Anoka County, Minnesota- Old Coast, New Coast: Victoria, British Columbia (hakaimagazine.com)
Ever since the Hudson’s Bay Company selected this sheltered bay for its fur-trading fort in 1842, Victoria Harbour, in what is now Victoria, British Columbia, has been a gathering point. Crowds once assembled to eagerly check out the single women arriving from the United Kingdom on “bride ships” in the 1860s; to greet the Victoria-based fleet of North Pacific sealing schooners, the workhorses of the fur-seal industry that peaked in the 1890s; or to say farewell to troops departing for the two world wars.
- Anoka, Minnesota (Wikipedia)
Anoka (/əˈnoʊkə/ ə-NOH-kə) is a city in and the county seat of Anoka County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 17,142 at the 2010 census. Anoka is the “Halloween Capital of the World” because it hosted one of the first Halloween parades in 1920. It continues to celebrate the holiday each year with several parades. Anoka is a northern suburb of the Twin Cities. U.S. Highways 10 / 169 and State Highway 47 are three of Anoka’s main routes, and it has a station on the Northstar Commuter Rail line to Minneapolis.