This virtual cache brings you to the “Valley Farm Life” mural that depicts a beautiful day in the farming life of the Fraser Valley during the mid 1900’s. The mural is intended to encompass an era, and spans the decades as well as the growing seasons of spring and summer.
This massive piece of art is 160 feet in length, which makes it the longest mural in Abbotsford.
The mural’s theme is meant to celebrate Abbotsford’s agricultural heritage, by depicting a variety of scenes from our countryside, including crops, farmhouses, a child fishing, and farmers tending to animals. By 1930, Sumas Lake had been drained into the Fraser River and was developed into farmland creating the Vedder and Sumas canals. The 1940’s saw the immigration of foreign landowners starting family farms, including the Dutch/Mennonites, depicted by the girl feeding chickens in her clogs.
The mural was painted as a pastoral: bright and colorful, barefoot children playing, hard-working families farming the land, all in the beautiful Fraser Valley we call home. The mural begins with a long gravel driveway that lines a strawberry field. A woman is picking berries and pauses in her efforts to make eye-contact with the viewer. Farmhands fill the oxcart and plow the land with their team of draft horses in preparation for a new crop. Mt. Cheam and Mt. Baker make a great backdrop for the many lush crops of that era including hops, raspberries, corn and tobacco.
With a wedge of geese flying overhead, a farm owner enjoys the moment as he leans on an open field gate.
A young boy and girl are fishing in the Sumas canal. The blonde–haired boy, along with his faithful companion, concentrates on his bobber. The water ripples out, as did the concept of the mural, for this was the starting point of the design.
Across the canal on a neighboring farm, the corn is looking good and the tobacco harvest is in full swing. The tobacco is cut and carefully laid on racks to dry in the sun before being loaded onto a large horse drawn wagon. Further away, hay is being piled up around a big red barn. Looking southwards, bulrushes, lily pads and daisies line the calm water surrounding an old wooden rowboat that is tied under a tree. A family of geese feed in the grass of their nesting grounds.
LOGGING REQUIREMENTS:
In order to claim your smiley and log your find for the "Celebrating Abbotsford's Agricultural Heritage" virtual cache, both an answer and a photo are required. Any logs not meeting the requirements will be deleted without notice. You are free to log without any response from the CO.
1. Photo: Upload at least one photo with your Found It log of yourself or your GPS taken from the parking lot at GZ with the mural in the background. 'Drive by' photos will not be accepted.
2. Email the answer to the following question to the CO: How many children are featured in the mural? Do not post your answer in your log.
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Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.