Vancouver is a relatively new city, but the city’s history
is rich. Archeological records prove the presence of Aboriginal
peoples in the Vancouver area for at least 3,000 years. Several
settlements around Vancouver indicate that they were a food-gathering
people with a complex social system.
Modern day history all began in 1792 when Captain George Vancouver,
searching the waters for the Northwest Passage, sailed into Burrand
Inlet and landed here, beginning a great change in the lives of
the First Nations.
Gold prospectors, fur traders and other settlers soon followed.
The explorer and North West Company trader Simon Fraser and his
crew were the first Europeans known to have visited the site of
the present-day city. In 1808, they descended the Fraser River
perhaps where the University of British Columbia now sets. The
first European settlement was established in 1862 at McLeery's
Farm on the Fraser River. Later a sawmill was established at Moodyville
(now North Vancouver) beginning the city's long relationship with
lumbering.
The settlement of Gastown grew up quickly around the original
makeshift tavern established by “Gassy” Jack Deighton
in 1867. Three years later, the colonial government surveyed the
settlement and laid out a town site, renamed “Granville.”
In 1886, Vancouver was incorporated as a city, only to be destroyed
by fire several months later. Through determined months of work,
the entire city was rebuilt by the end of that same year. In the
next four years, its future was assured when the train transportation
from the east, along with the traffic of ships of the Canadian
Pacific fleet, arrived.
Due to the advent of the railway, the population increased rapidly
from 5,000 in 1887 to 100,000 in 1900. During the first decade
of the twentieth century, Vancouver's population tripled and along
with it came a construction boom. The first pavement in British
Columbia was the Stanley Park ring road, and was made out of the
crushed shells of the large midden at the old native village of
Qwhy-qwhy (Lumberman's Arch); it was paved for use by bicycles.
Automobiles were scarce until after World War I because of the
long distance from Vancouver to the industrial centers of eastern
North America.