Directly across the Fraser was Fort Langley and the Hudson's Bay Company post. Eventually the most curious, including several HBC employees, crossed the Fraser to settle in different parts of this rolling land. The most obvious choice was to stay close to the river. Most engaged in logging activity, which is still an important industry with a string of mills along the river. Others went into dairy farming.

With the arrival of the railway Maple Ridge slowly, some might say painfully on such wild land, spread out into seven different communities.

Haney was named for Thomas Haney, a visionary who established a brickyard in the 1880s using the area's unique red clay and who predicted the railway would soon slice through the riverfront where he owned land.

A post office, a train station, a wharf and stores were all quickly established on the banks of the Fraser. Residents included farmers who began to specialize. Farming brought a large contingent of Japanese settlers, who grew strawberries and eventually branched out into greenhouses.

Haney became a busy centre of activity, and over the decades moved up the sloping river banks to flatter land. The Lougheed Highway lead to the development of Haney into a centre of government and what is now downtown Maple Ridge.

During the early period of settlement Hammond, slightly farther west along the river, rivalled Haney. William and John Hammond ran cattle and settled on land formerly occupied by the Katzie people. (The Katzies live today on a nearby reserve.) The riverfront increase in economic activity helped attract the railway, a key to the area's future. Hammond itself developed three hotels and several boarding houses, a bank and later a lumber mill. Today the mill, built in 1916, is Maple Ridge's largest employer. But, on the whole, Hammond—bypassed by the Lougheed—didn't keep pace with Haney, and today is considered more a residential area.

In contrast to these two riverfront communities, other areas developed at a different pace. Albion offered many a chance to catch bountiful amounts of fish in the Fraser. The area was full of strong workers but, other than a community hall and a few stores, did not establish itself as a centre. Some of its people built boats (an industry which remains today) and logged.

Farther east is Whonnock, a community that had its own centre and was cut off from Haney because of a lack of roads. This isolation forged a distinct identity, with a post office, stores, train station and school, and an attitude of self-dependence. Whonnock's people fished, went to school and church, shopped and lived a separate existence from the rest of Maple Ridge.

Even farther east is the community of Ruskin, in the midst of rich forests and with access to the Stave River. Ruskin has more of a connection with Mission, to the east, than Haney. Its thriving sawmills employed enough workers to form the core of a distinct community.

All the communities mentioned so far are riverfront-based. The area of Yennadon, based in the northern area near Golden Ears Mountain, developed more slowly. Settlement was horribly difficult, with swamps that made use of horses impossible, with oxen preferred for farming. Socializing was rudimentary because of the wild terrain, but slowly a community formed with farms and a few sawmills.

The seventh, and perhaps most colorful area, was Webster's Corner, east of Yennadon and close to Kanaka Creek. A small group of settlers tamed the wild land, before the arrival of Finnish people produced several important landmarks and a definite identity. The Abernethy-Lougheed logging company eventually set up shop in this community, providing a sound economic base.