Port Coquitlam
by Hazel Postma
Port Coquitlam’s first inhabitants were Salish Indians who fished along the banks of the Fraser, Pitt and Coquitlam rivers. They hunted the forested hills, while the rivers and marshy lowlands provided them with waterfowl.
The first settlers arrived in 1853, among them Alexander McLean, who moved his family to a clearing along the Pitt River after being flooded out of Ladner. He was followed seven years later by the Atkins family from Ireland. Atkins, son Ned and twin brothers Romulus and Remus settled on 65 hectares east of Mary Hill. By 1864 only the McLeans, Atkins and George Black actually lived in the area, although other land was owned by speculators.
In 1868 the Atkins left for Hawaii, but Ned, who had married a local Indian woman, stayed although it was nearly 20 years before the city began to grow, sparked by the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway spur line in 1886 from the western edge of Coquitlam River along the Fraser River to New Westminster.
The little station at the end of the spur was named Westminster Junction and marked the birth of today’s modern city. The station became the nucleus of a village with the Junction Hotel, housing the post office in its lobby, as its hub.
In 1892, a year after Westminster Junction and surrounding lands on the Coquitlam River as far as North Road were incorporated as the District of Coquitlam, the first school opened at the corner of Mary Hill Road and Wilson Street. Known as the Junction School, its 12 students were taught in one room by Miss Dixon. The owner of the Junction Hotel and postmaster R.B. Kelly, became the District of Coquitlam’s first reeve with council meetings held at his hotel.
By the turn of the century, the 200 residents were joined by new settlers, attracted by the electricity and running water brought down Pipeline Road from Coquitlam Lake. Westminster Junction began to emerge as a trading and political centre of the sprawling district.
Logging joined farming as the main occupations after A.R. Millard, working with F.W. Greer and a Mr. Laflamme, began logging forests along the Coquitlam and Pitt rivers and on Burke Mountain.
In 1911 the CPR, prompted by the imminent opening of the Panama Canal, announced plans to create a major shipyard at Westminster Junction complete with marshalling yards and an industrial complex. Residents envisioned a bright future of factory work and steady wages although a few protested the loss of good agricultural land. Speculators poured into the area, buying large tracts of land and subdividing them into 10-metre lots that were snapped up by eager investors. A new bridge was built over the Pitt River, a second set of tracks was laid alongside the first CPR line, electric transmission lines doubled and scores of homes and shops were built.
Westminster Junction residents decided to go it alone and on March 7, 1913, Mayor James Mars announced the formation of the City of Port Coquitlam, City of Rivers and Mountains. Its population of 1,500 took as its motto “By Commerce and Industry We Prosper.”
Prosperity was elusive, however, and expansion ground to a halt two years later. By 1915 land was reverting to the city for unpaid taxes. The shipyard closed in 1918 and timber from the building was floated across the Pitt River and used as paving for sidewalks.
Fires in 1920 destroyed half the buildings along Dewdney Trunk Road and the following year more buildings and a bridge were lost when the Coquitlam River flooded. By the end of 1921 Port Coquitlam was virtually bankrupt and council had to sell the city’s fire engine! A bad move, because a year later fire wiped out another section of downtown.
For the next three decades Port Coquitlam slumbered, awaking finally in the 1950s to a period of steady growth that continues today.
Many residents work and play within the city boundaries, taking advantage of the rail, water and trucking terminals, industrial parks and shopping malls, as well as health, educational and recreational facilities.
A flourishing downtown has a refurbished City Hall and plaza as its focal point with a provincial courthouse set to open in 1996. Residents of nearby townhouses and condominiums enjoy shops and restaurants, cafes and craft stores, while the Coquitlam River is just two blocks away.
Bisected by the Lougheed Highway, the city includes farms and golf courses on the north side, industrial parks and Colony Farm to the south. Nestled between the Pitt and Coquitlam rivers is the Kwayhquitlum Indian Reserve.
The 17-kilometre PoCo Trail is a popular walking and cycling trail that meanders through the heart of the city, along river dykes and forested slopes, while the Chelsea Nature Reserve is a popular destination for families, as are the numerous neighborhood parks and playgrounds. In June 1995 the city’s new aquatic facility opened just a few yards from Hyde Creek, a spawning ground for salmon.
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