By the 1930s, the trumpeter swan had been hunted almost to extinction. With fewer than 70 birds remaining in the wild, a British Columbian homesteader, Ralph Edwards, began feeding a small colony of swans to help them survive the winter. He and his daughter later helped capture five birds as a coronation gift for Queen Elizabeth. The flock thrived in England, as did his conservation efforts at home. There are now upwards of 46,000 swans in the wild, and Edwards received the Order of Canada in 1972.

1958: Tall treasure

A grand old totem pole has been looking out of place in Windsor Great Park, England, for 62 years now. British Columbia was founded in 1858, and a century later the province presented this 12,000-kilogram memorial of Canada’s First Peoples to Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter. Carved by Kwakiutl artist Mungo Martin from a single piece of 500-year-old western red cedar, the totem stands 30 metres high.

1959: Ancient artifact

The gift of a fossil represents the extreme depth of Canadian history. A mere 515 years have passed since John Cabot arrived on the shores of Newfoundland on a voyage under the commission of Henry VII. A duck-billed, grass-eating dinosaur was roaming the plains of western Canada some 86 million years earlier. The City of Drumheller, Alta., presented a fossilized bone, part of the humerus (upper arm) of a hadrosaur, to Queen Elizabeth II as a token of the many dinosaurs discovered in the area since 1884.

1964: A Canadian penguin

As an illustration of Canada’s imaginative technology, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson presented the Queen with a Canadian-made amphibious vehicle called the “Penguin.” The designer, John Smeaton, demonstrated it in action, but Prince Philip politely declined to try it out for himself, saying simply, “Thank you very much.” Just 800 of these vehicles were built before the company filed for bankruptcy. Today, they are a collector’s item.

1970: Overdue rent

The Hudson’s Bay Company incorporated in 1670 in order to exploit Canada’s wealth in furs. King Charles II awarded the company a commercial monopoly in northwestern North America in return, according to the founding charter, for the periodic payment of rent — two elk and two beaver. The monarchy collected on the overdue rent in 1970, when two live beavers were presented to the Queen. The beavers’ final destination was the London Zoo.

2002: Wild window

This radiant gift of stained glass has a permanent home in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. The Golden Jubilee Window, crafted by Victoriabased artisans Edward Schaefer and Thomas Mercer, features images of the province’s wildlife, including Pacific salmon, an eagle, moose, bear, mountain lion, sea otter and orca. In honour of the Queen, it also displays the Canadian Royal Standard, flown only when the monarch is in Canada, all set in a decorative motif of sea and forest.

2010: Most valuable player