Known as Kosapsom by the Coast Salish Indians who inhabited the head of the Gorge Waterway, the Hudson's Bay men named it Maple Point for all the fine Maple trees that grew here. Kenneth McKenzie named his new home "Craigflower", after Hudson's Bay Co. Governor, Andrew Colvile's estate in England.
Farms also provided crops and products for use at Fort Victoria and for export to the Russians in Alaska and the Royal Navy at Esquimalt.
The Hudson's Bay Company, on May 17, 1854, transferred 4 plots of land of over 600 acres each to the Puget Sound Agricultural Company whose mandate was to operate the farms.
Writing from London on March 12, 1852 to James Douglas, in Fort Victoria, the P.S.A.C. directors, Colvile & Pelly said:
Building farms and importing colonists was how the Hudson Bay Company hoped to establish the British claim to Vancouver Island.
"We have now to inform you that we have...an arrangement with....(a)... Mr. K. McKenzie (of) East Lothian, (&) Mr. Skinner in Essex...We have to request that you will...select two good situations of land, to be purchased by the P.S.A.C., where farms of 500 to 1000 acres may advantageously be established..."
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Four farms were established by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. View Field Farm, Constance Cove Farm, Colwood Farm and Craigflower. |
McKenzie and his Scottish Farmhands arrived at Fort Victoria in the winter of 1853. James Douglas wrote to Barclay (PSAC director) on Jan. 20, 1853:
"Mr. McKenzie has just returned from the place selected for his residence, and is pleased with the spot and the buildings already put up, consisting of one house of 50 ft. and two cottages 25 ft. in length which he can soon render habitable."
Craigflower was the most successful of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company Farms on Vancouver Island. However, when McKenzie ended his service with the Company in 1865, the Farm was in debt and he was required to repay the HBC $3,000.00 - a debt which plagued him until his death.
Classroom Activity: Look up the website for Fort Victoria and read about James Douglas.
- note: The above mentioned link will take you to the Fort Victoria website. To return to Craigflower farm, please press the back button on your browser.
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