A painting of Fort Hope in 1866 by John Clayton White, a 31-year-old corporal in the Royal Engineers. White was a skilled architect and designed many early buildings in New Westminster.
When the border was drawn between the United States and BritishNorth America, the HBC was forced to relocate from its base at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon and establish a new route to the interior that didn't stray into American territory. It was hoped that the Fraser River would offer such a route (hence the name Hope).
The fort was established here in 1848 at the final navigable part of the lower Fraser River. People (especially gold miners) and their supplies came by boat from Fort Langley to Fort Hope, where they transferred their supplies to pack mules.
Royal Engineers, like the painter, hewed rough pack roads to the gold fields in the interior, cementing Fort Hope's importance as a trans-shipment point in BC's early colonial period.

This is a painting by Robert Brown titled "Grand Potlatch (or distribution of blankets, guns, and money) at Fort Hope Rancherie, Fraser River, 1859."

Looking down the Fraser River past Greenwood Island. As you can see, Greenwood Island is much larger today, having been built up by the Fraser River's accumulating silt.

The stately Coquihalla Hotel that once stood at the corner of Wallace and 3rd Ave. It would later be destroyed in a fire.

This photo shows Austin F. Bement and E.S. Evans in their Packard 226. They were nearing the end of a remarkable Winnipeg to Vancouver journey by car, a feat made difficult by the complete lack of any highways across the country.
They wanted to popularize the idea of building a highway across Canada, after the United States had completed its own Lincoln Highway in 1913. They wanted to show it was possible (if very challenging) to get from one end of the country to the other by car, though to do so they had to drive along the CNR's railway tracks, something that was quite dangerous when a train could come along at any moment, leaving them little time to manoeuvre off the tracks.

Christ Church Anglican seen through the trees. The building was consecrated in 1861, making it the oldest church still on its original site in BC. It is part of the Fort Hope National HIstoric Site.

In this photo of Wallace Street we can see at right the V Garage which was owned by Herbert Woods. He had a special predilection for the letter V, and ensured all of his many children had names like Violet, Vivian, Victoria, and Vimy (among others).

A view of the one-lane car trestle bridge over the Coquihalla that was built in 1928. The bridge played a prominent part in the movie Rambo: First Blood. It was demolished in 2011 and replaced with a wider two-lane bridge, much to the chagrin of First Blood fans.

A view of the Traffic Bridge spanning the Fraser River at Hope. This bridge is now part of the Trans-Canada Highway that heads north to Yale.

A view of the Fort Hope Cairn to mark the Hudson's Bay Company trading fort established here in 1848. The cairn is a National Historic Site.

The Hope Motor Hotel has a long history in Hope, previously known as the Commercial Hotel.

A colour photo of Wallce Street shows a number of flashy cars that were becoming immensely popular in that era. The blue car in the foreground is a 1957 Meteor Rideau. Meteor was a Canadian car manufacturer that was discontinued in 1976.

The Fort Hope Hotel once stood on Water Ave, near where the old Hudson's Bay Company fort was located.

A view of Wallace Street taken by the Fort Hope Cairn just by the river's edge. You'll notice there are no more Texaco gas stations in Canada today.