The Meridian Heights Farmers Institute was formed in the early 1930s (exact date unknown, however the first available Minutes from January 4th, 1932 make mention of thanks to be given to Mr. Morris, Mr. Gillis, and Mr. Martin for their assistance in the formation of the institute). Farmers Institutes were created by district under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture and the Superintendent of Farmers’ Institutes. The Superintendent served as a Director on each local board. Meetings of the Meridian Heights Farmers Institute were held in Glen School for several meetings in 1932 until the Institute moved its regular meetings to Victoria Hall School. The Institute met to discuss issues relating to the community including road development, land development, employment, worker’s rights, price of goods, buildings etc., and they also organized and held social gatherings with the women’s auxiliary at the Meridian Heights Farmers Institute Hall (also known as Victoria Hall and Dogpatch Hall). The Farmers Institute served as the centre of the community that was very isolated in the early days of settlement. The Institute was later replaced by the Ratepayers Association in the 1950s.

Reginald George Marshall was born April 7th, 1884 in Dorset, Dorchester, England. Marshall was married to Matilda Hopkins on October 9th, 1911. Prior to moving to Canada, he served in the Dorset Yeomanry and following his arrival served in the 104th militia in British Columbia. His marriage certificate lists his occupation as "farmer" but on July 16th, 1913 he was appointed as a special police constable at a Coquitlam Council meeting on a retaining fee of $10 per month. He was later appointed to be the special constable in charge of the East End at a rate of $10 per month. He enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on March 11th, 1915 in New Westminster at the rank of Private but was soon promoted to Lance Corporal, Corporal, and then Sergeant (Regiment No. 628467) in the 47th Battalion. He died of wounds received in action on August 22nd, 1917, at the age of 33. He received the Victory and British War medals and is buried in Lapugnoy Military Cemetery in France in plot V.D. 12. He was survived by his wife, who moved to England during the war, and his parents Francis and Annie Marshall of Port Coquitlam.

The position of the City Clerk was established at the first meeting of the District of Coquitlam Council on August 22, 1891 and R.D. Irvine was engaged at the salary of “not more than $50.00 for the balance of year”. Originally the treasurer, assessor and records manager for the District, the City Clerk eventually became Municipal Council liaison with a separately appointed Treasurer. The Clerk’s chief function is to be secretary to Council, Council Select and Special Committees, to the court of property tax revision and secretary to the Board of Variance and Family Court Committee. The Clerk is responsible for Council correspondence and for civic public relations. The Clerk is also the Returning Officer for elections to Council and the School Board and is the custodian of the municipality’s bylaws. Since the Clerk’s Office has responsibility for record keeping, its records serve as one of the more diverse sources documenting Coquitlam’s development as a municipality.

The area between New Westminster and Pitt River along the Fraser River in British Columbia became settled in the pursuit of trapping, fishing and logging beginning in the
1820’s. Industry and significant settlement began with the opening of Fraser Mills sawmill on the north bank of the Fraser in the last years of the 19th century. Coquitlam comprised an area of approximately sixty-five square miles that had been surveyed by Royal Engineer A.L. Breakenridge in 1863. By the late 1880s, it became evident that the area should be incorporated into a Municipal District, and to this end, a petition was made by a majority of the landowners and pre-emptors living in the area. By letters patent dated 25 July 1891,
the area was incorporated as the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam. The letters patent called for the nomination of five councillors and a reeve and the first meeting of a municipal council were assembled in Kelly’s Hall in 1891 at Westminster Junction, now within the City of Port Coquitlam. The first reeve was R.B. Kelly and the first councillors were E.A. Aitkins, James Fox, S.W. Selman, James Morrison and J. Shennan. The first City Clerk was R.D. Irvine.

In 1893, that portion of the Maple Ridge Municipality between the newly formed District of Coquitlam and the Pitt River was added to Coquitlam municipality. The City of Port Coquitlam and the District of Fraser Mills both ceded from the District of Coquitlam in 1913 in order to limit their tax liability for the development of the rapidly growing Coquitlam District and to establish their own tax base, taking just over a almost 7000 acres of land away from the Coquitlam District. Fraser Mills rejoined the District on 1 November 1971, when both districts revoked their letters patent and a new letters patent was proclaimed incorporating the area as the District of Coquitlam. Supplementary letters patent were issued in 1973 and 1986 to reflect changes in municipal boundaries. Effective 1 December 1992, the District of Coquitlam’s status was changed by new letters patent to that of a city municipality and it became known as the City of Coquitlam. Today, it is bordered by the municipalities of Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby and New Westminster as well as the Fraser River to the south, Pitt River to the east and the Coastal Mountains to the north. It includes the community of Maillardville, a region near Fraser Mills settled by French Canadians in the early years.

History of the municipality’s bylaws indicates both the remoteness of the region and its rapid urbanization. Road taxation began in 1897, the sale of liquor was first regulated in 1909 and municipal health regulations were first passed in 1912. Coquitlam had electricity by 1911, and plans for running water began in 1916. The building of a separate fire hall in 1946 and expansion of water service in the mid-1950s indicate a particularly vigorous period of population growth. The municipality assumed responsibility for paved roads and sidewalks by 1961. Zoning changes in the 1970s and 1980s reflect a change in land use from agricultural to single-family suburban residential and low-density apartment housing. An average of two development permits was issued every month by the early eighties.

The town centre, developed in the mid 1970s, provides cultural and recreational facilities and includes a public safety building, a new City Hall, community centre, a high school and college. The population of Coquitlam has doubled from the 1970s to the present day. A dyking project began in the 1990s has eliminated the Coquitlam River flooding and bridge washouts that sometimes occurred in the last century.

City Clerks, District and City of Coquitlam
R.D. Irvine 1891-1892
W. Alexander Philip 1892-
John Smith 1899-1913
A. Haliburton 1913-1917
Robert Newman 1918-1927
Alan M. Shaw 1928
William Russell 1928-1947
F.L. Pobst 1947-1972
R.A. Leclair, acting clerk, 1965, 1966 1967
H.F. Hockey, acting clerk, 1967
Ted Klassen, acting clerk, 1967
Ted Klassen, 1972-1991
Sandra Aikenhead, 1991-1994
Warren Jones, 1994-2000
Trevor Wingrove, 2000-2002
Sonia Santarossa, 2002-2008
Jay Gilbert, 2008-present

Reeves and Mayors, District and City of Coquitlam
R.B. Kelly 1891-1896
E.A. Atkins 1897-1903
Ralph Booth 1904-1908
D.E. Welcher 1909-1910
James Mars 1911-1913
L.E. Marmont 1918-1922
George H. Proulx 1923
R.C. MacDonald 1924-1941
J.W. Oliver 1942-1944
L.J. Christmas 1945-1969
J.L. Ballard 1970-1971
James L. Tonn 1972-1983
Louis Sekora 1984-1998
Jon Kingsbury 1998-2005
Maxine Wilson 2005-2007
Richard Stewart 2008-present

Moody Junior-Senior High School is a junior high school located at 130 Buller St, Port Moody, British Columbia.

By the 1950s Port Moody needed a new school to replace the now aging Central School. Moody Junior-Senior High School was built to house grades 7-12 at 3115 St. John's St. in 1951. The school was originally supposed to be called 'Port Moody Junior-Senior High School' but a mistake had been made on the sign. The school opened with 19 teachers and 404 students from Ioco, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody.

In 1962, Moody High School began expansion, including a band room, cafeteria, four classrooms, a student council room and book storage area. Changes were being made to accommodate a larger student population, and extracurricular activities. On March 24th, 1969, the school was completely destroyed in a fire. For the final months of the 1969 school year, students attended classes at Como Lake Secondary School.

Port Moody's replacement high school was completed and ready for students by the spring of 1970, but the school board decided to wait until September to open the school to avoid disrupting the students further. In September 1970, the first classes were held in the brand new building.

By 1973, the school was converted to a junior high school, as another school called Port Moody Senior Secondary was built to accommodate the growing number of high school students. The junior high school was then renamed Moody Middle School in the late 1990's. In 2018, the facility was demolished and rebuilt by Omicron Architects and Olivit Construction. It was also renamed École Moody Middle School of the Arts.

Craig Hodge was born May 1, 1957, at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, the same hospital where his father was born. His father Robert Hodge was the financial services manager for the Coquitlam School Board while his mother Margaret Hodge was a Burnaby school teacher. The family moved to Coquitlam in 1964.

After finishing grade school at Hillcrest elementary, he attended a brand new school called Dr. Charles Best junior secondary where he became interested in photography as he worked on the school’s first annual.

When he advanced to Centennial secondary in 1973, he volunteered to work on the school’s award-winning newspaper, The Catalyst, under the direction of teachers Ward Eby and Frank Shepard. While a number of Catalyst students went on to careers in journalism, Craig’s break came while he was still in Grade 11 when The Columbian newspaper sent its chief photographer Basil King to take pictures of the students for a story about a national award they had won. Craig didn’t realize that as the students waited for their classmates to gather, Basil was looking over Craig’s pictures scattered on the table. A month later, Basil offered Craig a job as a photographer for the summer.

The Columbian newspaper was British Columbia’s oldest daily newspaper. It started in New Westminster before relocating to a former car dealership at 329 North Rd. in Coquitlam. It served the Vancouver suburbs and tried to compete against the Vancouver Sun and Province.

When the summer ended, Craig returned to Centennial for his final year but Basil kept him on to work weekends until he graduated. During his 10 years of working at The Columbian, Craig covered all the major provincial and local stories before the newspaper closed doors in 1984.

By then, Craig had developed a close working relationship with local police and firefighters, and had become the top spot news photographer in the Lower Mainland. This led to him to being hired in 1985 by Gordy Robson, the owner of the Maple Ridge News. Gordy was interested in expanding his weekly publication into the Coquitlam and Burnaby markets to fill the void left by The Columbian. He also wanted to compete with the Now newspaper chain that had just been started by a group of former Columbian employees.

Originally launched as a regional Sunday magazine format — featuring a full front page colour photograph — plans were soon made to start individual Wednesday news editions in the Burnaby, New Westminster and Coquitlam markets.

It was in a management meeting to pick a name for the new Coquitlam paper that Craig argued against calling the publication The Pocomo News or the District 43 News. Rather, his idea was to call it The Tri-City News. The term had not been used in the area before and his suggestion was rejected by several mayors who were then fighting against calls for amalgamation. Despite the opposition, Craig convinced the newspaper owners and, today, the name is commonly used to reference the Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody region.

Shortly after the expansion, Gordy Robson sold the papers to Hacker Press — the owner of the Abbotsford News and Chilliwack Progress. The company built a regional production facility on Broadway Avenue in Port Coquitlam and it was there that Craig established a photography department to cover the territory from Whonnock to Vancouver.

Craig hired a team of photographers to staff the region seven days a week. Between the years 1985 and 2011, his team won more than 80 local, national and international photo journalism awards — half of them for Craig’s images.

During his 35 years working for local newspapers, Craig covered many events that shaped the community and documented the changing city. He photographed high school sports, Rick Hansen climbing the Thermal Drive Hill, opening day of Coquitlam Centre Mall, races at Westwood Track, building openings and every big news event.

While at The Tri-City News, he also began working part-time as a staff photographer for the Vancouver Sun. There, he covered major sports, concerts, and historic events such as Expo 86 and the royal tour of Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Craig served as president of the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce in 1999, and later as president of the Coquitlam Heritage Society.

He and his wife Darla Furlani, also a photographer, had three sons and Craig volunteered as a soccer coach, ball hockey coach, and a Scout leader.
Craig was the photo co-ordinator for Coquitlam’s centennial history book, Coquitlam 100 Years, in which — over a two-year period — he sourced all the images for the publication, now preserved at the City of Coquitlam Archives.

In 2011, Craig left the newspaper industry and was elected to Coquitlam city council.

James Leonard (Jim) Tonn served as Councillor in 1971 and was elected Mayor in 1972, a position he held until he resigned in July, 1983. He was a former professional football player who played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the B.C. Lions between 1957 and 1959. He served as Alderman for one year before being elected Mayor. He served as President of the Union of B.C. Municipalities and was Deputy Chairman of the GVRD Board of Directors. He served on nearly all GVRD committees and was Chairman of several including Planning and Parks. After resigning he became the Municipal Manager.

The Tri-City News is a community newspaper that serves Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore, and Belcarra. It was founded in 1984 and was owned by Trinity (a UK company) before it was sold to Black Press in 1997. The newspaper was sold again in 2015 to Glacier Media Group.

James Mars was first elected Reeve for the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam in 1911. He served in this capacity until the City of Port Coquitlam seceded from the district and he became the first Reeve of the new City of Port Coquitlam. He later served as Alderman in Port Coquitlam from 1920-1921.

Margaret (Marg) and Geoffrey (Geoff) Hortin became members of the Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC) in 1958. They assisted with the building of the Westwood Racetrack, and Geoff was an active racer. Marg raced an MGA coupe in what were known as "powder puff" races. She also helped out with lap scoring and was part of the Ladies Division, which ran a concession stand that raised enough money to pay for the taxes on the racetrack each year. Margaret Hortin passed away on July 5, 2019.

Ronald James Fielding was born in Vancouver in 1910 to Thomas and Sarah Fielding. Fielding married Barbara May MacDonald in 1936. Fielding was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Excelsior Lodge #7 in Chilliwack for 70 years and associate member of Royal City/Burnaby Lodge #3.

Colonial settlement of the area between New Westminster and Pitt River along the Fraser began in the 1920s in the pursuit of trapping, fishing, and logging. Industry and more intensive colonial settlement began with the opening of the Fraser Mills sawmill on the north bank of the Fraser in the last years of the 19th century.

Coquitlam comprised an area of approximately sixty-five square miles that had been surveyed by Royal Engineer A.L. Breakenridge in 1863. In the late 1880s, the landowners and pre-emptors living in the area petitioned the province to incorporate as a Municipal District.

The area was incorporated by letters patent dated July 25, 1891 as the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam. The letters patent called for the nomination of five councillors and a reeve and the first meeting of a municipal council were assembled in Kelly’s Hall on August 22nd, 1891 at Westminster Junction, now within the City of Port Coquitlam. The first reeve was R.B. Kelly and the first councillors were E.A. Aitkins, James Fox, S.W. Lehman, James Morrison, and J. Shennan. The first City Clerk was R.D. Irvine.

In 1894, a portion of the Maple Ridge Municipality between the newly formed Corporation of the District of Coquitlam and the Pitt River was added to the Coquitlam municipality, following a petition by the landowners to the province.

In 1913, the land owners in the area known as Westminster Junction wished to limit their tax liability for the development of the rapidly growing district and to establish their own tax base. A petition was sent to the province and the area seceded from the Corporation of the District of Coquitlam, forming the City of Port Coquitlam.

In the same year, The Canadian Western Lumber Company decided to incorporate the area surrounding Fraser Mills and the Corporation of the District of Fraser Mills was incorporated by letters patent in 1913. The Corporation of the District of Coquitlam and the Corporation of the District of Fraser Mills amalgamated in November 1971, when both districts revoked their letters patent and new letters patent was issued incorporating the area as the District of Coquitlam. Supplementary letters patent were issued in 1973 and 1986 to reflect changes in municipal boundaries.

Effective December 1, 1992, the District of Coquitlam’s status was changed by new letters patent to that of a city municipality and it became known as the City of Coquitlam. Today, it is bordered by the municipalities of Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby, and New Westminster as well as the Fraser River to the south, the Pitt River to the east, and the Coastal Mountains to the north. It includes the community of Maillardville, a region near Fraser Mills settled by French Canadians in the early part of the 20th century.

History of the municipality’s bylaws indicates both the perceived remoteness of the region and its rapid urbanization. Road taxation began in 1897, the sale of liquor was first regulated in 1909, and municipal health regulations were first passed in 1912. Coquitlam had electricity by 1911, and plans for running water began in 1916. The building of a separate fire hall in 1946 and expansion of water service in the mid-1950s indicate a particularly vigorous period of population growth. The municipality assumed responsibility for paved roads and sidewalks by 1961. Zoning changes in the 1970s and 1980s reflect a change in land use from agricultural to single-family suburban residential and low-density apartment housing. An average of two development permits was issued every month by the early 1980s.

The town centre, developed in the 1980s and 1990s, provides cultural and recreational facilities and includes the Coquitlam Centre Mall, the Evergreen Cultural Centre, the Public Safety building, City Hall, the Pinetree Community Centre, the City Centre Aquatic Complex, the Coquitlam Public Library, the City Archives, and Douglas College. The population of Coquitlam has more than doubled from the 1970s to the present day.

City Clerks, District and City of Coquitlam
R.D. Irvine 1891-1899
John Smith 1899-1913
A. Haliburton 1913-1917
Robert Newman 1918-1927
Alan M. Shaw 1928
William Russell 1928-1947
F.L. Pobst 1947-1972
R.A. Leclair, acting clerk, 1965, 1966 1967
H.F. Hockey, acting clerk, 1967
Ted Klassen, acting clerk, 1967
Ted Klassen, 1972-1991
Sandra Aikenhead, 1991-1994
Warren Jones, 1994-2000
Trevor Wingrove, 2000-2002
Sonia Santarossa, 2002-2008
Jay Gilbert, 2008-present

Reeves and Mayors, District and City of Coquitlam
R.B. Kelly 1891-1896
E.A. Atkins 1897-1903
Ralph Booth 1904-1908
D.E. Welcher 1909-1910
James Mars 1911-1913
L.E. Marmont 1918-1922
George H. Proulx 1923
R.C. MacDonald 1924-1941
J.W. Oliver 1942-1944
L.J. Christmas 1945-1969
J.L. Ballard 1970-1971
James L. Tonn 1972-1983
Louis Sekora 1984-1998
Jon Kingsbury 1998-2005
Maxine Wilson 2005-2007
Richard Stewart 2008-present

The provision of mental health services had its beginning in October 1872 when the Royal Hospital in Victoria was designated as the first Provincial Asylum under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Secretary.

On April 1, 1950 the British Columbia Mental Health Service was formally established and various mental health activities were amalgamated including New Westminster Hospital (which became Woodlands School), Colquitz Provincial Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane (in Victoria), Essondale (including Crease clinic) and the Home for the Aged (in Coquitlam, Vernon and Terrace).

In 1959, Mental Health Services was transferred to the Dept. of Health Services and Hospital Insurance. The name was changed in 1967 to Mental Health Branch and changed again in 1975 to Mental Health Programs. The name reverted to Mental Health Services in 1980.

Between 1959 and 1968 the positions of Director and Deputy Minister were held by the same person. In 1968 the positions were separated, with Dr. H.W. Bridge as the Director of Mental Health Services, located in Vancouver, and Dr. F.G. Tucker as the Deputy Minister, located in Victoria. In September 1971 the position of Director was terminated. The statutory obligations of the Director were assumed by the Deputy Minister.

Byron Charles Jennings was a commercial photographer working in Vancouver, B.C. He worked at the Columbian and Province newspapers before opening his own commercial photography business, which operated under the name B.C. Jennings Ltd.

Riverview Hospital was a Canadian mental health facility in Coquitlam, British Columbia. It operated as the Province’s specialized psychiatric hospital from 1913 until it closed in 2012. The hospital is located on sumiqwuelu, or in Halkomelem language, the Place of the Great Blue Heron, where Kwikwetlem First Nation took shelter for thousands of years. By the beginning of the 20th century, traditional healing knowledge in the area was supplanted by settler colonial medical practice.

Riverview Hospital was operated directly by the Province, originally under the Insane Asylums Act (1873), the Mental Hospitals Act (1940), and the Mental Health Act (1964) until 1988. A re-evaluation of contemporary approaches to mental health care through the 1960s to the mid-1980s brought about change to mental health service development in British Columbia. The Province created the British Columbia Mental Health Society (BCMHS) in 1988 and gave it the task of running Riverview pursuant to provincial health legislation. The BCMHS board began as Provincially-appointed trustees but by 1992, it was replaced by a community-based board of governors. After the establishment of the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) in 2001, Riverview Hospital fell under the jurisdiction of its Mental Health & Addiction Services (now the BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services).

In 1904, the Province purchased 1,000 acres in Coquitlam for the construction of a new mental hospital (as well as Colony Farm) due to overcrowding at the Royal Hospital in Victoria and the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster. Originally called the Hospital for the Mind at Mount Coquitlam, the hospital was named Essondale Hospital in honour of Dr. Henry Esson Young shortly after its opening. Young was the Provincial Secretary and Minister of Education and was responsible for establishing and managing the hospital.

The first building, West Lawn (then, the Male Chronic Wing) opened in 1913 to serve male patients. The patient population grew rapidly and soon led to more overcrowding. In 1922 the Boys’ Industrial School of Coquitlam (BISCO) opened to provide education, industrial training, and juvenile reform to boys sentenced to confinement by law. To accommodate more patients, Centre Lawn (then, the Acute Psychopathic Unit) opened in 1924. In 1930, East Lawn (then, the Female Chronic Unit) opened to ease crowding of female patients at the Public Hospital for the Insane in New Westminster.

After the First World War, more spaces for war veterans were needed in British Columbia. Thus a new Veteran's Unit opened at Essondale Hospital in 1934. In 1936, BISCO was moved; the school underwent renovation and reopened as a geriatric care unit called the Home for the Aged (later, Valleyview). This unit was administered under the Provincial Home for the Aged Act (1935). After the Second World War, veterans were moved to the Riverside unit on Colony Farm grounds. The original Veteran’s Unit expanded and became the Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine, which opened in 1949 and operated under separate health legislation than Essondale Hospital. The Crease Clinic allowed for voluntary admission of patients who could terminate their hospitalization at will. In 1950, Essondale Hospital changed its name to Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale. North Lawn (then, the Tuberculosis Unit) opened in 1955 to stem the spread of the tuberculosis common in the hospital's other units. By 1956 there were over 4,700 patients at the Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale, the Crease Clinic, and the Home for the Aged combined.

In 1959 the charge of mental health services was transferred from the Provincial Secretary to the new Department of Health Services and Hospital Insurance. That year, the Valleyview geriatric care unit opened. Five years later in 1964, the British Columbia Mental Health Act was enacted. The Crease Clinic amalgamated with Essondale Provincial Mental Hospital in 1965 to function as one facility named Riverview Hospital. That same year, the Riverside unit was converted to a maximum security facility and was renamed the Forensic Psychiatric Institute.

From the 1960s to the 1980s Riverview Hospital began to face changes because of deinstitutionalization. Patient populations declined at Riverview Hospital due to a move toward outpatient care and community based centres for mental health services. Although Riverview Hospital was given formal status as a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of British Columbia in 1974, by 1981 patient population had dropped and parts of the hospital were closed and sold off to developers. In 1983, West Lawn closed and farming operations at Colony Farm were discontinued. Next followed twenty years of unit closures: Crease Clinic (1992), East Lawn (2005), North Lawn (2007), and in 2012, the last patients were moved from Centre Lawn. That year Riverview Hospital ceased its operations.

Currently, the Riverview Lands are home to three lodges where long-term intensive psychological rehabilitation is provided for individuals, administered through Fraser Health’s Mental Health network of services.

In 1889, the Ross, McLaren Mill was opened at Millside, an area near New Westminster, British Columbia. The mill had cost $350,000 to build, and was headed by President James McLaren, a Quebec timber investor and President of the Bank of Ottawa, and Vice-President Frank Ross. Production at the mill began in 1890. In addition to new facilities and a large amount of capital to support it, the mill also possessed the transportation benefits of frontage on the Fraser River and a spur line to the Canadian Pacific Railway system. However, despite these advantages, the mill soon faced several events that affected its production in a negative way. In addition to the death of McLaren, the mill also experienced a decreased demand for timber due to a general economic depression in 1892. Even when other mills began to recover in 1895, Ross, McLaren’s productivity was curtailed by the silting of the Fraser River, which made it impossible for large vessels to reach the mill.

All of these factors contributed to the company’s decision in 1899 to place the mill and its timber rights up for sale. An American investment syndicate, headed by Lester David of Seattle and Mr. Jenkins of Minneapolis eventually purchased the mill in 1903. The new owners sought to resolve the mill’s difficulties by dyking the area, and holding the federal government accountable for dredging the Fraser River channel and ensuring its accessibility to ships. Now called Fraser River Saw Mills, the mill was finally re-opened in 1905, as the largest mill in the Pacific Northwest. By 1906, the mill was already setting records for production levels and over 250 labourers were employed. As a result of the increased production levels and staff, both the mill and Millside were expanded; this included the construction of the Fraser Mills Sash, Door & Shingle Company Limited.

Production at the mill was so high by 1907, in fact, that the mill was nearly shut down due to a lack of available labour. The mill was taken over by an investment syndicate headed by A.D. McRae of Winnipeg and Senator Peter Jansen of Nebraska. The new owners instituted a major re-organization of the business. A half million dollar renovation and expansion of the original mill buildings was implemented and improvements made to increase transportation access to the mill via the Fraser River. The name of the town was changed from Millside to Fraser Mills.

The re-organization of the business culminated in 1910, with the purchase of enough timber rights in the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island for the company, now called the Canadian Western Lumber Company Limited, to be considered to have the largest private holdings in the world. Through direct or indirect purchase, the Canadian Western Lumber Company Limited acquired full or partial ownership of the following companies by 1916: Canadian Tugboat Company Limited; Coast Lumber & Fuel Company Limited; Coast Lumber Yards Limited; The Columbia River Company Limited; Columbia Western Lumber Yards Ltd.; Comox Logging and Railway Company; Crown Lumber Company, Limited; Fraser Mills Sash, Door, and Shingle Company Limited; Lumber Manufacturers’ Yard Limited; Security Lumber Company Limited.; and Western Canada Sawmill Yards Limited. Later acquisitions include The Golden Light, Power and Water Company Limited. In 1954, the Canadian Western Lumber Company, Limited was acquired by Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited. The immediate successor company to Crown Zellerbach Canada Limited was Fletcher Challenge Limited of New Zealand, which purchased the company in 1983 and, with further acquisitions, became Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited in 1987. In 2000, Norske Skog, a Norwegian paper company, acquired all of Fletcher Challenge's pulp and paper assets, and a majority interest in Fletcher Challenge Canada Limited. This resulted in the formation of Norske Skog Canada Limited.

The Coquitlam Photo Studio is a commercial photographers located at #102 - 2849 North Road, Burnaby.

Established in 1910, McElhanney’s family of companies, including McElhanney Consulting Services Ltd and McElhanney Land Surveys Ltd, provide integrated surveying, engineering, mapping and specialty professional services to clients responsible for the development of resource industries, communities, and infrastructure across western Canada and beyond.