Fort Langley, strategically well-placed near the mouth of the Fraser River, was built in 1827 as the first permanent outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company. George Simpson, the then Governor of British Columbia, thought the Fraser would become an important connecting link with the countryside beyond, but in fact this
was not to be so, mainly because of the sheer and insurmountable Fraser Canyon. As a result the trading post lost importance, and even the Cariboo gold-rush passed it silently by. In 1839 the Fort Langley outpost was burned down, but was rebuilt in the following year. In 1886 the Hudson's Bay Company closed down this outpost.
After a very quiet period, however, the settlement developed to become the center of the "Langley prairie", where agriculture and farming, particularly dairy-farming, now predominate.
Renovation of the fort began in 1955 when laying out the Fort Langley National Historic Park was begun.
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