Port Moody

One of them was John Murray, who eventually owned about half the town. His son, also named John, later was responsible for many street names Murray, John, George, William, Henry, Jane, Mary, etc. The main thoroughfare, St. John Street, is a misnomer: John Jr. police officer, alderman and general mover and shaker in error put “St.” in front of, instead of behind, “John.” So the official survey gave the street the name it has today. (The late Major J.S. Matthews, the Vancouver archivist, supposedly said when he heard of the street name: “Johnny Murray was no saint.”)

Port Moody had its “15 minutes of fame” in 1879 when it was officially named western terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway, the transcontinental line promised in 1871 by Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to entice British Columbia into Confederation. The first passenger train from Montreal arrived in Port Moody at noon on July 4, 1886, with about 150 passengers after a 139-hour trip across 4,655 kilometres.

Speculation caused by the imminent arrival of the railway had been rampant; in 1885 a man bought a lot at Clarke and Queen Streets for $15 and sold it later the same year for $1,000. Port Moody was expected to be the biggest town in the West. But William Van Horne decided the company would extend its rail line from Port Moody to a new terminus several kilometres farther west, newly named Vancouver the railway’s executives had determined Port Moody’s narrow shelf of land between water and hillside to be insufficient for expansion. There was amazement and anger when the decision became known, and unsuccessful lawsuits were launched. The near- ecstasy of the first train’s arrival in Port Moody soon faded. A cairn in Port Moody commemorates the “Completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway.” There is no cairn for William Van Horne! Port Moody’s population was static at 250 for nearly 20 years.

J.S. Emerson built a sawmill for cutting cedar in 1905. Records show 125 men were employed there: 34 white men, 80 Chinese, five Japanese and six Hindus. At about the same time several oil refineries opened, followed in 1915 by the large Imperial Oil Company development just outside the Port Moody boundary. In 1913 Port Moody was incorporated as a city. The present city hall was built and Perry A. Roe, the owner of a local sawmill, became the first mayor.

Port Moody was primarily a mill town, full of the smoke and whine of lumber being cut into boards and shingles. If you walked down a street in the early 1920s, you would see mostly private homes with gardens in the back and laundry on the lines. There were five or six general stores selling everything from shoes to steak, three hotels, two gas stations, an elementary school and one police officer. There were no fire-fighters. When one of the sawmills caught fire, a series of shore whistles was blown and everyone hastened down to help fight the fire.

With the outbreak of World War II, people were able to find steady employment. After the war the town began to spread out and meet surrounding towns as they grew. Port Moody joined the suburbs. In the following decades the process continued as large companies like Andr s Wines, Gulf Oil, Weldwood, Interprovincial Steel, Reichold Chemicals and Pacific Coast Terminals opened up plants in the Port Moody area.

Port Moody has little room to grow and has remained relatively small with a 1995 population of 20,000. The city has had a modicum of industry over the years but is chiefly a serene bedroom suburb of Vancouver.

However, the city has not forgotten its railway heritage. It celebrates Golden Spike Days every year around Canada Day, with events including railway hand-car races as well as bathtub races, fireworks, a street fair and a triathlon.

Many people come to Port Moody now not to watch trains but to watch birds. Its 40-hectare Shoreline Park draws bird-watchers to a four-kilometre trail where 125 species have been recorded. Besides loons, cormorants, herons, eagles, geese, warblers and other birds, there are black bears, coyotes, foxes, raccoons and black-tailed deer. The Inlet also occasionally hosts killer, false killer and grey whales. And coho and chum salmon can be seen from the trail when they spawn in Noons Creek.

With additional material by H.C. Finn.