GNWC: Richard Moody (Page 2)

Ghosts of the North West Coast - home again

The Boundary Commission and Richard Moody

The first of five groups of Royal Engineers arrived in July 1858, forming the "Boundary Commission." The border between American and British territory had previously been agreed upon as the 49th parallel. The actual border had not yet been surveyed from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains, but with the insurgence of American Gold Miners into the area both countries became increasingly concerned with the borders exact location. The Boundary Commission worked on this task until it was completed in 1862.

It was April of 1859 before the main body of the Royal Engineers arrived from England aboard the Thames City.

The struggling colony required assistance before the main contingent could get there, so a group of twenty Royal Engineers landed in November of 1858, with the leader Colonel Moody arriving in December. Moody wasted no time demonstrating the influence he and his men were to have when he chose the site of New Westminster on which to build British Columbia's new capital.

RICHARD MOODY (PART 2)
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Who surveyed the borderline from the Pacific on through?
Spanned raging rivers and quarreled through stone
Building roads to the Cariboo?
Who laid out each highway, townsite and city street?
Upheld the Queen's law when necessity called
as keepers of the peace

Architects, tradesmen these engineers all
Gentlemen scholars to answer the call
With shovel and pack, by compass and map
They tamed the wilds unruly

Here is a health to the Royal Engineers
and a cheer to Richard Moody

Choosing the site for the capital was only the first of many tasks performed by the Royal Engineers. At first one of their most pressing jobs was to clear and survey the site of the New Westminster and to construct the first buildings for housing and administration.

They surveyed town sites, laying out the original streets and lots of Yale, Hope, and Vancouver. The primary duty of the Royal Engineers was to lay out and make roads and trails throughout the lower mainland and interior. The grandest road construction project they were involved with was the Cariboo Road, which provided a desperately needed safe route for transportation between the Lower Fraser River and the Cariboo Goldfields. The Royal Engineers risked their lives, climbing cliffs and balancing on steep ridges, to survey and map the route it would take.

[Steamboatin' Jamiesons] [Ned McGowan's War] [Ghosts of Read Island] [John Antle]
[Richard Moody] [Spanish Banks] [Auld Lange Syne] [Voyageur!]