Hans Lars Helgesen (21 August 1831 – 1 September 1918) was a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada from 1878 to 1886 and from 1898 to 1900.
Born in Asker, Norway in 1831,[1] Helgesen is reckoned to be the first notable Norwegian immigrant to settle permanently in British Columbia, arriving from California to take part in the gold rush.
During the early 1900s Helgesen was employed as a fisheries Guardian for the Upper Skeena area and was instrumental in negotiating the Babine barricade agreement of 1906.
[2] He was promoted to Fisheries Overseer for the Lower Skeena area in September 1908 and retired in his eightieth year on December 31, 1910.
[4][5] Hans Lars Helgesen was the great-grandfather of the late George William Morrison Mutter (1912–1992), one-time warden for the Cowichan Valley area (Vancouver Island).