A Little Nugget of History

[Tronhard]

Tucked into a small area beside a Starbucks and Victoria's Inner Harbour lies this plaque, commemorating the Treaty of Saint Petersburg of 1825 or the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1825, defining the boundaries between Russian, America and British claims and possessions in the Pacific Northwest. Russia was allocated land across the Bering Strait, while Britain took what is now British Columbia, the Yukon and part of the North West Territories. The Russian sphere in the region was later sold to the USA in 1867, becoming the state of Alaska. In 1903 a joint United Kingdom – Canada – U.S. tribunal established the boundary of Alaska much of which follows the 141st Meridian West.



The agreed southern demarcation between the US and Canada was set in the Oregon Treaty of 1846. However Vancouver Island protruded below that line. The Province of BC had deliberately set Victoria, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, as the provincial capital to strengthen its claim to the whole island and that of the surrounding archipelago. Disputes over this were settled by arbitration in 1872, establishing the current border between the Canadian Gulf Islands and the US San Juan Islands.

Apparently the intent of aligning the E-W border on the 49th parallel to the Great Lakes was thwarted by a contractor hired to survey the boundary in the central region. He and his partner spent the money provided on hard whiskey and executed the survey roaring drunk, with the result that the boundary wandered haphazardly for quite a distance. The Canada-US Border Commission eventually discovered this, but since the errors seemed about equal above and blow the intended route, they decided to leave the boundary as was. Go figure...

[Tronhard]

In response to an inquiry here is the exact location of the plaque.

[Cantab]

Trev, thanks for posting the location of the plaque. I'll have to go down and have a look at it.

The animals are presumably sea otters, harkening back to when they were hunted on the west coast?

[Tronhard]

Hi Bruce: I would assume the same thing. Until gold became an issue the fur trade seemed to be a big driver for both exploration and land dominance.

[IzzieK]

Interesting history -- nice to read those tidbits every now and then. Spent sometime trying to read what it says too...Good piece.