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84-590: The Douglas Ranges among the smallest and lowest of the major named subranges Coast Mountains, but in addition to being smallest and lowest they are also the southernmost part of the Coast Mountains and therefore also of the Pacific Ranges. The only thing more southerly than the Douglas Ranges, other than floodplain, is the unnamed hill-country that is most of Districts of Mission and part of Maple Ridge , from

168-619: A few days. Ground-level ozone tends to be from local sources in the valley and varies with prevailing winds. With prevailing winds from the northeast during the late fall and winter, air quality is seldom a problem. Air quality in the Fraser Valley at times exceeds the Canada-Wide Standard (CWS) for ozone (at Hope) and is close to exceeding the CWS for Particulate Matter. In colloquial usage, "Fraser Valley" usually refers only to that part of

252-529: A land promotion. The town's core commercial properties and residential streets were auctioned off through James Horne's auction, the "Great Land Sale" May 19, 1891, with buyers brought in via the CPR mainline from Vancouver as well as from Eastern Canada. Soon afterwards, Harry Brown French, an American from New York, came to the city and founded the Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce on June 19, 1893. It

336-419: A median age of 36.4, according to the 2001 Canadian census, The largest group is European Canadian , comprising approximately 74% of the population, but even within that Mission's ethnic makeup is very complex, with, in addition to British settlers, large numbers of Germans and Dutch, but also Finns, Norwegians and other Scandinavians, Italians, Hungarians, Poles, anglicized French-Canadians and others. There

420-591: A mix of sport offerings locally standard to any municipality in this region. One exception is the large outdoor trail network within the Tree Farm and Interpretive Forest. Mission is home to world-class mountain bike trails as well as plenty of backcountry hiking opportunities that lie within the District Limits. Mission is home to a Pacific Junior Hockey League team - the Mission CityOutlaws. Jessica Russell

504-663: A model for silvicultural management on a larger scale throughout British Columbia as well as provided a unique income source for the municipality. From 1967 through the 1970s, the Soap Box Derby shared the July 1 Dominion Day holiday with a large Loggers Sports event, one of the largest in British Columbia and important on the North American Loggers Sports Association circuit. In the 1960s and 1970s there

588-694: A narrow valley encompassing the Fraser River and ends at the Pacific Ocean stretching from the North Shore Mountains , opposite the city of Vancouver BC, to just south of Bellingham, Washington . In casual usage it typically describes the Fraser River basin downstream of the Fraser Canyon . The term is sometimes used outside British Columbia to refer to the entire Fraser River sections including

672-603: A result Mission lost its "anchor", the main Eaton's department store in the Valley, and the town's Main Street businesses lost much of their business to the new shopping malls a few minutes away across the river. This process was accelerated with the opening of the new bridge in the mid-1970s. Despite a cohesive business community and new retail malls on the edges of the old core, Mission's retail community has never regained its former prominence in

756-401: A scandal involving one of the town's wealthiest families. Mission is noted as the home of a long-established professional dragstrip, Mission Raceway Park , which was moved in relatively recent times outside the dyking of the lower part of town to reduce noise in residential and commercial areas nearby. In 1972 a large tract of land in central Mission's Ferndale area, flat upland at the top of

840-456: Is a city in the Lower Mainland of the province of British Columbia , Canada. It was originally incorporated as a district municipality in 1892, growing to include additional villages and rural areas over the years, adding the original Town of Mission City , long an independent core of the region, in 1969. It is bordered by the city of Abbotsford to the south and the city of Maple Ridge to

924-529: Is a sizeable First Nations community, forming 8.6% of the population. The Peckquaylis Indian Reserve, which is the former St. Mary's Residential School and its grounds, is a centre for services and governments of the Sto:lo communities in the area to the east. The largest visible minority group in Mission are South Asians, primarily Indo-Canadians comprising 10.7% of the population. Mission's Indo-Canadian community

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1008-533: Is an important measure of the Fraser's annual and sometimes dangerously large spring freshet . Mission City's original retail core was in the small area of lowland between the CPR mainline and the river. Following the great flood of 1894 a few years after the town's founding, the core was relocated just north of the rail line at the foot of the hillside rising above the rail junction. This small commercial strip, originally named Washington Avenue, later Main Street and since

1092-583: Is considered the head of the Fraser Delta . From there the river passes through some of the most fertile agricultural land in British Columbia—as well as the heart of the Metro Vancouver region—on its way through the valley to its mouth at Georgia Strait . During the last ice age , the area that would become the Fraser Valley was covered by a sheet of ice, walled in by the surrounding mountains. As

1176-488: Is defined as ending at Yale, Hope is generally to be considered the southern end of the canyon, partly because of the change in the character of the highway from that point, and perhaps also because it is at Hope that the first floodplains typifying the course of the Lower Fraser are found. Downstream from Hope, the river and adjoining floodplains widen considerably in the area of Rosedale , Chilliwack and Agassiz , which

1260-461: Is included within the Lower Fraser Valley. The Upper Fraser Valley means from Chilliwack and Agassiz to Hope. The phrases "Fraser Valley towns" and "Fraser River municipalities" include Delta and Richmond, though the colloquial "in the Valley" means from Surrey and Coquitlam eastwards. The "Tidal Fraser area" is usually defined as the area of the Fraser from the mouth at the Pacific Ocean to

1344-434: Is now possible to compare BC communities on a variety of measures. Comparative data on four measures— fine particulate matter , ground-level ozone , nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide —shows the Fraser Valley to have better air quality than Vancouver on several measures. For example, Fraser Valley communities had less than half the levels of nitrogen dioxide, and were lower in fine particulate matter and sulphur dioxide (on

1428-511: Is one of the largest tidal freshwater lakes in the world . Oxbow lakes and side-sloughs are a common feature of the Lower Fraser's geography. The two main oxbows are those of Hatzic Lake and the Stave River on opposite sides of Mission, although that of the Stave has been silted in and part of it drained for a man-made lake. Around Fort Langley is an oxbow formation, mostly swamped in at the time of

1512-511: Is the dominant service centre for the north side of the Fraser between Maple Ridge and Agassiz - Kent . These communities include: The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Mission. Fraser Valley The Fraser Valley is a geographical region in southwestern British Columbia , Canada and northwestern Washington State . It starts just west of Hope in

1596-551: Is the northernmost area of rice cultivation in the world. As the valley population grows and traffic increases, air pollution becomes an increasingly important issue; various controversies have risen over the years (most recently over " Sumas 2 ", a defeated proposal for a power plant just south of the Canadian/USA border) as to whether or not air pollution is a problem, and if it is a problem, how this should be addressed. Air quality monitoring has improved in recent years and it

1680-533: The Alouette River east across the upland to Hatzic Prairie. And in addition to being the most southerly and relatively lower than the rest of the Pacific Ranges, it is also among the wettest and, for being lowland country relative to the rest of its parent ranges, among the ruggedest. The southern abutment of the Douglas Ranges is over 1,500 m (5,000 ft) above the Fraser River between Dewdney and

1764-712: The Fraser Valley . Burgeoning " exurban " population growth connected with the rapid growth of the population of the Lower Mainland and encouraged by a new commuter rail line direct to downtown Vancouver, the West Coast Express , has reversed this trend. Outside of the core "urban" area, most of which had been the Town of Mission City, the former District of Mission was a collection of distinct rural communities, each with their own history and sometimes distinct ethnic flavour. Silverdale, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of Mission on

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1848-473: The Fraser Valley Regional District , though that consists of only about half of the actual Fraser Valley, and is made up of the municipalities and incorporated areas from Abbotsford and Mission eastwards to Hope. It also includes areas not in the Fraser Valley, particularly the lower Fraser Canyon from Boston Bar to Hope. The term "Central Fraser Valley" refers to Mission and Abbotsford and

1932-598: The Fraser Valley Regional District . The main population centres in the Fraser Valley are Greater Vancouver , Abbotsford and Chilliwack . This section of the Fraser River is known by local indigenous peoples as "Sto:lo" in the Halqemeylem language of the area, and this term has been adopted to refer to all of the indigenous peoples of the Fraser Lowland , other than the Squamish and Musqueam . The indigenous peoples of

2016-723: The Harrison River , which flows along the southeast flank of the range. East of the Douglas Ranges, across Harrison Lake, are the Lillooet Ranges , while to the west and northwest are the Garibaldi Ranges . Southeast across the Fraser River is the Canadian portion of the Cascade Range . Because of the warmer climate (relative to the rest, even, of the British Columbia coastal lowlands), there were forests of immense trees throughout

2100-759: The Lougheed Highway 7 . Mission is also accessible through commuter rail, the West Coast Express , which runs five trains in each direction a day, five days a week, between Vancouver and Mission City Station . Bus service in Mission is served by the Central Fraser Valley Transit System connecting with the City of Abbotsford , as well as TransLink with service to Coquitlam Central Station via route 701. Three days per week Via Rail 's The Canadian provides eastbound flag stop service from Mission Harbour railway station . Mission differs from some of

2184-690: The Stave Valley , is largely rural and forested but its watercourse is home to what was the largest hydroelectric project in British Columbia until the Bridge River Power Project opened in 1961. It was built by the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) to provide power to the electric street railway and interurban system in Vancouver. The Stave Falls Power Co. operated a light-gauge railway for passenger and freight service up

2268-629: The Vedder River mouth at the eastern foothills of Sumas Mountain , although the Lower Valley section upstream of McMillan Island and the Salmon River mouth (at Fort Langley ) used to be called the Central Fraser Valley up until 1995 (see Central Fraser Valley Regional District ). Administratively, the Fraser Valley comprises parts of the regional districts of Metro Vancouver and

2352-469: The census metropolitan area (CMA) level in the 2021 census, the Abbotsford - Mission CMA had a population of 195,726 living in 67,613 of its 70,648 total private dwellings, a change of 8.4% from its 2016 population of 180,518 . With a land area of 606.72 km (234.26 sq mi), it had a population density of 322.6/km (835.5/sq mi) in 2021. The community has a young population, with

2436-409: The 1980s called First Avenue, is only four or five blocks long and was one of the principal commercial centres of the Fraser Valley for many decades and had a lively retail trade and social life. Following the 1894 flood, abandoned buildings and lots in the old downtown were taken over by Chinese merchants and workers, creating a Chinatown which lasted until the 1920s. The western part of the district,

2520-449: The 2011 Census, 76.47% of the Fraser Valley regional district in BC have English as mother tongue ; Punjabi is the mother tongue of 10.02% of the population, followed by German (3.49%), Dutch (1.39%), French (1.07%), Korean (0.69%), Spanish (0.66%), Tagalog (0.35%), Chinese, n.o.s. (0.33%), and Vietnamese (0.30%). Today, the Fraser Valley has a mix of land uses, ranging from

2604-520: The District Municipality before amalgamation and which still have some strong local identity. The following list is incomplete, due to the emergence of modern-era development neighbourhoods, but covers the historical localities (usually defined by a school and a store of the same name): Unincorporated communities and rural areas to the east of Mission are linked closely to Mission, partly because of School District No. 75 , but also because Mission

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2688-462: The District of Mission and in the unincorporated areas to the east. Students from Deroche/Lake Errock, Dewdney, Nicomen Island, Hatzic Island and Hatzic Prairie/Durieu and McConnell Creek elementary schools attend post-secondary at Mission Secondary School. The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique operates one Francophone school: école des Deux-rives primary school. Mission has

2772-418: The Douglas Ranges supplied mills around Harrison Bay and along the Fraser's waterfront from there to Ruskin and Whonnock, British Columbia . Douglas Ranges wood especially went to mills at Mission City , which was the capital of cedar shake production in the world for many years. Nearby Eddy Match Co., between Mission and Hatzic, was one of the two largest matchstick-making plant in the world; its only rival

2856-486: The Douglas Ranges, which were logged relatively early on in British Columbia's history. A network of logging railroads ran throughout the basin of the Chehalis River , which drains the core of the ranges to the southeast, meeting the Harrison River just south of Chehalis, British Columbia . In other areas east of Stave Lake and along the side of Harrison Lake , grades required roads instead of rail. Timber from

2940-587: The Fraser Canyon and up from there to its headwaters , but in general British Columbian usage the term refers to the stretch of Lower Mainland west of the Coquihalla River mouth at the inland town of Hope , and includes all of the Canadian portion of the Fraser Lowland as well as the valleys and upland areas flanking it. It is divided into the Upper Fraser Valley and Lower Fraser Valley by

3024-401: The Fraser but help drain its lowland. The Fraser is tidal as far upstream as the town of Mission and, across the river, the City of Abbotsford , which is at the Fraser's closest approach to the international boundary, about 6 miles north of Sumas, Washington . Pitt Lake , one of the Fraser's last tributaries and among its largest, is so low in elevation, despite its mountain setting, that it

3108-598: The Fraser's lower tributaries have floodplains of their own, shared in common with the Fraser freshet. Of varying size these include the Harrison River , Chilliwack River ( Vedder River ), Hatzic Creek and Hatzic Lake, the Stave , Alouette , Pitt and Coquitlam Rivers . Also incorporated in the Fraser delta region are the Nicomekl and Serpentine River floodplains and the Sumas River drainage, which flow to saltwater independently of

3192-568: The Maple Ridge boundary near the waterfront on the west side of the Stave, and halfway between the dam and the mills at Ruskin, was a large drive-in theatre for many years. It is now a large trailer park, and the most populated of Ruskin's neighbourhoods. The building of the Highway 1 freeway on the south side of the Fraser in the early 1960s brought huge population growth and large shopping malls to formerly rural Abbotsford, Matsqui, Sumas and Langley; as

3276-624: The Mission Judo Club; the Mission Buddhist Church; and a Japanese Language School. The ethnic Japanese people in Mission had 979.304 acres (396.310 ha) of land on 103 properties by 1930. During the pre- World War II era 30% of Mission's public school enrollment consisted of ethnic Japanese. The Nokai had 79 members in 1942. The World War II-era Japanese Canadian internment disrupted Mission's ethnic Japanese community as their properties were confiscated, and productivity decreased as

3360-634: The Mission bridge. Everything in between there is influenced greatly by ocean tides, including the largest tidal lake in North America, Pitt Lake. The south shore of the Central and Upper Fraser Valley is also known colloquially as the " Bible Belt " of British Columbia and is home to many of Canada's largest churches, notably the Mennonite Brethren and the Dutch Reformed Church , a reflection of

3444-462: The Pacific Ocean. However, Mission has plentiful rainfall all year round, with a drying trend in the summer. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Mission had a population of 41,519 living in 14,098 of its 14,701 total private dwellings, a change of 7.7% from its 2016 population of 38,554. With a land area of 226.98 km (87.64 sq mi), it had a population density of 182.9/km (473.8/sq mi) in 2021. At

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3528-537: The United States was necessarily routed through Mission until the New Westminster Bridge at New Westminster was built in 1904. The rail bridge at Mission doubled duty as a one-way alternating vehicular bridge until 1973, when a long-promised new Mission Bridge was finally completed. The bridge's location is geographically important at the head of the tidal bore on the Fraser River, and its water level gauge

3612-471: The United States. The interaction of indigenous peoples and settlers led to the growth of Chinook Wawa , a pidgin language that was used throughout the Fraser River Valley until the early 1900s. Industrialization of the river began with the use of the traditional trade waterway by steamboats and eventually, roads and railways were built, fueled by and in turn fuelling further population growth. Today,

3696-491: The air mass collides with the Olympic Mountains . The cold air from the Fraser Valley can also flow out over the Pacific Ocean. Lanes of convective ocean-effect clouds and showers are produced as heat and moisture modify the very dry, frigid air mass. These then typically organize as a low pressure system which returns the showers to the coast south of Canada, often bringing snow to unusually low elevations. According to

3780-472: The area have long made use of the river valley for agricultural and commercial exploits and continue to do so today. The Indigenous people were not consulted in the Treaty of Oregon , which saw the United States and Great Britain define and recognize each other's claims to the area. This overstepping of jurisdiction inevitably led to conflict as Great Britain was incapable of exercising the control they claimed over

3864-401: The border with the larger municipality of Maple Ridge to the west. Over 40% of Mission is tree farm, making it one of two communities with municipal tree farms (the other being Revelstoke , with a much smaller and newer farm). Mission's tree farm celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. It comprises much of the northern part of the district, including the area west of the Stave River, up to

3948-467: The continuation of mining on the river by the indigenous inhabitants and the new immigrants. This war was part of a series of local conflicts surrounding the arrival of settlers ahead of American and British capacity to maintain order and refusal to cooperate with or recognize indigenous land claims and demands. These conflicts were pivotal in many aspects to the settlement of the West Coast in both Canada and

4032-542: The core developed area of the city. Mission was once the heart of the berry industry in the Fraser Valley, with "Home of the Big Red Strawberry" as Mission's slogan in the 1930s and into the 1940s. The more southerly portion of the municipality is bounded on the west by the lower reaches of the Stave River , which consists mostly of the lakewaters of two hydroelectric reservoirs, Stave Lake and Hayward Lake . Although

4116-638: The district's northern boundary near the foot of Mount Robie Reid ; a small sliver of Mission District is at the head of Alouette Lake (normally thought of as being in Maple Ridge). The eastern boundary of the municipality roughly coincides with the division between the Mission upland and the alluvial floodplain of Hatzic Prairie, which resembles much of the rest of the Fraser Valley Lowland. The unincorporated communities from Hatzic eastwards through Dewdney and Nicomen Island to Deroche are part of

4200-600: The east bank of the lower Stave River, was homesteaded in the 1880s by Italian immigrants. Neighbouring Silverhill was founded by a Finnish Utopian sect who were superseded by Scandinavian and German settlers following a forest fire that virtually wiped out the Finns. Steelhead, in the northern part of the district, was originally a weekend retreat for some of Vancouver's press community. Other localities such as Ferndale, Cedar Valley and Hatzic were farming communities of mixed origin, with Europeans and anglicized French-Canadians alongside

4284-405: The farms were managed by their new non-Japanese. Many Japanese chose not to move back to Mission in the post-war era, even though they were permitted to come back in 1949. In 2006 there were 145 Japanese living in Mission, making up 4.1% of the city's visible minorities. According to the 2021 census , religious groups in Mission included: School District 75 Mission operates public schools in

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4368-528: The finest rock in the province; their name for the area is "The Chehalis". The name Douglas Ranges dates to the gold rush of 1857-1860 , which used the Harrison River and Harrison Lake as part of a route to the Interior, the Douglas Road . They are not named directly for the colonial Governor, Sir James Douglas , but for the port and road that bore his name. Mission, British Columbia Mission

4452-419: The fort's foundation, which was drained and made part of the fort's farm and remains farmland today. The system of sloughs and side-channels of the river is complicated, but important sloughs include those around Nicomen Island , Sea Bird Island and flanking the river from Rosedale to Sumas Mountain , on the western side of Chilliwack . In winter, the Fraser Valley occasionally plays a significant role in

4536-462: The heavy settlement of the Valley by post-war Dutch and German immigrants, as well as the Canadian headquarters of many Christian/ Evangelical para-church organisations such as Focus on the Family and Power to Change, the Canadian branch of Cru_(Christian_organization) , formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. Voters in south shore ridings typically elect right-wing candidates, while in ridings on

4620-400: The ice receded, land that had been covered by glaciers became covered by water instead, then slowly rose above the water, forming the basin that exists today. The valley is the largest landform of the Lower Mainland ecoregion, with its delta considered to begin in the area of Agassiz and Chilliwack, although stretches of floodplain flank the mountainsides between there and Hope. Several of

4704-490: The latter measure, Abbotsford and Chilliwack were among the lowest of all BC sites). In certain weather conditions during the summer, prevailing westerly winds blow air pollution from vehicles and from ships in Vancouver harbour east up the triangular delta, trapping it between the Coast Mountains on the north and the Cascades on the southeast. Air quality suffers. This usually occurs during a temperature inversion , and lasts for

4788-465: The lower canyon of the river to the dam at Stave Falls . During the construction of the Ruskin Dam (completed 1931) the railway was rebuilt at a higher elevation so as to skirt the new Hayward Lake reservoir. The rail line has long been discontinued, but the old grade and its trestles are now part of a recreation trail circling the reservoir. Flanking the outraces of the powerhouse at Stave Falls there

4872-444: The majority of the farms in the area. There are about 96 commercial and hobby farms in the area. Dairy is the chief agricultural enterprise; other income sources include poultry, hogs, beef and vegetables. Mission's largest employer is the local school district, School District #75, and its second largest employer is the District (i.e. the municipality) itself. Transportation infrastructure includes Abbotsford-Mission Highway 11 , and

4956-429: The manufacturing sector to expand beyond sawmilling and food processing. Forest and wood related industries dominate the manufacturing sector, with an emphasis on redcedar shake and shingle mills. Mission also holds the only municipal tree farm license in British Columbia. Agriculture is mostly restricted to a narrow belt along the Fraser River, and the unincorporated Dewdney-Deroche district east of Mission contains

5040-534: The most important transportation through the region are the Canadian Pacific Railway and Canadian National Railway transcontinental main lines, the Lougheed Highway (Hwy 7), and the Trans-Canada Highway ( Hwy 1 ). After descending through the rapids of the Fraser Canyon , the Fraser River emerges almost at sea level at Yale , over 100 km inland. Although the canyon in geographic terms

5124-466: The ongoing clearing of vast forests of flooded-out trees from the inundated areas of Stave Lake , opening the lake to water recreation and public exploration. On March 29, 2021, the District of Mission was reclassified as a city. Historically, forestry , hydroelectricity and agriculture were Mission's chief resource sectors and provided the basis for varied related retail and service activities. In recent history, transportation improvements have enabled

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5208-527: The other Fraser Valley communities because of its access to the Fraser River. The Fraser near Mission is for the most part undeveloped and unspoiled which makes Mission the launch point for many water based activities that happen year round. Boat tours run from Mission's docks on Harbour Avenue, which are also home to sport and commercial fishing vessels; the Fraser has famous salmon runs and population of green sturgeon . Mission has an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfb ) due to its proximity to

5292-677: The rights to the Western Canada championships of the Soap Box Derby , which were held annually in a specially built facility until 1973; the Derby has been revived in the new millennium. Mission's other major industry was logging, and the town's several mills were noted for being the world's largest suppliers of red cedar shakes and shingles. The District of Mission has operated for many years its own tree farm , covering most of its northern and northwestern mountainous forests. This tree farm served as

5376-403: The river valley. As a wave of immigrants flooded into the Fraser River Valley because of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush , the British were unable to maintain order without the cooperation of the local indigenous peoples, and the Fraser Canyon War broke out. The war was resolved with a series of treaties, none of which remain to this day, but which evidently included the regulation of immigration and

5460-423: The seminary. The berry industry, formerly the district's largest and most important, formed the heart of the town's annual summer party, the Strawberry Festival. The Strawberry Festival began in 1946, when it was suggested by the Board of Trade. But with the impacts on this industry ( relocation of the Japanese during wartime and the devastating flood of 1948), the strawberry theme was abandoned. The town acquired

5544-424: The slope above downtown, was acquired by the federal government and developed into two large penal facilities. One is a minimum security facility, and the other is a medium security prison. The northern part of the district, and the wilds of the Stave River basin to the north of it, are home to a few wilderness work camps for young offenders and low-risk convicts; these camps have over recent decades participated in

5628-460: The social and commercial matrix centred on Mission but have never joined the municipality, as is also the case with areas north of Hatzic and Dewdney such as McConnell Creek and Durieu ; the local economy and societies are built on dairy, berry and corn farming as well as a large First Nations community at the Indian Reserves of the Leq' a: mel First Nation , formerly known as the Lakahahmen First Nation, on Nicomen Island and Deroche . Mission

5712-448: The total population as of the 2006 Canadian census . Mission's Japanese Canadian community began in 1904, when Kumekichi Fujino moved to the city. Many issei , or first generation immigrants, included prospective farmers and "picture brides", or women who communicated with suitors through the mail for the purpose of marriage. Organizations established in Mission included the Japanese Farmer's Association (Nokai), established in 1916;

5796-477: The urban and industrial centres of Vancouver , Surrey , and Abbotsford through golf courses and parks to dairy farms and market gardens . Agricultural land in the valley – much of it protected by the Agricultural Land Reserve – is intensively farmed: the Fraser Valley brings in nearly 40% of British Columbia's annual agricultural revenue, although it makes up a small percentage of the province's total land area. The Fraser Valley, specifically in Abbotsford ,

5880-494: The usual English-Scottish Canadian mix typical of much of the Fraser Valley. Throughout the Mission area before World War II , there was a large Japanese-Canadian population involved in berry farming, logging and milling and in the fishery on the river. In 1954, Benedictine monks obtained land near Mission, where they set up their Westminster Abbey and Seminary of Christ the King. They have lived there ever since, running their own farm and teaching high school and college men at

5964-414: The valley beyond the continuously built-up urban area around Vancouver, up to and including Chilliwack and Agassiz, about 80 km east, and abutting the border with Washington's Whatcom County ; news media typically also include the built-up eastern suburban areas of Vancouver which a few decades ago were mixed farmland and forest, typical of "the Valley". The Fraser Valley region is also the namesake of

6048-459: The vast majority of the population of Mission lives well to the east of the Stave, over 50% of the northern land area of the municipality is west and north of that river; its extreme northwest corner is on the far side of upper Alouette Lake . A small portion of the lower Stave still runs free in its last two miles before its confluence with the Fraser at Ruskin ; its last three-quarters of a mile forms

6132-532: The weather regime along the west coast of North America as far south as California , acting as a natural outlet for the intensely cold Arctic air mass which typically sits over Western Canada during winter. Under certain meteorological conditions strong winds pour out of the Fraser Valley and over the relatively warmer waters of the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca . This can cause ocean-effect snow, especially between Port Angeles and Sequim , where

6216-468: The west. To the east are the unincorporated areas of Hatzic and Dewdney . It is situated on the north bank of the Fraser River , backing onto mountains and lakes overlooking the Central Fraser Valley 65 km (40 miles) southeast of Vancouver . Unlike the other Fraser Valley municipalities, Mission is mostly forested upland with only small floodplains lining the shore of the Fraser River. Some benches of farmland rise in succession northwards above

6300-410: Was a large cluster of productive mills on the waterfront in Mission, for many years world capital of red cedar shake production (the mill at Whonnock outproduced the largest of the Mission mills, but Mission's city of mills was the largest overall producer). Nearby Eddy Match Co., between Mission and Hatzic, was the largest matchstick-making plant in the world until it closed in the 1960s; its only rival

6384-415: Was a young Canadian girl who disappeared from a Vancouver suburb on the morning of May 4, 2000, and was found dead the next day after she was kidnapped and murdered by a 20 year old man whose name was David Trott as he ostensibly took her to school. She was found dead in an incinerated trailer near Mission, British Columbia . Mission's neighbourhoods include a number of rural localities which were part of

6468-537: Was active since the early 1900s. An Indo-Canadian volleyball team, "Mission Sikhs", was active in the area. Naranjan Grewall became the first Indo-Canadian elected to public office when he took a position in Mission City's government. According to the 2021 Canadian census , the South Asian population in Mission stood at 4,330 persons, forming approximately 10.7% of the total population, up from 2,220 persons or 6.6% of

6552-574: Was chosen due to the site's proximity to the historic St. Mary's Mission of the Oblate order just east of town, which was founded in 1868 (now the Peckquaylis Indian Reserve ). At the time of founding, the swing-span Mission Railway Bridge opened in 1891 was the only crossing of the Fraser River in the Fraser Valley below the Alexandra Bridge , and all rail traffic between Vancouver and

6636-532: Was elected on October 15, 2022. The current mayor is Paul Horn. A notable past mayor is Pam Alexis who resigned as the mayor of Mission in November 2020 after winning a seat for the provincial riding of Abbotsford-Mission in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia . The Town of Mission City took its name from the local St. Mary's Mission and Residential School established earlier in 1861 and began as

6720-571: Was in Hull, Quebec . The Douglas Ranges are subjected to torrential and ongoing rain, and its valleys are deep and narrow and dank throughout the year. Given that environment, no wonder it is the highest-rated region for sasquatch sightings in the world, and the very word comes from the Chehalis people on its southeastern rim. The ridges and cliffs above the dark, steep valleys (mostly clearcut) are favourites of rock climbers and have supposedly some of

6804-536: Was in Hull, Quebec . Adjoining it was the Empress Foods Co. cannery, the survivor of the struggles of the berry industry in the Central Fraser Valley, and dating from the days of Mission's supremacy as strawberry capital of the valley before the 1948 Fraser River flood wiped it out. In more recent times one of these buildings was for a while converted into the province's largest marijuana grow-op , in

6888-463: Was incorporated in 1892 and is 225.78 km (87.17 sq mi) in size. In 1922 the District of Mission was partitioned by the creation of the Village of Mission, which later became the Village of Mission City, then the Town of Mission City, until amalgamated with the District by plebiscite in 1969. The City of Mission uses the current Council-Manager system of local government. The present Council,

6972-573: Was once a fairly large community (300 houses), which was served by the railway via connections to the CPR line at Ruskin , although the (then very rough) Dewdney Trunk Road used the dam to cross the Stave River . Population in the Stave Falls area is now away from the dams, west along the Dewdney Trunk towards Maple Ridge, in a rural farm-and-wilderness area south of Rolley Lake Provincial Park . Up against

7056-569: Was the first Board of Trade in B.C." Some of the early houses and commercial buildings were, in fact, specifically designed to be reminiscent of small towns in southern Ontario in order to encourage buyers. Hailed at the time as a new metropolis, the fledgling town's location at the junction of the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline with a northward extension of the Burlington Northern Railroad brought name suggestions that included East Vancouver and North Seattle. The name Mission City

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