The Surrey Historical Society will recognize the anniversary of the James McMillan Expedition of 1824 with a stage production.
The play will be performed Sept. 21 at Elgin Heritage Park during Surrey’s annual Harvest Fair.
Written by Cloverdale’s Roger Bose, the production will run about 20 minutes.
“It’s the 200th anniversary of the historic expedition,” noted Bose. “We’ll have a little presentation between 3 and 4 p.m. in the afternoon.”
The SHS will present the play in Elgin Heritage Park near the mouth of the Nicomekl River. This is where McMillan would have met Semiahmoo First Nations who helped them out immensely by guiding them up the river.
Bose said his cast is all amateurs, but he’s confident they’ll be ready to go by Sept. 21.
Bose will narrate the performance. Jim Foulkes will play James McMillan, the captain and leader of the expedition. Black Press Media’s own Frank Bucholtz will play the role of John Work, who recorded a daily journal of the expedition’s activities. Rick Hugh will portray Thomas McKay, a hunter with the party. Michael Gibbs will play Francis Annance, a navigator and translator who was of both English and Abenaki heritage.
It’s nearly an all-Cloverdale cast too, save for Gibbs who resides in Newton.
“They’ve never acted before,” added Bose. “So, I’ve been having some challenges.”
He said despite the challenges, they’ll be ready to go by Sept. 21.
Bose also said there will be some laminated posters set up that tell the story of the expedition.
“We’ll have a 10’ x 10’ tent with some easels and some display boards,” added Bose. “The whole story about the McMillan Expedition will be all up there in print on big poster boards.”
He said after watching the play, people can then visit the tent area for more of an in-depth explanation of the 200-year-old journey.
THE EXPEDITION
According to surreyhistory.ca, the James McMillan Expedition was a surveying trip that sought to find a suitable site for a new Hudson Bay Company fort.
In the winter of 1824, James McMillan headed up a survey party from Fort George (present-day Astoria, Oregon) on Nov. 18. McMillan and his party of 40 travelled on Columbia boats. When the group reached Semiahmoo Bay on Dec. 11, they had to change their plan to sail around Point Roberts and up the Fraser.
“The weather was growing cold, the wind was blowing, and ahead of them was the wide open stretch of water and the rounding of Point Roberts. They decided to wait for the weather to clear and camped near the present site of White Rock.”
Two days later, on Dec. 13, the expedition headed up the Nicomekl River. They had to portage over to the Salmon River before reaching the Fraser. The expedition sailed up the Fraser and went as far as Hatzic Slough before returning to Fort George.
FUTURE HISTORY
Bose said he hopes the play acts as a catalyst to add material to the annals of city history. He wants to take all the materials the SHS produces for the commemoration and give it to the Surrey Archives afterwards.
“Anything that we present, we want it to go into the Surrey Archives as a record of what happened on the 200th anniversary of the expedition,” explained Bose. “So people, later, in the future, will know what we did.”
Admission to the Harvest Fair is free. Elgin Heritage Park is located at 13723 Crescent Road.
Visit surreyhistory.ca for more info.
1824 EXPEDITION ROUTE
Also, trace the 1824 expedition from Fort George to the Fraser River, based on the Journal of John Work, in this Google interactive map created by René Digard.
