, Croat, Scandinavian, Japanese and Chinese workers. Towns like Hedley, Nanaimo, Rossland, Cumberland and Britannia Beach grew up around the mines. As the colony, later the province, of British Columbia began to develop industrially because of its rich resource base, transportation systems delivering ore to markets and supplying towns with goods and services were put in place. Reliable transportation by road, rail, and ship was recognized as a key to continued resource expansion and economic growth.