The history of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, extends back thousands of years, with its first inhabitants arriving in the area following the Last Glacial Period. With its location on the western coast of Canada near the mouth of the Fraser River and on the waterways of the Strait of Georgia, Howe Sound, Burrard Inlet, and their tributaries, Vancouver hasfor thousands of yearsbeen a place of meeting, trade, and settlement.
The presence of people in what is now called the Lower Mainland dates from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, when the glaciers of the last ice age began to disappear. The area, known to local First Nations as in Halkomelem, shows archeological evidence of a seasonal encampment (the Glenrose Cannery site) near the mouth of the Fraser River that dates from that time.
The first Europeans to explore the area were Spanish Captain José María Narváez in 1791 and British naval Captain George Vancouver in 1792. The area was not settled by Europeans until almost a century later, in 1862. The city grew rapidly following the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) transcontinental line from Eastern Canada, allowing for continuous rail service in the late 1880s. Many Chinese settlers moved into the region following the completion of the CPR. Subsequent waves of immigration were initially of Europeans moving west, and later, with the advent of global air travel, from Asia and many other parts of the world.
Early history
First Nations settlements The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are the original inhabitants of what is now known as Vancouver. The city falls within the traditional territories of three Coast Salish peoples: the Musqueam, Squamish (), and Tsleil-waututh. On the southern shores of Vancouver along the Fraser River, the Musqueam live with their main community. In the False Creek and Burrard Inlet area, the Squamish live in numerous villages in North Vancouver, with their territory also a part of Howe Sound and upwards towards the town of Whistler. Further down the Burrard Inlet, the Tsleil-Waututh have their main community. The Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh historically spoke a language dialect of the Halkomelem language (i.e. Hunʼqumiʼnum, or the "downriver dialect"), whereas the Squamish language is separate but related. Their language is more closely connected to their Shishalh neighbours at Sechelt. Historically, the area where Vancouver is now was a resource-gathering place for food and materials.
The Musqueam have been living continuously at their main winter village, Musqueam, at the mouth of the Fraser River, for 4,000 years. Vancouver's ecosystem, with its abundant plant and animal life, provides a wealth of food and materials that have supported the people for over 10,000 years. At the time of first European contact, the recently arrived Squamish people had villages in the areas around present-day Vancouver in places like Stanley Park, Kitsilano and False Creek area, as well as Burrard Inlet. Tsleil-Waututh were said to also be settled on Burrard Inlet at the time of George Vancouver's arrival in 1792. The largest villages were at Xwemelch'stn (sometimes rendered Homulchesan), near the mouth of the Capilano River and roughly beneath where the north foot of the present Lions Gate Bridge is today, and at Musqueam. X̱wáýx̱way was a large village in Stanley Park (in the Lumberman's Arch area). The foundation of a Catholic mission at the village, called Eslha7an, near Mosquito Creek engendered the creation of another large community of Squamish there. Along False Creek, at the south foot of Burrard Bridge, another village called Senakw, existed at one time as a large community, and during colonization was the residence of Squamish historian August Jack Khatsahlano.
The Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast had achieved a very high level of cultural complexity for a food gathering base. As Bruce Macdonald notes in Vancouver: a visual history: "Their economic system encouraged hard work, the accumulation of wealth and status and the redistribution of wealth..." Winter villages, in what is now known as Vancouver, were composed of large plank houses made of Western Red Cedar wood. Gatherings called potlatches were common in the summer and winter months when the spirit powers were active. These ceremonies continue to be an important part of the social and spiritual life of the people.
European exploration
Spanish Captain José María Narváez was the first European to explore the Strait of Georgia in 1791. In the following year, 1792, the British naval Captain George Vancouver (1757–1798) met the Spanish expedition of Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and Cayetano Valdés y Flores off Point Grey, and together further explored the Strait of Georgia. Vancouver also explored Puget Sound in the present day Seattle area. Vancouver, surveying in small boats with his officer Peter Puget, arrived at the present city of Vancouver before the Spanish. They first landed at what Vancouver later named Point Grey. Puget informally called the place Noon Breakfast Point. Puget's name was officially given to the southwest tip of Point Grey in 1981. Simon Fraser was the first European to reach the area overland, descending the river which bears his name in 1808.
Despite the influx of Europeans during the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858–59, the settlement on Burrard Inlet and English Bay was almost unknown prior to the early 1860s due in large part to the lack of interest in the area as access to the British Columbia interior was via the City of New Westminster and the Fraser River, and also due to the power of the Squamish chiefs over the area. Robert Burnaby and Moberly camped and prospected for coal in what is now Coal Harbour in the summer of 1859. They had an amicable relationship with the First Nations of the area. Robert Burnaby wrote to his family, "our [spare] time has been occupied in exploring all the ins and outs of this Inlet, which I prophesy will become one of the greatest naval rendezvous and centres of commerce on this side of the world."
European settlement and growth
The first non-Indigenous settlement in the city limits of Vancouver was built around 1862 at McCleery's Farm, in the vicinity of what is now the Southlands area.
Lumbering was the early industry along Burrard Inlet, now the site of Vancouver's seaport. The first sawmill began operating in 1863 at Moodyville, a planned settlement built by American lumber entrepreneur Sewell "Sue" Moody. In 1915, it expanded as a municipality and was renamed "North Vancouver"; the name Moodyville still applies to the Lower Lonsdale district, though more as a marketing term than in common usage (Moodyville proper was a few blocks to the east). The first export of lumber took place in 1865; this lumber was shipped to Australia. In 1867, Stamp's Mill, the first sawmill on the south shore of Burrard Inlet located in the Squamish village of K'emk'emeláy, began producing lumber at what is now the foot of Dunlevy Avenue in Vancouver.McDonald, R. A. (1996). Making Vancouver: Class, status and social boundaries, 1863–1913. Vancouver, BC, Canada: UBC Press, p 7. A site for the mill was originally planned at Brockton Point in what is now Stanley Park, but the Brockton Point site proved infeasible due to nearby currents and shoals which made docking difficult. The largest trees in the world grew along the south shores of False Creek and English Bay and provided (amongst other things) masts for the world's windjammer fleets and the increasingly large vessels of the Royal Navy. Millworkers and lumberers were from a wide variety of backgrounds – mostly Scandinavians and Nootkas – who were also brought to the inlet to help with the local whaling industry. At first, Squamish typically did not work in the mills.
A former river pilot, John "Jack" Deighton, set up a small (24' x 12') saloon on the beach about a mile west of the sawmill in 1867 where mill property and its "dry" policies ended. His place was popular and a well-worn trail between the mill and saloon was soon established – this is today's Alexander Street. Deighton's nickname, "Gassy Jack", came about because he was known to be quite talkative, or "gassy". A number of men began living near the saloon and the "settlement" quickly became known as Gassy's Town, which was quickly shortened to "Gastown". In 1870, the colonial government of British Columbia took notice of the growing settlement and sent a surveyor to lay out an official townsite named Granville, in honour of the British Colonial Secretary, Lord Granville, though it was still popularly known as Gastown (which is the name still current for that part of the city).
The new townsite was situated on a natural harbour, and for this reason it was selected by the Canadian Pacific Railway as their terminus. The transcontinental railway was commissioned by the government of Canada under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and was a condition of British Columbia joining the confederation in 1871. The CPR president, William Van Horne, believed that Granville was not a good name for the new terminus because of the seedy associations with Gastown, and strongly suggested "Vancouver" would be a better name, in part because people in Toronto and Montreal knew where Vancouver Island was but had no idea of where Granville was.
Under its new name, the city was incorporated on April 6, 1886. Two months later, on June 13, a large blaze that came to be known as the Great Vancouver Fire destroyed most of the city along the swampy shores of Burrard Inlet in 25 minutes. The tragedy ironically led to positive consequences on the city, as Vancouver was rebuilt with modern water, electricity and streetcar systems. The city recovered quickly after the fire, although celebratory Dominion Day festivities to launch the opening of the CPR were postponed a year as a result. The first regular transcontinental train from Montreal, Quebec, arrived at a temporary terminus at Port Moody, British Columbia, in July 1886, and service to Vancouver itself began in May 1887. That year Vancouver's population was 1,000; by 1891 it reached 14,000 and by 1901 it was 26,000. The population increased to 120,000 by 1911.
The Port of Vancouver became internationally significant as a result of its key position in the All-Red Route, which spanned the global trade network of the British Empire, with the combined steamship and railway of the CPR shortening shipping times from the Orient to London drastically, and the new city becoming a node for major speculative investment by British and German capital.Morley, A. (1974). Vancouver: From Milltown to Metropolis. Vancouver: Mitchell Press.Strangers Entertained, British Columbia government centennial publication, 1971 The completion of the Panama Canal initially reduced Vancouver's shipping traffic by becoming the new preferred route from Asia to Europe; however, reduced freight rates in the 1920s made it viable to ship even Europe-bound prairie grain west through Vancouver in addition to grains that already shipped to parts of Asia.
Early 20th century
Economy