Fort Langley

Fort Langley
Community
Fort Langley Community Hall
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	Lower Mainland
Regional district	Metro Vancouver
District Municipality	Langley, British Columbia (district municipality)
Population
• Total	3,400
Time zone	Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC-7)
Area code(s)	604, 778, 236

Fort Langley is a village community with a population of 3,400 and forms part of the Township of Langley. It is the home of Fort Langley National Historic Site, a former fur trade post of the Hudson's Bay Company. Lying on the Fraser River, Fort Langley is at the northern edge of the Township of Langley.

Fort Langley dates from a time when the boundary between British and American possession of the trans-montan west, known as the Columbia District to the British and Oregon Country to Americans, had not yet been decided. Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, realized that Fort Vancouver opposite of present-day Portland, Oregon might be lost to the Americans if the border did not follow the Columbia River. Fearing the 49th parallel north could become the demarcation line, Simpson ordered the Hudson's Bay Company to construct the original Fort Langley in 1827 at a location 4 km downstream from its present site. Fort Langley was intentionally constructed on the south bank of the Fraser River in the event that Fort Vancouver was lost to the Americans, then Fort Langley would secure British claims to both sides of the Fraser. By 1830, Fort Langley had become a major export port for salted salmon in barrels, as well as cedar lumber and shingles to the Hawaiian Islands. The Cowlitz Portage overland route connected Fort Langley to Fort Vancouver with a mid-way stop at Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound.