New Caledonia was a fur-trading district of the Hudson's Bay Company that comprised the territory of the north-central portions of present-day British Columbia, Canada. Though not a British colony, New Caledonia was part of the British claim to North America. Its administrative centre was

Fort St. James Fort St. James is a district municipality and former fur trading post in northern central British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Stuart Lake in the Omineca Country, at the northern terminus of Highway 27, which con ...

. The rest of what is now mainland British Columbia was called the Columbia Department by the British, and the

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...

by the Americans. Even before the partition of the Columbia Department by the

Oregon Treaty The Oregon Treaty is a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States that was signed on June 15, 1846, in Washington, D.C. The treaty brought an end to the Oregon boundary dispute by settling competing American and British claims to t ...

in 1846, New Caledonia was often used to describe anywhere on the mainland not in the Columbia Department, such as Fort Langley in the Fraser Valley.

Fur-trading district

The explorations of

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

and

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

, and the concessions of Spain in 1792 established the British claim to the coast north of California. Similarly, British claims were established inland via the explorations of such men as

Sir Alexander Mackenzie Sir Alexander Mackenzie (or MacKenzie, gd, Alasdair MacCoinnich; – 12 March 1820) was a Scottish explorer known for accomplishing the first crossing of America north of Mexico in 1793. The Mackenzie River is named after him. Early life ...

, Simon Fraser, Samuel Black, David Thompson, and John Finlay, and by the subsequent establishment of fur trading posts by the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). However, until 1849, the region which now comprises British Columbia was an unorganized area of British North America. Unlike Rupert's Land to the north and east, the departments of New Caledonia and its southern neighbour,

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

, were not concessions to HBC. Rather, the company was simply granted a monopoly to trade with the First 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 British fur trading posts west of the Rocky Mountains by Simon Fraser and his crew, during their explorations of 1805–08. These were Fort George (later Prince George) at the junction of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, Fort Fraser on

Fraser Lake Fraser Lake is a village in northern British Columbia, Canada. It's located on the southwest side of Fraser Lake between Burns Lake and Vanderhoof alongside the Yellowhead Highway. The small community's population is primarily employed by eithe ...

, Hudson's Hope, near the Peace River Canyon,

Fort McLeod McLeod Lake is an unincorporated community located on Highway 97 in northern British Columbia, Canada, north of Prince George. It is notable for being the first continuously inhabited European settlement established west of the Rocky Mountains ...

on McLeod Lake, north of Fort George, and the administrative headquarters of the district,

, located on the shore of Stuart Lake. In its proper sense, New Caledonia at first thus comprised the territory of the northwestern Interior Plateau drained by the Peace,

Stuart Stuart may refer to: Names * Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Northe ...

and Bulkley river systems. The origin of the name is generally attributed to Simon Fraser and his companions, to whom the hills and woodlands were reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands.

Shifting boundaries and designations

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 designated trading posts, which greatly expanded over the years. The eastern boundary had been considered to be the Rocky Mountains, the northern boundary the Finlay River, and the southern boundary the

Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the caribou that were once abundant in the region. The Cariboo was the ...

or the Thompson River drainage. The region south of the Thompson River and north of the then Mexico border, the

42nd parallel north The 42nd parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 42 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean. At this latitude the sun is v ...

, was designated as the Columbia District. The Columbia Department was governed first from Fort Astoria, then from Fort Vancouver (present day Vancouver, Washington). Westward migration of American settlers by the Oregon Trail led to the Oregon boundary dispute. The signing of the

in 1846 ended disputed joint occupation of areas west of the Rocky Mountains pursuant to the Treaty of 1818. The southern boundary of the district was shifted north to the 49th parallel, and administration shifted to Fort 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 the Gulf Islands in the

Strait of Georgia The Strait of Georgia (french: Détroit de Géorgie) or the Georgia Strait is an arm of the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the extreme southwestern mainland coast of British Columbia, Canada and the extreme northwestern mainland coast ...

were designated a crown colony in their own right, the Colony of Vancouver Island.

From New Caledonia to British Columbia

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 of Yale, prompting the Fraser 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 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 ...

in order to obtain licence fees from

prospectors Prospecting is the first stage of the geological analysis (followed by Mining engineering#Pre-mining, exploration) of a territory. It is the search for minerals, fossils, precious metals, or mineral specimens. It is also known as fossicking. ...

seeking to travel upstream. The British colonial 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 the

Colony of British Columbia The Colony of British Columbia refers to one of two colonies of British North America, located on the Pacific coast of modern-day Canada: *Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) *Colony of British Columbia (1866–1871) See also *History of Br ...

, 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., the College of New Caledonia and the

Diocese of Caledonia The Diocese of Caledonia is a diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided ...

in Prince George; Caledonia Sr. Secondary School in Terrace).

References

Geographical Names of Canada Provinces and Territories - The origins of their names
{{Canadian colonies

New Caledonia (Canada) New Caledonia was a fur-trading district of the Hudson's Bay Company that comprised the territory of the north-central portions of present-day British Columbia, Canada. Though not a British colony, New Caledonia was part of the British claim to N ...

British North America Fur trade Oregon Country Hudson's Bay Company