Fort Langley Brigade Days

The Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Langley on the Fraser River in the mid-1800s as a shipment point to which interior fur posts would send their year's trappings back to England.

The furs would be packed into large canoes and these brigades of voyageurs would paddle down the various waterways of the interior of British Columbia to Fort Langley.

The occasion of the arrival of the brigades was greeted with anticipation and celebration. The Fort resonated with the trading, re-supplying, competitions, drinking, and partying from men who spent most of their days far in the interior. By summer's end, they would return to the interior and the cycle would be repeat itself.

Today Fort Langley is a Parks Canada National Historic Site. Every summer, to commemorate B.C. Day on August 1st, re-enactors come from all over B.C. and Washington State, to pitch their canvas tents and cook over an open fire. For three days they live in the Fort in a way that is as historically correct as possible. Visitors to the Fort are transported in time, introduced to a living past that would otherwise be but a two-dimensional reproduction in a history book.

See photos of Brigade Day celebrations.

Learn more about the history of Fort Langley.