Vancouver

Sister cities

• Jōyō-shi

History

The Vancouver area was inhabited by several Native American tribes, most recently the Chinook and Klickitat nations, with permanent settlements of timber longhouses. The Chinookan and Klickitat names for the area were reportedly and , respectively, meaning 'land of the mud-turtles'. First known European contact was made by William Robert Broughton in 1792, with approximately half of the indigenous population killed by smallpox before the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived in the area in 1806. Within another fifty years, other diseases such as measles, malaria and influenza had reduced the Chinookan population from an estimated 80,000 "to a few dozen refugees, landless, slaveless and swindled out of a treaty". Meriwether Lewis wrote that the Vancouver area was "the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains". The first permanent European settlement did not occur until 1824, when Fort Vancouver was established as a fur trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company. From that time on, the area was settled by both the US and Britain under a "joint occupation" agreement. Joint occupation led to the Oregon boundary dispute and ended on June 15, 1846, with the signing of the Oregon Treaty, which gave the United States full control of the area. Before 1845, American Henry Williamson laid out a large claim west of the Hudson's Bay Company (including part of the present-day Port of Vancouver), called "Vancouver City" and properly registered his claim at the U.S. courthouse in Oregon City, before leaving for California. In 1848, Williamson had it surveyed and platted by Peter Crawford. In 1850, Amos Short traced over the claim of Williamson and named the town "Columbia City". It changed to "Vancouver" in 1855. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on January…

Geography

Vancouver is located just north of the Columbia River and the Oregon border, just west of where the Columbia River Gorge bisects the volcanic Cascade Range and just east of where the Willamette River enters the Columbia. The city of Vancouver is in the Western Lowlands region of Washington. When clouds do not blanket the Puget–Willamette trough formed by the Cascade and Coast Range, Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Jefferson and Mount Adams are all visible from Vancouver. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. An EF1 tornado struck on January 10, 2008, just after noon, causing moderate damage along a path from Vancouver Lake to the unincorporated Hazel Dell area. Because many Vancouver residents work in Portland, there is typically significant rush-hour traffic congestion on two bridges that cross the Columbia River – the Interstate Bridge and the Glenn Jackson Bridge. In 2017 there were 297,932 weekday vehicle crossings on the two bridges. }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  85,407
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  82,050
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  62,766
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  62,409
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  60,071
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  57,060
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  54,692
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  52,787

Largest nearby schools

• Union High School
  High · Camas · 2,021 students · 23.8:1 ratio
• Camas High School
  High · Camas · 1,964 students · 20.9:1 ratio
• Skyview High School
  High · VANCOUVER · 1,739 students · 22.9:1 ratio
• Heritage High School
  High · Vancouver · 1,625 students · 20.1:1 ratio
• Prairie High School
  High · BRUSH PRAIRIE · 1,603 students · 21.4:1 ratio
• Mountain View High School
  High · Vancouver · 1,589 students · 21.8:1 ratio
• Evergreen High School
  High · Vancouver · 1,550 students · 19.4:1 ratio
• Fort Vancouver High School
  High · VANCOUVER · 1,547 students · 19.8:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.75 — 2026-09-05
  20 km E of Castle Rock, Washington
• M 2.61 — 2026-07-31
  18 km NE of Amboy, Washington
• M 3.18 — 2025-11-23
  5 km SE of Amity, Oregon
• M 2.66 — 2025-06-16
  7 km ESE of Mossyrock, Washington
• M 2.65 — 2025-06-12
  9 km S of Morton, Washington
• M 2.66 — 2024-08-30
  14 km ESE of Molalla, Oregon