Vancouver, the city, was founded on liquor.
Almost literally, "Gassy" Jack Deighton opened a saloon in Gastown to serve the workers at the nearby Hastings Mill, and that's the basic version of how Gastown started, which led to the City of Vancouver.
Since then there's been a colourful, and sometimes problematic, history regarding alcohol and liquor.
So here are some locally distilled facts about one of Vancouver's earliest industries.
1. One of the first VPD officers was deputized on the spot to chase down whisky barrels
When Vancouver was first founded on May 10, 1886, the small community had one police officer, a man named John Stewart.
Just months later, the Great Vancouver Fire of 1886 occurred, leaving most of the city a smoking pile of rubble.
Some quick-thinking folks had been able to move some barrels of whisky out of the way of the fire down to a beach (around where the Port of Vancouver is now). The day after the fire, the barrels were still there, and a couple of enterprising men were making off with some of them.
They had hauled them into a boat and were making for the narrows.
Mayor Malcolm Maclean decided the city needed a larger police force at that moment.
"MacLean came along, and walked up to me right there in the street, and said, ‘Here, Abray, you go off after that liquor,’ swore me in as constable, and I went after it, and brought it back," Jackson Abray told an archivist in an interview years later.
Abray went on to remain a police officer for years.
2. Vancouver had 24-hour saloons and beer parlours
In the earliest days of the city and province, laws around the sale of liquor weren't very strict, which allowed for saloons to operate whenever they wanted. There were some rules (liquor could not be sold on election day, and liquor licenses existed), but regulation was limited.
As the idea of prohibition grew, things began to tighten up, and eventually in 1917 the sale of any alcoholic drinks was restricted in B.C.
3. The legend of the SS Beaver
The SS Beaver was, and perhaps still is, the most famous ship to ply the waters of southern B.C.
It was the first steamship on the coast, entering service for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1836.
For decades it was one of the hardest-working vessels in the region, allowing the corporation access to new areas along the coast and connecting communities.
Over time it became less important, as newer ships with new technology arrived, but it remained in use.
On July 26, 1888, it all came to an end.
The exact reason for it crashing into rocks off of Stanley Park's Prospect Point is unknown, and it could have been strong winds or fog.
But two different accounts from the time it happened tell stories of how alcohol was involved.
In one account, a man named Simson explained how the Beaver's captain, Capt. George Marchat, was known for his drinking, and that led to the crash on the rocks.
Another account, from a man named A.W. LePage, gave another account. He told a Vancouver archivist Major J.S. Matthews that he was a friend of Marchant.
"What he said was the passengers on the boat were going back,” LePage told Matthews, according to an archive document. “And some of them were pretty well ‘lit up,’ and they had forgotten the liquor—call it ‘booze’ if you want to—and they wanted him to turn back to Vancouver so that they could get a supply."
“So he turned back, and in turning around he ran ashore. Anyway, that’s what he told me, Captain Marchant himself.”
4. The "Queen of Rum Row"
Prohibition only lasted for a few years in B.C. (1917 to 1921), but in the USA it was around for more than a decade.
Given Vancouver's location and the American border, rum running became big business.
One of the most famous vessels was the Malahat. It had a much grander nickname: The Queen or Rum Row.
It was a large schooner with five masts. Essentially an ocean going freighter of the era, it was built in Victoria in 1917 and by the early 1920s had become a major rum-running vessel.
The system was relatively simple. Liquor was produced in Canada (since prohibition ended in 1921), and taken aboard the Malahat legally (it held up to 60,000 cases of liquor).
It would then sail to international waters somewhere off the coast of California (it ranged from near San Francisco to northern Mexico). That was all relatively legal.
Rum runners would then load smaller, faster boats and take the liquor to market (illegally).
5. Vodka used to be illegal in Vancouver (and B.C.)
While prohibition ended in 1921 in B.C., not all liquors were available.
Vodka was illegal in Vancouver, and elsewhere in B.C.
It doesn't appear to have been a popular stance. An editorial in the Vancouver Sun in 1955 argues against it.
"B.C. Liquor Control Board's persistent refusal to have anything to do with vodka shows LCB's fundamental public-be-damned attitude hasn't changed despite some recent improvements in stock and selling methods," reads the opening of the editorial.
In 1958 it became a political issue, and restrictions loosened. One MLA from Saanich argued against the sale, according to the Vancouver Province.
"It would be the most terrible thing that could ever happen here if vodka became the national drink," John Tisdall is quoted as saying.
Things loosened though, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In a column in 1959, a Vancouver Sun columnist wrote about how difficult it was for someone in Vancouver to buy vodka. It was only available by the case of 12, and customers had to mail an application to Victoria with a fee and wait at least six weeks.
The case would cost $60, which is about equivalent to $630 now.
Eventually, laws were rewritten to allow single bottles for sale, and now vodka-based drinks are among the biggest sellers in B.C.
