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DELTA - LADNER - TSAWWASSEN BC CANADA
Welcome to Delta - Ladner - Tsawwassen This mainly agricultural area lies south of Vancouver, east of the Strait of Georgia, between the south arm of the Fraser River and Boundary Bay. Highways 91 and 99 provide easy access from this 336 square km municipality to Vancouver and its airport and to the United States. The district municipality, incorporated in 1879, was named for the flat delta land at the mouth of the Fraser. There are a number of charming attractions right along River Road in Ladner: Captain Cove Marina, Ladner Harbour Park (with protected rabbits), a playground with picnic tables and walking trails, St. John's Fishing Lodge, and the Ladner Crab Trap Factory. The Reifel Bird Sanctuary on the west end of the Fraser's south bank, west of the village of Ladner is a favorite for bird-watchers, being on the major north-south migration route along the Pacific. Tsawwassen is named for the aboriginal word for "facing the sea", who are a proud, sea-faring Coast Salish people. For thousands of years, they travelled and fished the waterways of the southern Strait of Georgia and lower Fraser River, visiting all Canadian and U.S. Gulf Islands. The current population is young and growing fast, numbering some 328 today. Tsawassen has beautiful beaches, and good winds for windsurfing between the spit and the BC Ferries, ferry terminal. Catch the ferries to Vancouver Island at the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. Ferries run to Swartz Bay (by Victoria), Nanaimo, and the Gulf Islands. South of Tsawwassen is Point Roberts, on the portion of the point that drops below the 49th parallel that marks the US Border. Point Roberts forests and beaches, excellent for swimming and walking and watching the sunset. The beaches on Boundary Bay, the sandbars go for a mile at low tide, and provide a suitable beach for small children. The shores on the Strait of Georgia are much rougher water; great for viewing, however not good for swimming. Point Roberts attractions include the International Market Place on Tyee Drive, Nielson's Lumber Yard (home of the annual spring Belt Sander Drag Race), the Marina (just past the market), Light House Park with boardwalk, picnic shelters, boat launch, playground, lookout tower and a fishing pier. Lily Point provides a 20 minute walk to the cliff with a graet view of Blaine WA to the east, the San Juan Islands to the south, and the burned-down ruins of the Alaska Packers Association fishing packing plant, destroyed in the 1960s. On the east side is North Delta, bordering Surrey. This community is close and convenient to the SkyTrain running through New Westminster and Surrey.

A Brief History; The land that would become Delta was first sighted by Europeans in 1791. Spanish explorer Lieutenant Francisco Eliza mistook the area for an island and named it Isla Capeda. The present name "Delta" was given to the municipality in 1879. The Gold Rush of 1858 and the creation of the Colony of British Columbia attracted settles to the land. The Ladner brothers, William Henry and Thomas Ellis of Cornwall, England, on their way to the gold fields, saw the potential for agriculture in the rich soils of the Fraser River delta and resolved to return. In 1868, they did and claimed land at the head of the Chilukthan Slough. In the north of Delta, James Kennedy had pre-empted acreage on the south bank of the Fraser near New Westminster in 1859. Farming and fishing were the economic foundations of Delta. Salmon was first canned commercially on the Pacific coast near Annieville. In 1873, James Deas established a cannery at present-day Deas Island. In 1879, Ellis Ladner opened a cannery at the north end of Chilukthan Slough and later managed the Wellington Cannery near Westham Island. As the population grew, incorporation - and its present name - were granted to Delta in 1879, and the community of Ladner was designated its administrative centre.