| New Caledonia | |||||||||
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| District ofHudson's Bay Company | |||||||||
| 1805–1858 | |||||||||
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| Capital | Fort St. James | ||||||||
| Historical era | Maritime fur trade | ||||||||
• Established | 1805 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1858 | ||||||||
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| Today part of | British Columbia, Canada | ||||||||
New Caledonia was a fur-trading district of theHudson's Bay Company that comprised the territory of the north-central portions of present-dayBritish Columbia, Canada. Though not aBritishcolony, New Caledonia was part of the British claim to North America. Its administrative centre wasFort St. James.[1] The rest of what is now mainland British Columbia was called theColumbia Department by the British, and theOregon Country by the Americans. Even before the partition of the Columbia Department by theOregon Treaty in 1846, New Caledonia was often used to describe anywhere on the mainland not in the Columbia Department, such asFort Langley in the Fraser Valley.
The explorations ofJames Cook andGeorge Vancouver, and the concessions ofSpain in 1792 established the British claim to the coast north ofCalifornia. Similarly, British claims were established inland via the explorations of such men asSir Alexander Mackenzie,Simon Fraser,Samuel Black,David Thompson, andJohn Finlay, and by the subsequent establishment offur trading posts by theNorth West Company and theHudson's Bay Company (HBC). However, until 1849, the region which now comprises British Columbia was an unorganized area ofBritish North America. UnlikeRupert's Land to the north and east, the departments of New Caledonia and its southern neighbour,Columbia, were not concessions to HBC. Rather, the company was simply granted a monopoly to trade with theFirst Nations inhabitants after its merger with the North West Company in 1821.
For all intents and purposes, New Caledonia came into being with the establishment of the first Britishfur trading posts west of the Rocky Mountains by Simon Fraser and his crew, during their explorations of 1805–08. These were Fort George (laterPrince George) at the junction of theFraser andNechako rivers,Fort Fraser onFraser Lake,Hudson's Hope, near the Peace River Canyon,Fort McLeod on McLeod Lake, north of Fort George, and the administrative headquarters of the district,Fort St. James, on the shore ofStuart Lake. In its proper sense, New Caledonia at first thus comprised the territory of the northwestern Interior Plateau drained by thePeace,Stuart andBulkley river systems. The origin of the name is generally attributed[according to whom?] to Simon Fraser and his companions, to whom the hills and woodlands were reminiscent of theScottish Highlands.
The boundaries of the department were vague, and changed over time. For all practical purposes, New Caledonia extended as far as the economic relationships enjoyed by its designatedtrading posts, which greatly expanded over the years. The eastern boundary had been considered to be theRocky Mountains, the northern boundary theFinlay River, and the southern boundary theCariboo or theThompson River drainage. The region south of the Thompson River and north of the then Mexico border, the42nd parallel north, was designated as theColumbia District. TheColumbia Department was governed first fromFort Astoria, then fromFort Vancouver (present dayVancouver, Washington). Westward migration of American settlers by theOregon Trail led to theOregon boundary dispute. The signing of theOregon Treaty in 1846 ended disputed joint occupation of areas west of the Rocky Mountains pursuant to theTreaty of 1818. The southern boundary of the district was shifted north to the49th parallel, and administration shifted toFort Victoria. Nonetheless, in popular parlance, the entire British-held mainland north of the US boundary and west of the Rockies was known as New Caledonia.
In 1849,Vancouver Island and theGulf Islands in theStrait of Georgia were designated a crown colony in their own right, theColony of Vancouver Island.
New Caledonia continued over the next few years to be administered by the HBC, whose regional chief executive,James Douglas, also happened to be governor of Vancouver Island. This situation was manageable, so long as the European population remained small (about 100, mostly Company employees and their families). All this changed in 1858, however, with the discovery of gold north ofYale, prompting theFraser Canyon Gold Rush and the influx of twenty to thirty thousand people, mostly American. Douglas, who had no legal authority over the region, felt compelled to exert British sovereignty by placing a gunboat at the mouth of theFraser River in order to obtain licence fees fromprospectors seeking to travel upstream. The Britishcolonial office was prompted into action, and legislation was passed designating New Caledonia a crown colony on August 2, 1858. The name given the new entity was theColony of British Columbia, and a new capital,New Westminster, was established on the southern reaches of the Fraser River.
The name New Caledonia is still used in official and commercial names in the region (e.g., theCollege of New Caledonia and theDiocese of Caledonia inPrince George; Caledonia Sr. Secondary School inTerrace).
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