Fort Langley, Take Two

Another beautiful day and we decided to take my parents up to British Columbia to tour Fort Langley.

At one time, the Fort centered around the trade of beaver pelts. These were shipped to Europe and made in to beaver felt hats. We learned today that the First Nations or Aborignal people traded three beaver pelts for one Hudson's Bay Company blanket. The Hudson's Bay Company then turned around and used one skin to make one hat which was sold in Europe. These hats sold for the equivalent of six months wages. The Hudson's Bay Company made an awful lot of money, and at the time, the Aboriginal people didn't realize what a lousy deal they were getting.

The kids had fun sliding boards in to the slots to experience how to construct one of the buildings at the Fort. The storeroom was fun to tour.
My favorite was the Cooperage, where they made barrels. One of the best parts about our time at the Fort is that this man joined us for a majority of our tour. There weren't many people there today, so he served as our personal tour guide. He was quite a character. He gave a demonstration on how to build a barrel. People were quite resourceful in the mid-1800s. My Mom discovered that a cast iron teapot is heavier than it looks! Henry's greatest disappointment? The water was frozen so we couldn't pan for gold. Bummer.
But we still had fun. I'm so glad we got to bring my parents up to Fort Langley.

We had a great day.