Welcome to Mission, BC, Canada
N 49° 08.997 W 122° 15.201
10U E 554447 N 5444393
Welcome sign at the East entrance to Mission, BC
Waymark Code: WME8QV
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 04/19/2012
Views: 8
The Town of Mission City had an interesting beginning as a land promotion. The town's core commercial properties and residential streets were auctioned off at the "Great Land Sale" of 1891, with buyers brought in via the CPR mainline from Vancouver as well as from Eastern Canada. Soon afterwards, Harry Brown French, an American from New York, came to the city and founded the Mission Regional Chamber of Commerce on June 19, 1893.[1] It was the first Board of Trade in B.C."[2] Some of the early houses and commercial buildings were, in fact, specifically designed to be reminiscent of small towns in southern Ontario in order to encourage buyers. Hailed at the time as a new metropolis, the fledgling town's location at the junction of the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline with a northward extension of the Burlington Northern Railroad brought name suggestions that included East Vancouver and North Seattle. The name Mission City was chosen due to the site's proximity to the historic St. Mary's Mission of the Oblate order just east of town, which was founded in 1868 (now the Peckquaylis Indian Reserve).
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October, 1996 marked the beginning of a formal sister city agreement between the District of Mission and the community of Oyama, Japan. The declaration, jointly signed by Mayor Hawes and Mayor Osada, states: “The citizens of Mission and Oyama hereby pledge that they promote exchanges in educational, cultural, and economic fields in order to deepen mutual understanding and to develop friendships into the future. We wish the spirit of goodwill that this Declaration generates shall form a foundation for young and coming generations to build upon and thereby contribute to the prosperity of the two countries, and further, to World Peace.”
The friendship began with an invitation received in 1995 from Mr. Atsutaka Kita, representing the Oyama International Friendship Association, to enter into discussions that would explore the potential for a sister city agreement.
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