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Over
150 Years of History in the
Nanaimo
Bastion
 The
Nanaimo Bastion is the most endearing symbol of the Harbour City.
It is a well-loved monument to the pioneering spirit of this community
and it turned an amazing 150 years old in 2003!
As the guardian of this former Hudson’s Bay Company outpost,
built in 1853, Nanaimo District Museum is showcasing a unique
celebration that will highlight its prominent place in Nanaimo’s
colourful history.
The Year of the Bastion, as proclaimed by Nanaimo City Council
in 2003, not only payed tribute to North America’s last
free standing, original HBC Bastion, it also recognized the people and organizations that
fought to preserve it.
In a city-wide survey, this symbol of our frontier beginnings
was chosen Nanaimo’s most important heritage building and
is recognized as a national treasure. It is the oldest building
in the city, quite possibly the second oldest building in British
Columbia, and the Nanaimo Bastion represents HBC's only real foray
into the mining of coal. We hope you’ll come out and enjoy
and learn and be entertained as we celebrate this history of the
Bastion.
The Nanaimo Bastion...What
a Blast!
Featuring W.
E. Mills, CEO & President - Nanaimo Port Authority
Merv Unger - Acting Mayor
Leonard Krog - Nanaimo MLA
David Hobson - Bastion Volunteer
Alex Brennan Bastion
www.amazingnanaimo.com
Watch a
video of a cruise ship guest firing the noon cannon.
History
Bastion is an English word meaning stronghold.
The Bastion is the oldest original freestanding Hudson’s
Bay Company fort in North America. The Bastion was designated
a Municipal Heritage Building on December 2, 1985 and is listed
on the Canadian Register of Heritage
Properties. It is the oldest building in Nanaimo and possibly
the second
oldest in British Columbia.
 Most
Hudson’s Bay Company Forts were established for fur trading
for the European market, but in Nanaimo the Company built the
Bastion to serve as a company office, arsenal and storage facility,
and in the event of enemy insurgency, a safe haven for miners
and their families. It is the only known Hudson’s Bay Company
fort that focused primarily on coal mining rather then fur trading.
Joseph McKay, a company clerk, supervised the building. According
to Hudson's Bay Company journals, 11 HBC employees and a group
of First Nation men worked on the Bastion. It is constructed of
hand-hewn logs using a broad axe and an adze which allowed for
a close fit and smooth surface. They used a French-Canadian construction
method called ‘”poteau-sur-sole”. The advantage
of this technique was its strength and allowed the men to use
various thicknesses of logs. The Bastion was originally thirty-six
feet in height, octagonal in shape with three floors. The first
and second floors are 19 feet across and the third floor is 24.5
feet across. The structure was built without the use of nails.
The roof was originally covered with cedar bark and the structure
was painted with lime made from clamshells. A June 2, 1853 letter
from Joseph McKay to James Douglas states “The Bastion is
nearly finished.”
Hudson's Bay Company Timeline
for Nanaimo
1827 - A fur trading post was established at Fort Langley on
the Fraser
River.
1835 - Coal discovered at Beaver Harbour at the northern end
of Vancouver
Island.
1842 - Moved their headquarters from Fort Vancouver in the Oregon
Territory to the newly established fort called Fort Victoria.
1846 - Oregon Treaty established that all land north of the
49th parallel
and all of Vancouver Island belonging to Great Britain; all land
south
belonging to United States.
- The Hudson’s Bay Company requested jurisdiction over
Vancouver
Island in exchange for promoting colonization.
1849 - May - Queen Victoria, granted the Hudson Bay Company
“the island
called Vancouver Island together with all royalties of the seas
upon the
coast thereof and all mines royal there to belonging.” The
land was handed
over for ten year with the following conditions:
1. The crown could re-purchase the island form the HBC on the
termination of the trading license that would expire May 30, 1859;
2. HBC was required to develop and settle the island.
3. HBC could keep ten percent of all the money it received form
the
sale of lands, coal, or other minerals, but it was obligated to
spend the
remaining 90 percent on surveys, roads, bridges, churches, and
schools
plus any other amenities for the settlers.
- September - The post at Fort Rupert is completed (August)
and the
first miners arrive from Scotland.
- December - Snuneymuxw Chief Che-wich-i-kan (kist-sa-kum),
historically referred to as Coal Tyee, had gone to Fort Victoria
to have his
rifle repaired by the blacksmith. Coal Tyee commented to the blacksmith
about the black stones being plentiful in his area.
1850 - Spring - Coal Tyee returns to Victoria with a canoe laden
with coal.
It was tested and found to be of an excellent quality. Joseph
McKay, a company clerk, was dispatched to Nanaimo.
1851 - August - Robert Dunsmuir, his wife, two daughters and
one son (born on route at Fort Vancouver) arrived at Fort Rupert.
The journey took eight months.
1852 - August - James Douglas Governor of the Colony of Vancouver
Island
and Chief Factor for the HBC, journeyed to Nanaimo to examine
the coal
deposits.
- August 24 - Joseph McKay was appointed to be the HBC
representative in Nanaimo and take possession of the coal beds.
- August 27 - Building began on the first hut.
1852 - September 3 - Muirs, McGregors and Raymond arrived on
the Cadboro from Fort Rupert. They brought with them four pigs
and one sheep. These were the first farm animals in Nanaimo.
- September 9 - Cadboro sailed with the first 480 barrels of
coal.
The Snuneymuxw had mined and loaded the coal. Twenty barrels for
a two and a half point blanket and other goods.
- November 5 - A HBC shepherd, Peter Brown, is murdered by the
son of the Snuneymuxw chief and a Cowechin First Nation male.
- December 9 - Fifteen miners and their families arrived from
Fort
Rupert. They came by canoe and the S.S. Beaver. Included in this
group
was Robert Dunsmuir and his family.
1852/1853 - Winter - The weather was severe - there was deep
snow and harbour was frozen.
1853 - January 17 - Two men went one trial for the murder of
Peter Brown.
The trial onboard the Beaver was the first by judge and jury under
English
law. The men were found guilty, condemned and executed at Tide
Staff Point (Gallows Point today) on Protection Island.
- February 3 - Joseph Robilliard and Versailles began squaring
the
timbers to build the Bastion. French Canadians, Leon Labine and
Jean
Baptiste Fortier are credited for the building but others also
worked on
it. William Isbister, a stonemason, laid the foundation.
- March 16 - Mary McGregor gave birth to the first white girl,
Margaret.
- April - More men arrive from Fort Rupert, including Adam Grant
Horne, William Isbister, Jean Baptiste Fortier, and surgeon Dr.
George
Johnstone.
- June 2 - McKay writes to Douglas, “the Bastion is nearly
finished,
we have three dwelling houses 20 x 30 ft habitable, 4 houses 25
x 15 and
the wood raised for three houses 20 x 30 ft.
- Alexander Dunsmuir was born, the first white boy born in Nanaimo.
- August - 40 Scottish miners recruited for Nanaimo sailed on
the
Colinda. They never arrived in Nanaimo; they mutinied in Valparaiso,
Chile, after running out of food on the voyage.
1853 - The Princess Royal, a barque, is constructed of solid
oak. The total
cost of construction was 10,200 pound sterling.
1853 - The second government funded public school (common school)
In the Colony of Vancouver Island is opened in Nanaimo. Mr. Charles
Bailey is
transferred from Fort Victoria. The first school is believed to
be a company
building near Commercial and Skinner Streets.
1854 - June 2 - at 6:45 p.m. “23 men and 23 women with
a quantity of
children,” were received on board as emigrants.
- October 20 - The Princess Royal reaches Honolulu—140
days after
leaving London, England. The ships log recorded five deaths and
two
births. Three more deaths occurred while the ship was being “provisioned
and watered” in Honolulu.
- October 31 - Set sail for Esquimalt. Two more deaths occurred
on
this leg of the journey.
- November 23 The Princess Royal arrives in Esquimalt.
- November 25 - The Beaver and Recovery were brought alongside
the
Princess Royal so that the passengers could be transferred. The
next day
with a good supply of potatoes and fresh meat they departed for
Colvile
Town.
- November 27 at 11:00 a.m. the travel weary group came
ashore at
Pioneer Rock. It is said that the sun broke through the clouds
at the
moment the first miner set foot on land. They had travelled for
five days
of six months or 179 days to reach their final destination.
- December 23 - Governor James Douglas signed a treaty with
the
Snuneymuxw, the last of 14 treaties negotiated on Vancouver Island
between 1850 and 1854.
1854 - a new school was built in the rear of the present St
Paul Church on
Chapel Street. This building was used until 1867 when it was destroyed
by
fire.
1854 - Joseph McKay is transferred to Fort Simpson when the
Crimean War
Broke out.
Near the end of 1854, Governor James Douglas ordered the first
census of the colony. In Nanaimo, the white population was 151,
there
were 52 dwelling houses, 3 shops, 6 outhouses and 1 school with
29
students. No one was over 60 years old; 15 were between 50 and
60; and
nearly half were under 20.
1855 - Recruiters from the Puget Sound Coal Mine at Bellingham
Bay lured a
number of the Royal Princess miners to Bellingham. They broke
their
contract with the HBC and left for Bellingham leaving their wives
and
families behind. The coal operation in Bellingham was not what
they were led to believe and soon trickled back to Nanaimo. HBC
reinstated them on “less favourable terms”.
1855 - July 6 - Captain Charles Edward Stuart replaced Joseph
McKay as
officer-in-charge at the Nanaimo post.
1855 - October - Robert Dunsmuir and Edward Walker were granted
the first free miners’ licences issued by the HBC.
1856 - August 14 - Cornelius Bryant, an eighteen year old is
hired. His
daybook shows 34 students enrolled.
1859 - At a literary meeting forty four dollars was raised
to start a
circulating library.
1860 - Colviletown is officially changed to Nanaimo.
1860 - (August) The name Colviletown was officially removed
form maps and charts.
1862 - The Hudson’s Bay Company sold its Nanaimo property
to the Vancouver Coal Mining & Land Company Limited. During
its tenure the HBC fulfilled its contractual obligations to the
miners, but also provided school and medical services.
The Nanaimo District Museum Society acknowledges
the financial assistance of the Province of British Columbia
We appreciate and thank the City of Nanaimo for
their annual financial support.
We also thank the British Columbia Arts Council
and the British Columbia Digital Collections (supported by the
BC Arts Council and the BC Museums Association) for their support.
and for the financial support of
 
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