Fort Langley Metro Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia

Community - An unincorporated populated place, generally with a population of 50 or more, and having a recognized central area that might contain a post office, store and/or community hall, etc, intended for the use of the general public in the region. N side Langley (City), New Westminster Land District

Mapped Location

Fort Langley: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on Fort Langley

  • Feature Type: Place

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Fort Langley

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name Description
Fort Langley Official

 

Origin Notes and History of Fort Langley

References to Fort Langley that document the origin of its place name

Fort Langley (Post Office) adopted in the 1930 BC Gazetteer. Confirmed 11 Februrary 1936 on 92 G/2. Form of name changed to Langley (Community) 31 December 1982 on 92 G/2.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

Langley Post Office was opened 1 March 1875. Changed to Langley Fort Post Office 1 December 1912 and so-identified on BC Lands map 2B, 1915. Changed to Fort Langley Post Office 1 July 1925.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

Named after Thomas Langley, Hudson Bay Company director (1800-30). In October 1824 Governor Simpson of the HBC, under the misapprehension that the Fraser River provided a navigable route to the Interior, wrote: "I imparted to Mr. McMillan my views in regard to extending the trade to the Northward of Fort George [Astoria] and pointed out to him the importance of having an Establishment at the mouth of Frazer's River [sic]....". Later this same year Chief Trader McMillan made a reconnaissance of the Lower Fraser Valley and in 1827 founded Fort Langley. In 1839 the original fort was abandoned and a new establishment [at the site of present-day Fort Langley] built.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Nelson, Denys; "Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River"; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives  |  Province of British Columbia

 

Related Catalog Titles

A Bibliography for Fort Langley, Metro Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia

Fort Langley, birthplace of British Columbia by B. A. McKelvie, Charles Lillard

Title Cover Image

Co-authored by B.A. McKelvie and Charles Lillard, Fort Langley, Birthplace of British Columbia chronicles the foundational history of the Hudson's Bay Company fur-trading post established along the lower Fraser River in 1827. The book details how the fort evolved from a modest trading stockade dealing in salmon and beaver pelts into the geopolitical staging ground where British colonial rule was officially proclaimed in 1858. Drawing on historical journals and company records, the text illustrates the complex economic web linking fur traders, maritime supply ships, and local Indigenous populations. A keen insight drawn from the work is how the romantic narrative of a colony's "birthplace" obscures its corporate origins; by tracing British Columbia's administrative roots directly back to a commercial trading monopoly, the authors reveal that the region's political foundation was engineered less by heroic statecraft than by the ruthless logistical demands of the fur trade.

112 pages, [8] pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

CIRC [ 1 ]
History · 1st Edition · Porcépic Press, Victoria, B.C., 1991
Related Catalog Items: Fort Langley · Metro Vancouver Regional District

 


The Company on the coast by E. Blanche Norcross, Morag Maclachlan, Nanaimo Historical Society, Malaspina College

Title Cover Image

86 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

CIRC [ 1 ]
History · 1st Edition · Nanaimo Historical Society, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada, 1983
Related Catalog Items: Fort Langley · Fort Rupert

 


Fort Langley outpost of Empire by B. A. McKelvie

Title Cover Image

An account of the Hudson's Bay Company's operation at Fort Langley in southern British Columbia in the early-to-mid 19th Century

ix, 98 pages illustrations (some color) maps (on lining-papers) 27 cm

CIRC [ 0 ]
History · 1st Edition · Vancouver Daily Province, Vancouver, 1947
Related Catalog Items: Fort Langley · Metro Vancouver Regional District

 


 

Metro Vancouver Regional District

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2025-09-23