Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

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Circulation Networks

The basic network of roads established during the primacy of the Hudson's Bay Company was still in place in 1860. The principal connecting route between the farms on Lower Plain and the farms on the Back Plains, Fort Plain and Mill Plain still ran along Upper Mill Road in the vicinity of the stockade; the central area from which all major roads sprang was a short stretch of the Upper Mill Road south of the Catholic mission. The "river road" used by the Hudson's Bay Company still existed, skirting the west edge of the fields west of the stockade, however the principal route to the river from this area had gradually shifted west. By the mid-1850s a road ran from the Company's salmon store in a northerly direction through the Kanaka Village area, terminating on Upper Mill Road just west of the small houses flanking the church. The shift followed the change in activity in the area; the road serviced army quartermaster buildings to the west.

The Lower Mill Road, once the major road to the front (south) entrance of the stockade appears to have diminished in importance: by the early fifties, it terminated to the east at the southeast corner of the stockade, disappearing into fields. It began again at the east edge of Fort Plain and followed its original route through the forest, bisecting settler's claims, to the mills. However, the 1846 Covington farm map shows a new road which branched off of Lower Mill Road, near the east end of Fort Plain, and ran somewhat parallel to it, skirting the southernmost cultivated field--in 1844 apparently in potatoes--and connecting to the "river road" almost on a line with the dwelling occupied by "Scarth." This road apparently assumed a greater importance than the original Lower Mill Road which ran next to the stockade, although it may have only been an informal path, skirting the Company's fields to the south for some years. In 1854, only the north edge of this road is indicated on army maps, and is probably a fence containing the field south of the stockade, which terminates at the north-south road bisecting the Company's fields east of the fort, which apparently ran down to the river. By 1859, it is depicted as a road, dividing the potato field from what the map calls "public pastures," which indicates the area south of it was in occupation by the army. It connects with the north-south road between the fields, making a loop around the stockade. It seems likely that this road was in effect the boundary within which the Company was still able to farm by this time. Both the eastward extension of this road, and of Lower Mill Road towards the east end of the plain have disappeared by 1859, because all the land east of the north-south road through the east Company fields was fenced and claimed by squatters. It appears that in 1859, anyone traveling from the area of the mills towards the stockade, barracks, town or wharfs either skirted Fort Plain's eastern edge until they reached Upper Mill Road near the vicinity of the stockade, or traveled along the edge of the Columbia River, on an unmarked path.

Upper Mill Road continued east from the Catholic mission on much the same route established earlier, into the rising ground of Fort Hill and from there on to Mill Plain. Connecting roads from there to the mills and the Back Plains appear to have followed the Hudson's Bay Company routes. To the west, the road ran through the north end of Vancouver City, skirted the forested area--now mostly denuded of trees--which had separated Fort Plain from Lower Plain, and dipped down to the river edge, skirting the south edge of Amos Short's fields. From there it headed north, splitting in two branches, one of which followed the earlier Hudson's Bay Company's road to the West Plain farm area, now in possession of settlers, and the second of which headed in a northwesterly direction, skirting the northern edges of the string of claims along the river in the direction of Chalifoux Lake.

The former Company road to the Back Plains, over Burnt Bridge River, underwent a series of alterations between 1847 and 1860, as the barracks area of the army post developed on the hill north of the fort. By 1859, one road began at the Catholic Mission intersection, heading north towards the Back Plains, skirting the western edge of the post, and then running northeast to Burnt Bridge; through the reservation it followed the general route of the present day McLoughlin Road. At the northwest corner of the post part of the road continued north. A second road appears to have followed the original Hudson's Bay Company route, beginning about one-quarter of a mile east of the intersection, and heading northeast towards the bridge, crossing through the Ordnance Reserve after passing south of the army's 1858 hospital. A third road ran just west of the site of the Hudson's Bay Company barn. At the bridge, the two roads converged and followed the former Company route. There were many secondary roads established within the army reserve, some of which followed tracks and roads established by the Company, and some of which developed as the post grew in size.