LibGuides UFV: Sumas Prairie: Failed Dikes, Flooded Farmland: Historic Floods

Historical Flooding

Army Takes Control Of B.C. Flood Areas: Premier Calls Official State Of Emergency
Globe & Mail article on 1948 Fraser Valley Flood
B.C. in New Flood Danger As Fraser River Smashes 1,000-Foot Gap in Dikes
Globe & Mail article on 1948 Fraser Valley flood.

Globe & Mail: Canada's Heritage from 1844 (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
View the complete page image content from the Globe & Mail newspaper (including advertisements, obituaries, etc.) from 1844 to present, with a 5 year embargo.

Navy to the Rescue: Hundreds Flee Fraser Valley Homes
Globe & Mail article on 1948 Fraser Valley flood.

Databases

Abbotsford Sumas & Matsqui News This link opens in a new window
Free online access to the Abbotsford Sumas and Matsqui News from 1922-1946. The UFV Library Heritage Collection houses print copies of the newspaper from 1922-1983.
Permitted Uses for this Database
The Abbotsford Sumas and Matsqui News documents the history of the Abbotsford and Fraser Valley area from 1922-1946. Local history events related to education, health, weather, religion, agriculture and daily life and customs are recorded. The local impact of significant events such as WWII or the Komagata Maru incident are also documented.
Chilliwack Progress This link opens in a new window
The digitized version of The Chilliwack Progress newspaper from 1891 to 2007.
Permitted Uses for this Database

Other Libguides

Heritage Collection
The UFV Heritage Collection is a working collection of rare, unique and historically valuable material, consisting primarily of books and other material related to the people and communities of the Fraser Valley. This primarily published collection is intended to preserve and make available components of the historical record for researchers and the public.

Videos

Produced and directed by Doug Neetz, written by Bob Fuger, narrated by Lonnie Andrews, recorded by Harold Wiens.

Selected Library Resources

British Columbia disasters by Pethick, Derek
Call Number: FC 3820 D5 P48 1982
Includes chapters on 1894 & 1948 floods.
1948 Fraser River flood [Videorecording] by Edwards, Frank
Call Number: FC 3820 D5 P48 1982
An account by a local resident of the Fraser River flood of 1948.
Report of operations for the period of emergency, May 27-June 19, 1948 by Chilliwack Emergency Flood Committee
Call Number: FC 3849 C55 C552 Heritage Collection
Nature's fury : the inside story of the disastrous British Columbia floods of 1948 by Sanderson, Eric
Call Number: FC 3826.9 F5 N38
High water : living with the Fraser floods by K. Jane Watt
Call Number: FC 3845 F73 Z56 2006
"Dr. K Jane Watt states in her book High Water: Living with Fraser Floods many of the people she talked to felt that we are in a time of historic forgetting. That is likely true: few regard the Fraser River as the heart and soul of British Columbia and few indeed realize the significance to us all of the lands behind the dykes of the Fraser River estuary. Dr. Watt's book, supported by the Dairy Industry Historical Society is certainly a timely reminder as collectively we contemplate disastrous floods of 1894 and 1948 in the context of a rapid growth of the human population, new demographics and sustainability of the regional economy."
In the arms of the mountains : a history of the Chilliwack River Valley by Chillwack River Valley Historical Society
Call Number: FC 3849 C55 I62 2006 Heritage
Includes: Recent major flood events in the Chilliwack River Valley.
Early settlement in the Chilliwack Valley by Cook, Donna
Call Number: HD 319 B7 C66 1979
Discusses Fraser River and Sumas Lake flooding.
Sturgeon Reach : shifting currents at the heart of the Fraser by Glavin, Terry
Call Number: HD 319 B7 G62 2012
"How can we now live well along a river that has a ceaseless desire to overflow its banks and set its own course?"
The flooding of the lower Fraser Valley, May 1894 by Perry, Thomas E.
Call Number: FC 3845 F73 P472 1984
Fraser Valley History

A huge flood in the Fraser River valley, British Columbia, near the Pleistocene Termination
Near the Pleistocene Termination, a glacier-dammed lake in central British Columbia suddenly drained to the south along the Fraser River valley. Floodwater travelled 330 km down the valley to Hope, British Columbia, and from there to the west into the Salish Sea near Vancouver.
As I Remember: Overflowing the banks.
"If the dyke had broken above Rosedale, the city of Chilliwack would have been under water. The reason for the high water level in the Fraser River in 1948, that flooded from the middle of May to the middle of June, was a heat wave in many parts of British Columbia that lasted three weeks, melting the heavy snowpack in the interior of BC."

Flooding in Chilliwack Exhibit

Flooding Chilliwack: A History of High Water in Chilliwack, British Columbia
Chilliwack Museum and Archives online exhibit.

Fraser Basin Council

Flood 101: Flood History
The Lower Mainland has experienced two major Fraser River floods in the past 130 years. The largest Fraser River flood on written record was in 1894, and the second largest was in 1948. Earlier large-scale floods on the river are also part of the oral history of Coast Salish First Nations. [From Website]

Other Libraries, Archives and Museums

BC Archives
Search collections for photos, recordings and more.
Chilliwack Museum & Archives
Photos, newspapers & collections.
The Reach Gallery 1948 Flood Images
View images from the 1948 flood.
The Reach Gallery Collections
Online photo database, archives and other resources. Search photos for "1948 flood."
Vancouver Public Library Archives
The online Historical Photographs Database provides access to over 38,000 digitized images. We are continuing to scan images and add them to the website.