Canadian forest industries 1911 (1911) (20515453072)

Fraser Mills was a municipality in British Columbia on the north bank of the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

, incorporated in 1913, but since amalgamated with the City of Coquitlam.

History

Located on the northern shore of the

, the area was originally the site of a sawmill. The mill was known at first as the Ross McLaren Mill and opened in 1889. However, it closed soon after when co-founder James McLaren died. The site remained unused for many years until the mill was reopened as the Fraser River Sawmills. Due to a labour shortage, 400 Francophones were recruited from Quebec. They settled in an area just north of the mill now known as

Maillardville Maillardville is a community on the south slope of the city of Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. History In 1889, Frank Ross and James McLaren opened what would become Maillardville, a $350,000, modern lumber mill on the north bank of the Fras ...

. Similarly in the early 20th century, many Punjabi Sikhs came to work in the mills and settled on the south slope of Coquitlam. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

many workers were laid off. Wage reductions which were imposed on the remaining workforce led to a ten-week strike. The mill eventually closed in 2001.

Location

The Fraser Mills neighbourhood is located in the southwestern part of Coquitlam, and south of the Maillardville neighbourhood, which was founded as a townsite for the workers at the large lumber mill whose grounds comprised Fraser Mills. It was just east of the boundary of the City of New Westminster and mostly on the south side of the

Trans-Canada The Trans-Canada Highway (French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the Atlantic Ocean on ...

and Lougheed Highways. The site for many years after its abandonment was the Terranova landfill for

Greater Vancouver Greater Vancouver, also known as Metro Vancouver, is the metropolitan area with its major urban centre being the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The term "Greater Vancouver" is roughly coterminous with the geographic area governed b ...

waste disposal, land which has since become a focus for big-box store development along United Boulevard, which has come to serve as an alternate route for traffic bypassing jams on the adjacent freeway and highway. The city has designated the area as Waterfront Village Centre and has re-zoned it to include both commercial and residential use.

References

External links

BCGNIS entry "Fraser Mills (community)"Fraser Mills history
Populated places on the Fraser River Former municipalities in British Columbia Labour disputes in British Columbia {{GVRD-geo-stub

History

Location

See also

References

External links