Legrand

British Columbia. Railway Point
Canadian National Railway, between Rider and Lamming Mills
53.4167 N 120.3833 W — Map 93H/8 — GoogleGeoHack
Earliest known reference to this name is 1911 (GTP map)
Name officially adopted in 1983
Official in BCCanada
103 miles west of the Yellowhead Pass on the Canadian National Railway
Mile 13 in Fraser Subdivision (McBride to Prince George as of 1977)
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway station built in 1914

The community was named after Joseph G. Legrand [1861-1923], a French-born engineer who designed and supervised the construction of all of the bridges on the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Legrand emigrated to Canada in 1891. Between 1893 and 1903 he worked successively as a draftsman, checker, and designer of bridge work and in 1903 was appointed assistant chief engineer of the predecessor firm that became the Montreal Locomotive Works. He joined the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1906, at age 45, and assumed responsibilty for designing and overseeing the building of all the bridges on the new railway, thus becoming one of its senior managers.

Fourteen miles west of McBride, Legrand became a farming community. In 1921 six farmers lived there. The Legrand post office was open from August 1924 to June 1925, under postmaster Mrs. Janetta Somerville.

References:

  • CN (Canadian National Railway). Transportation planning branch, Edmonton, and historical office, Montréal. 2000
  • Davies, David L. “Not ‘A Bridge Too Far’ But One Far Enough or How the G.T.P. Crossed the Fraser at Prince George, British Columbia.” Canadian Rail, No. 476 May-June (2000):67–82. Exporail
  • Olson, Raymond W. Ghost Towns on the East Line. Prince George, B.C.: Raymond W. Olson, 2017

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