Vancouver

Sister cities

• Edinburgh

History

Archaeological records indicate that Aboriginal people were already living in the Vancouver area from 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. The Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) peoples of the Coast Salish group had villages in various parts of present-day Vancouver, such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey and near the mouth of the Fraser River. The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his crew became the first-known Europeans to set foot on the site of the present-day city. In 1808, they travelled from the east down the Fraser River, perhaps as far as Point Grey. The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought over 25,000 men, mainly from California, to nearby New Westminster (founded February 14, 1859) on the Fraser River, on their way to the Fraser Canyon, bypassing what would become Vancouver. Vancouver is among British Columbia's youngest cities; the first European settlement in what is now Vancouver was not until 1862 at McCleery's Farm on the Fraser River, just east of the ancient village of Musqueam in what is now Marpole. A sawmill was established at Moodyville (now the City of North Vancouver) in 1863, beginning the city's long relationship with logging. It was quickly followed by mills owned by Captain Edward Stamp on the south shore of the inlet. Stamp, who had begun logging in the Port Alberni area, first attempted to run a mill at Brockton Point, but difficult currents and reefs forced the relocation of the operation in 1867 to a point near the foot of Dunlevy Street. This mill, known as the Hastings Mill, became the nucleus around which Vancouver formed. The mill's central role in the city waned after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in the 1880s. It nevertheless remained important to the local economy…

Geography

Located on the Burrard Peninsula, Vancouver lies between Burrard Inlet to the north and the Fraser River to the south. The Strait of Georgia, to the west, is shielded from the Pacific Ocean by Vancouver Island. The city has an area of , including both flat and hilly ground; it is within the Pacific Maritime Ecozone. Until the city's naming in 1885, "Vancouver" referred to Vancouver Island, and it remains a common misconception that the city is located on the island. The island and the city are both named after Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (as is the city of Vancouver, Washington, in the United States). Vancouver has one of the largest urban parks in North America, Stanley Park, which covers . The North Shore Mountains dominate the cityscape, and on a clear day, scenic vistas include the snow-capped volcano Mount Baker in the state of Washington to the southeast, Vancouver Island across the Strait of Georgia to the west and southwest, and Bowen Island to the northwest. The vegetation in the Vancouver area was originally temperate rainforest, consisting of conifers with scattered pockets of maple and alder and large areas of swampland (even in upland areas, due to poor drainage). The conifers were a typical coastal British Columbia mix of Douglas fir, western red cedar and western hemlock. The area is thought to have had the largest trees of these species on the British Columbia Coast. Only in Elliott Bay, Seattle, did the size of trees rival those of Burrard Inlet and English Bay. The largest trees in Vancouver's old-growth forest were in the Gastown area, where the first logging occurred and on the southern slopes of False Creek and English Bay, especially around Jericho Beach. The forest in Stanley Park was logged between the 1860s and 1880s, and evidence of…

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  98,871
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  85,496
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  80,381
• Glaucous-winged Gull

  Larus glaucescens J.F.Naumann, 1840 · Aves
  65,148
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  64,904
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  62,059
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  58,750
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  56,884

Most recent

• M 2.56 — 2026-05-29
  7 km ENE of Ferndale, Washington
• M 2.7 — 2026-04-27
  5 km N of Anacortes, Washington
• M 2.7 — 2026-01-26
  12 km WSW of Anacortes, Washington
• M 2.7 — 2025-10-21
  10 km SE of Salt Spring Island, Canada
• M 2.6 — 2025-09-18
  14 km SW of Cowichan Bay, Canada
• M 2.8 — 2025-04-05
  20 km ENE of South Pender Harbour, Canada