Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Minute book
General material designation
- textual record
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Series
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1897-1909, 2007 (Creation)
- Creator
- Bella Coola Colony
Physical description area
Physical description
2 cm of textual records
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
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Numbering within publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Bella Coola Colony was established in 1894 to bring Norwegian immigrants to the area. Approximately 80 immigrants travelled from Minnesota to Bella Coola that year, becaming the largest non-Native settlement in the valley. Prior to that, there had been fewer than 20 non-Natives living in the area, and many of these had only arrived in 1892.
The area was chosen for several reasons. The Canadian government was in the process of encouraging Scandinavian, German and British citizens to settle in the province, and Norwegian anthropologist B F Jacobsen had written favourably about the area, comparing the landscape to that in Norway. At the same time, Reverend Christian Saugstad in Minnesota sought to move his congregation, partly due to a disagreement within the church. As a result, each settler was promised 160 acres of land contingent on the fulfillment of homesteading duties such as clearing the land and erecting buildings.
By 1895, the colonists had erected a post office and built additional roads and bridges and a further 98 colonists arrived. The settlers began to collect taxes and opened a general store. The post office in Kristiana, later known as Hagensborg, opened and a school was built.
The community relocated in 1904 to the north side of the Bella Coola river.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The series consists of a minute book, in Norwegian, of the Bella Coola Colonization Society. It also includes a translation of the book into English made by Peter Solhjell in 2007.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Presented by Milo Fougner, Vancouver, 1983. Translation donated by Peter Solhjell in 2007.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script note
Norwegian. Also English translation.
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Accession number(s): 2008.43.1; 83-032