The City of Surrey has denied a funding request for the commemoration of the James McMillan Expedition of 1824.
The Surrey Historical Society (SHS) had applied for a city grant, but was denied, the city citing “eligibility criteria” problems.
The news was delivered to SHS members by Evelyn Wedley at the organization’s AGM April 20.
Wedley, president of the SHS, told the Cloverdale Reporter they will now go back to the drawing board.
“Their primary focus is on research, which we’d already done,” said Wedley. “So we tried to figure out another way to get some funding and they said we can pay honorariums and speakers fees, those types of things.”
The unexpected “no” has set them back, but they are still going to go ahead with the event. Original plans had included getting a replica of the Columbia boat built, the same boat the expeditioners used.
“I had a meeting with people from Cultural Grants (City of Surrey) and they’re helping us come up with some variations of things that we might be able to do.”
She said the ideas will fall in line with grant guidelines and will likely be approved once the SHS can finalize the details. Things such as mini tours on the Nicomekl River and guest-speaker events are top of list.
“We’re now working on revising our original plans.”
The grant denial also spurred SHS member Annie Kaps to pen a request to the city for a meeting to discuss other funding options to commemorate the 200-year McMillan milestone.
The SHS is also planning to look into grants for communications endeavours, storyboards, and some advertising.
The AGM, held in person in the lower hall of the Surrey Archives, was called to order after a presentation on the history of Cloverdale by SHS member Roger Bose.
Several key items were covered at the AGM, including the election of directors and the presentation of several annual reports.
Treasurer Roger Bose gave the financial report. He noted the society gained $1,951 in revenue against expenses of $679 over the last year. The SHS also continues to hold total assets of $29,943.
Next up, Wedley offered the annual president’s report. She summarized the society’s activities in 2023, which included information on work with “Friends of Bear Creek Park” and their thoughts on the construction of 84th Avenue through the south end of the park; various learning projects put on by heritage groups including the Museum of Surrey; a recap of the opening of Totest Aleng, an Indigenous Learning House located in Elgin Heritage Park; info on the rededication of the Cloverdale Cenotaph; info on heritage conferences; and details on the planning of the commemoration of the 1824 expedition.
SEE ALSO: Surrey Historical Society to commemorate 1824 James McMillan Expedition
The SHS also changed its membership year to match its fiscal year, which is the calendar year. The society’s bylaw change will be submitted to the B.C. Society Registry forthwith.
The society then broke into a lengthy discussion about plans and ideas for 2024. Most of the talk centred on planning and prep for the commemoration of the James McMillan Expedition of 1824.
There was discussion about whether to have the commemoration event after the Harvest Festival activities (being held the same day) or to have it included in the Harvest Festival activities.
There was discourse on whether or not to provide guide-led walking tours. And if so, would the guides explain the history or should they instead hire historical reenactors to play the parts of all parties.
Members also discussed the possibility of printing educational brochures to encourage involvement in the expedition commemoration. There was also thought to give talks at the Museum of Surrey to promote the event and/or to set up displays there to advertise it.
The SHS also talked about reaching out to the local Métis association to see if they want to join in event planning.
Members also noted that Fort Langley is able to provide some equipment for the planned encampment and possibly boats, but Fort Langley will not be recognizing the event as they are in full planning mode for 2027 when they commemorate the 200th anniversary of the building of Fort Langley.
After all society business was discussed, members moved on to the elections.
Elected as directors for 2024-2025 were: Evelyn Wedley (president), Jim Foulkes (vice-president), Ellen Edwards (secretary), Roger Bose (treasurer), Michael Gibbs and Rick Hugh (both directors).
As for Bose’s pre-meeting presentation, he gave a summation of the material from his forthcoming book with the working title, “Cloverdale: from Pioneer Settlement to Town Centre.”
He talked about early families—such as Huck (1872), Boothroyd (1873), Shannon (1874), Richardson and Churchland (1877), Bose (1890), Robinson (1891), among others—and some of the challenges they faced.
“They had lots of work to do, and often helped each other clearing properties of stumps, sharing ploughs, building cabins, barns and fences from logs, or timber sawn from leftover fallen trees. Some stumps were so huge it took three tractors to pull them out.
“Early pioneers brought their building materials from New Westminster by Sternwheeler up the Serpentine River,” Bose said. “Farm produce was taken to the New Westminster City Market once a week by horse and wagon on the KDK Ferry, later the Surrey Ferry. When the New Westminster bridge was opened in 1904, this opened whole new markets.”