Before 1941, the main center of activity for the community was at the Vedder Crossing bridge. At various times, a hotel, general store, dance hall and store were located adjacent to the bridge. The success of these businesses was probably connected to their strategic location on Vedder Road. Before 1926, Vedder Road served as the main route to Vancouver. All highway traffic passed by Vedder Crossing.
This route was first used beginning about 1891. By that time a dramatic shift in the main channel of the Chilliwack River channel was complete. In 1875, a freshet partially blocked the north-easterly flowing Chilliwack River, causing some of the river's water to divert into a small creek, known as Vedder Creek. This blockage was complete by 1891, necessitating the construction of a bridge.
The route to Vancouver changed when Sumas Lake was drained in 1924 and a bridge across the Vedder Canal was built in 1925. Vedder Road, through Vedder Crossing ceased to be the main highway link to Vancouver.
Vedder Crossing remained largely rural until the 1940s. Gordon Watson remembers, "I remember the day when there were only two houses from the Promontory Road to the Vedder Bridge on the east side of the road." (Denman, Ron, 50 Years of Military Presence in the Fraser Valley, Chilliwack Museum and Historical Society, 1992. P.17).
All of that changed when the federal government established a military training base at the corner of Keith Wilson and Vedder Road in 1941. Camp Chilliwack became a major Canadian training facility. Renamed Canadian Forces Base Chilliwack it was closed in the 1990s as part of military restructuring.
Vedder bridge and Vedder River, ca. 1910. P. Coll 81
Vedder Crossing - Modern,2000
Early picnic next to the Vedder Bridge, ca. 1895-1897. P380.
Vedder Crossing was quickly transformed into a tent city, with the arrival of the Canadian Military Engineers in April of 1942. Canadian Military Engineers photo