Firm index book and individual index book kept at New Westminster Court Registry. Entries are for many communities in the lower mainland: Abbotsford, Agassiz, Burnaby, Cloverdale, Clearwater, Coquitlam, Deer Lake, Delta, Langley, Haney, Langley, Matsqui, Maillardville, Maple Ridge, Mission, New Westminster, Port Kells, Richmond, Sapperton, Surrey, Whalley and White Rock.

The item is a video copy of a documentary film which shows the Fraser River flood of May-June 1948, and the emergency relief operations of the Canadian Red Cross. Includes: aerial views of Coast Mountains, flood area, flooded farms and communities; flood scenes at Mission, Hatzic, Matsqui and elsewhere; military personnel and amphibious vehicles at work; construction of dikes; Red Cross personnel; military aircraft involved.

Stock shots. "Subjects covered: Inmates working in sawmill. General scene of camp. Clearing brush. Planting seedlings. Cutaways include logging truck fully loaded along mountain road. Seedling close-ups. Mountain flowers."

This series consists of the contents of the Fraser River Board library. The majority of records date from 1950-1970. The library consists of reference material used by Board staff, as well as reports and records created by staff and contractors in the course of their work for the Board. Most of the studies were completed by the Fraser River Board, as well as its predecessor, the Joint Dominion-Provincial Board, Fraser River. Some records were also created by the Fraser River Board’s successor, the Fraser River Joint Advisory Board.

The records were maintained in order to document studies of various lakes and rivers with emphasis on determining the most effective ways to reduce the flooding potential of the Fraser River. The primary methods of investigation were to increase storage of water in the upper Fraser River through construction of hydro-electric dams, and to expand and improve the dyke systems in the Fraser Valley. Also included are studies of the economic value of lakes and rivers. Other topics addressed include agriculture, power generation, dyke construction, geography, geology, hydrology, transmission lines, meteorology, navigation, oceanography, pollution, sedimentation or erosion, and fish and wildlife in BC.

The library is arranged in four sections:

Section 1 relates to studies of specific sites on the Fraser River, by the Board. Many of these reports contain survey information, technical data, charts, photos and maps relates to the geology or hydrology at a site to determine stability and volumes of water flowage. Many of these reports were created through field work in an attempt to determine potential sites for the construction of dams or water diversion on the Fraser and its tributaries to improve flood control. Other records include: soil samples; technical drawings and design calculations of structures such as dams; studies of watersheds; studies on potential generation and transmission of hydro-electric power; aerial photos; project cost estimates and financial information; assessments of impacts on agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, particularly salmon habitats; as well as oceanography and tidal studies.

Section 2 relates to the Fraser River generally. Much of this material was created by the Board or the Government of BC. Subject matter is similar to section 1, though it includes fewer drafts, technical reports and field note data.

Section 3 contains more general reference material, much of it published, but still relates to places and topics in BC. Some records are created by other government bodies, such as the Canadian government.

Section 4 contains “miscellaneous” library material, much of it was not catalogued. This section includes the final, preliminary, annual and interim reports of the Board and its successors. The section also includes some records about other major dam construction projects in BC, particularly the Columbia River dam. There is also annotated copies of the library index.

Each book or report has a three part call number. The first number is a topical category, such as agriculture or geology (the numbers may vary by section). The second number is a geographical location in BC. The third number is a sequential number. Reports in section 1 have an additional number preceding a “/” which refers to a specific project site on the Fraser River, such as a potential location for a dam. See the original library index for detailed explanations of each of these numbers.

For example, 104/5.1.1 represents McGregor River project / water flowage. Upper Fraser. Item one.

These records were transferred under one time schedule number 890395.

This series consists of the administrative and operational records of the Fraser River Board. The records were created by the Fraser River Board, as well as its predecessor, the Joint Dominion-Provincial Board, Fraser River; and the Fraser River Board’s successor, the Fraser River Joint Advisory Board. The majority of records were created from 1948-1970.

The records were maintained in order to document studies of various lakes and rivers with emphasis on determining the most effective ways to reduce the flooding potential of the Fraser River. The primary methods of investigation were to increase storage of water in the upper Fraser River through construction of hydro-electric dams, and to expand and improve the dyke system in the Fraser Valley. Also included are studies of economic value of lakes and rivers. Other topics addressed include agriculture, power generation, dyke construction, geography, geology, hydrology, transmission lines, meteorology, navigation, oceanography, pollution, sedimentation or erosion, and fish and wildlife in BC.

The records are arranged into the following subseries:

1. Paper files. These records were the contents of filing cabinets and contain a variety of operational records. Most files are either project files related to the creation of reports in GR-4074, and raw data or statistics used in the creation of reports. Other records include memorandums, meeting agendas, minutes, and correspondence of Board staff. There are also some subject files of reference material on various topics, such as the history of the Fraser River. Records include draft reports, correspondence, maps, plans, technical drawings, photos, and graphs.

2. Survey field books. Field books of survey and technical studies conducted along the Fraser River and its tributaries. Some of this information was likely used in later reports. Records relate to Clearwater River, McGregor River and other locations.

3. Data. Raw data, graphs, charts, diagrams, maps, tables and some aerial photos with information used to create reports. Most information relates to water volumes and potential for power generation.

4. Outgoing mail and reports. Outgoing correspondence, memorandums, completed reports, meeting minutes and meeting agendas filed chronologically from 1951 to 1964.

5. Photos and negatives. Images document field work, scenery and location of work. Many images were used in later reports. Some aerial photos, including documentation of the 1948 flood in the Fraser Valley.

These records were transferred under one time schedule number 890395.

Shows railway lines and facilities.

Footage. Mainly shows commercial and tourist activities in the middle and upper Fraser Valley. Shots include: a small freighter on the Fraser River; Brackman-Ker Milling Company (New Westminster); aerial view of an urban area; Johnston Bros. & Byrnell Freight Lines (Chilliwack); "Valley Celery" packing plant; Harrison Lake tourists and resorts; lake barges; a residential street; dairy cattle; berry picking and packing (Hatzic, B.C.); a railway platform; and the Bungalow Garage and Cafe in Matsqui.

CALL NUMBER: T0717:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-03-15 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Toop recounts the early history of the Yarrow District; Volkart Vedder and family; early settlers; the Toop family who came to Chilliwack in 1874; incidents involving the changing course; of the Vedder River; family history; Sampson Toop; homesteading; roads and trails. TRACK 2: Mr. Toop talks about his family's journey to Chilliwack; the flood of 1894; dairy products; shipping to t;he creamery, Fraser Valley Milk Producers Association; BC Electric; childhood memories; Sumas United Church; growing hops; draining of Sumas Lake.

CALL NUMBER: T0717:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-03-15 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Toop continues with his discussion of draining the Sumas Lake; early schemes for dyking Sumas; the Mennonite community; Yarrow; early settlers; the Vedder family; Sardis. [TRACK 2: blank;.]

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1964-03-18 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Clark recounts his father's [Robert Clark] arrival in BC in the 1860s with the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Victoria. Mr. Clark was left an orphan at the age of three; as a child, he lived at Port Kells; as a boy, he later traveled and worked in Spences Bridge, New Westminster, and Seattle, and hunted and trapped in Lillooet and Stave Lake. Around 1895, he moved into the Surrey are;a; hunted, trapped, traveled; worked on the New Westminster bridge; and built boats. He talks about his early life at Port Kells; Barnston Island; early settlers; Shannon; Kells; Lewis Dodson; Joe Bossi; early adventures; Yale; the Reverend Tait; Fort Langley. TRACK 2: Mr. Clark continues with recollections about travel in the area; Yale Road; Scott Road; Semiahmoo trail; early Sumas; Chilliwack; river boats; Mission; the first cannery; sawmills; Brownsville; hotels; Johnny Wise; Fort Langley; cranberries; Port Mann; other memories.

CALL NUMBER: T1096:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-05-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Garnet E. Willis talks about his father and the people of the Chilliwack and the Similkameen region, 1894 to 1916. He describes how his family farmed near Sardis; what Chilliwack was like in his youth; steamboats on the Fraser; Harrison House; hard work on farms; school days; stories about Bill Miner; stories about John Ryder and his family; the Nelson brothers; how his father hauled freight; his father's background with the fur brigade; a discussion of the brigade route; details of his father's travels in Fort Garry, California and BC; his father's claims in the Cariboo; how his father logged on the present site of Vancouver; and John Beatty. TRACK 2: Mr. Willis continues with a story about an old man; the circumstances by which he came to the Similkameen area with his father in 1914; an anecdote about his father and the farm at Sumas; a comparison of Chilliwack and Similkameen areas; cattle and cattle drives over the Dewdney Trail; several stories about travels on the Hope Trail; a discussion of Herman Grell, known as "Shorty" Dunn; Jack Budd; and train robber Bill Miner.

CALL NUMBER: T1096:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1965-05-28 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Willis continues with more on Shorty Dunn of Bill Miner's gang; a story about Pat Kennedy of Princeton; Jim Slater; a story about Charlie Rheinhardt; Price Chandler; the beginning of Keremeos; Keremeos centre; the town of Loomis, Washington; a description of Princeton in 1913; Bill Allison; Mr. Willis' own place near Princeton; several stories about August Carlson; a story about Steve Mangat; the Olalla Mine; other mines and drilling. TRACK 2: Mr. Willis offers a story about Duncan Woods of the Hedley Mascot Mine; a discussion of his wife's uncle, a packer named John Worth; Bill Bristol and his stopping house east of Hope; a discussion of "Colonel" Robert Stevenson and his tall stories; a story about tracking lost cattle; more about Stevenson; more about Jack Budd and Bill Miner; and a story about a foot race in Montana.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-20 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: George Medd talks about his father's coming from Yorkshire to settle in Langley in 1876; clearing land; growing up on the farm; selling produce; the local cheese factory; BC Electric; farm ;life; a cougar incident. Mrs. Medd talks about coming with her parents from New Brunswick; she taught at Milner School in 1912 and describes school conditions, the original school building, and the new school building; the community of Milner; social events; Murrayville; local incidents; May Day celebrations; a court case.

The item is a film reel of unedited footage from ca. 1971 to 1973. It contains extensive footage shot from and of gliders, probably in the Fraser Valley near Hope. Includes a hundred-foot segment that probably shows the remnants of the abandoned settlement of Walhachin. The ghost town footage included in this reel resembles the brief "Walhachin" sequence in the travelogue "Mirrors to the Sun", so this reel probably consists of footage shot for that film.

RECORDED: Matsqui (B.C.), 1981-08 SUMMARY: Mrs. Dempster was born on a Vancouver farm, and attended school in Vancouver and Victoria. She took an degree in agriculture at Guelph. After marrying in Vancouver, she and her husband moved to a farm in Matsqui. She tells of the ups and downs of farm life.

News item. Girl Guide camp scenes -- swimming, tenting, campfire, Indian crafts, sing-along, etc.

CALL NUMBER: T0768:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Guy Richardson recounts his parents' early life in Iowa and Tacoma in 1881; his father-in-law, the Reverend Bell, coming to Ladner in 1881, and later Surrey Centre; his mother-in-law's arrival; his parents' friendship with the Bell family; the Richardson family settling in Surrey Centre in 1887; building of the church in 1884; logging; early family life; the family's teaming business; railways; the 1912 fire; the family's logging operation and mills. TRACK 2: Mr. Richardson continues with recollections about mills in the area; bear incidents; shingle bolts; Christmas celebrations; communities in Surrey; dances and childhood activities. Mrs. Lucy Richardson talks about her father, the Reverend Bell; the family; childhood activities; area residents; picnics; clothing; church; people; doctors; anecdotes about her mother and her father.

CALL NUMBER: T0768:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-08 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mrs. Richardson talks about her father, the Reverend Bell; his missionary work; his living in Sapperton and Central Park; Orangemen; his appearance; Johnny Wise. [TRACK 2: blank.]

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1975 SUMMARY: [No content summary available.];

CALL NUMBER: T2792:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Harry Brown's family; Dairy farming in the Fraser Valley before the Depression; selling milk to individual buyers; organisation of Fraser Valley Milk Producers; moving to the Cariboo, Likely; and Horsefly; ranching in Beaver Valley during the 1940s; what the place was like when he bought it; getting the ranch going; haying; feeding cattle; daily chores and routine; milking cows and shipping; cream to Williams Lake and Quesnel. TRACK 2: Ranching Beaver Valley; leisure time in the winter; feeding cattle in the winter; travel by horse and cutter in winter time; condition of roads; cattle drives to Williams Lake; Williams Lake in the 1940s; operating a general store in Horsefly in the 1950s; managing a men's clothing store in Williams Lake; Horsefly in the early 1940s; the general store in Horsefly from 1950 to 1958. CALL NUMBER: T2792:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1977 SUMMARY: Harry talks about his years living in the Corner House, a large rambling log house in the centre of Horsefly; taking in boarders; feeding people; the General Store in Horsefly in the 1950s; bringing in beer for the local population; Niquidet's freight line from Williams Lake to Horsefly in the 1950s; customers; trappers, hunters, locals, tourists, forestry people; store goods; on the ranch in Beaver Valley; chores, fencing, irrigation; buying seed; pigs; the log home that was on the place when Harry moved in; building a barn; comparison between farming in the Fraser Valley and the Cariboo; winter on the ranch; Melba's father, Harry's father-in-law; food on the ranch.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-02-22 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Harry (Henry G.) Mufford recounts his father's [Thomas Mufford] coming from Cornwall and settlement in Milner in 1885. He talks about the community of Milner; Langley Prairie School; wildlife; roads; shipping milk and hay; the Mufford Brothers Dairy Farm; weather; driving livestock into New Westminster; a farm disaster; neighbourhood quarrels; politics; saloons in Fort Langley; owning the first threshing machine in the area in 1898. [TRACK 2: blank.]

CALL NUMBER: T1657:0001 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-05-02 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Weaver recounts his parents' arrival in Vancouver from Cheshire; England in 1887; his grandfather [Woodward] was already living in BC; his family later moved to Delta in 1894. He discuss;es early life on the family farm; schooling; game; draining and preparation of the land; mud shoes for the horses; ploughing; soil conditions; drinking water; crops; Brackman and Ker; transportation; ;roads; schooling; other settlers; the McKee family; farm produce; West Delta settlement; flooding and dyking. TRACK 2 Mr. Weaver continues his discussion about the dredging operation; the Oliver Slough; the Great Northern Railway; Old Man Morgan; recollections of John Oliver; fish trapping; picnics at Blackie's Spit; Frank Burns; early settlers; Old Man Morgan; John Woodward; logging in the area.

CALL NUMBER: T1657:0002 RECORDED: [location unknown], 1963-05-02 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Weaver talks about the roads in the area; weather conditions; mosquitoes; Butler's Corner; Tom Ladner's property; threshing work; [pause]; local incidents. [TRACK 2: blank.]

RECORDED: Matsqui (B.C.), 1981-08 SUMMARY: Mr. Walters was a cross cut saw logger and original Fraser Valley farmer. All work was done by hand.;

Promotional film. Extant footage primarily shows handicapped children swimming, playing, doing arts and crafts activities, etc., at Easter Seal camp and various schools (Jericho, Oakridge, etc.). Also shots of Easter Seal buses of the BC Society for Crippled Children; use of Easter Seals; Easter Seal House; the Lower Fraser Valley Cerebral Palsy Association Children's Treatment Centre.

RECORDED: [location unknown], [1960?] SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Mr. Logan recounts his parents' early life in Esquimalt; the family moved to New Westminster in 1909. Mr. Logan started with the BC Electric at age thirteen; he describes his first job; financial background of BCE; his first trip to Chilliwack; weekender special trains to Sumas; World War I; job advancement; post-war; his employment in various positions; train dispatching; train master; and the superintendent for rail operations. He discusses the railway's effect on the Fraser Valley's economic development; the station buildings; the route; mills and logging shipments; freight; population of the valley; milk-trains; pride of the employees; and the M.B. King Lumber Co. at Newton. TRACK 2: Mr. Logan discusses transcontinental freight rates; international trade; freight traffic; financial arrangements with the CPR; BC Electric services; the train route and stations from New Westminster to Chilliwack; local traffic; farm freight; truck traffic; World War II; the end of passenger service in 1950; bus traffic; Pacific Stages; trainmen; "bloomer days"; and traffic growth.

Thirty-five letters inward from Charles Edward Searle (tutor, Pembroke College, Cambridge University, England) to Thomas George Askew; nine letter books, 1884-1928, of Henry and John Hulbert, Sardis; 14 ledgers of Hulbert family farm, Sardis. (John Hulbert was the grandson of T.G. Askew, who built the first lumber mill at Chemainus.)

Presented from the estate of John Hulbert, Koksilah by David R. Williams, Duncan, 1975.

Finding aid: file list.

The item is a composite print of a travelogue from 1976. An airline passenger waiting for his flight is introduced to the scenic and recreational attractions of B.C. by a talking issue of Beautiful B.C. magazine. Includes footage of Victoria (streets, Swiftsure yacht race), Butchart Gardens, boating, Friendly Cove, Della Falls, Gold River, camping scenes, Campbell River fishing derby, loggers' sports, Nanaimo bathtub race, Vancouver (skyline, streets, Gastown, Queen Elizabeth Park, Stanley Park, restaurants, theatres), Whistler Mountain skiing, Fraser Valley, Fraser Canyon, Indian salmon fishing, Thompson-Nicola country, cattle ranching, rodeo, wildlife, fresh-water fishing, Okanagan Valley scenes, Kelowna Regatta.

The item is a video master of a travelogue (French version) from 1976. An airline passenger waiting for his flight is introduced to the scenic and recreational attractions of B.C. by a talking issue of Beautiful B.C. magazine. Includes footage of Victoria (streets, Swiftsure yacht race), Butchart Gardens, boating, Friendly Cove, Della Falls, Gold River, camping scenes, Campbell River fishing derby, loggers' sports, Nanaimo bathtub race, Vancouver (skyline, streets, Gastown, Queen Elizabeth Park, Stanley Park, restaurants, theatres), Whistler Mountain skiing, Fraser Valley, Fraser Canyon, Indian salmon fishing, Thompson-Nicola country, cattle ranching, rodeo, wildlife, fresh-water fishing, Okanagan Valley scenes, Kelowna Regatta.

This series consists of correspondence, petitions, accounts, statements of population, and reports relating to land of Indigenous peoples in British Columbia from the Department of the Provincial Secretary.