Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island is located off Canada's Pacific coast and is part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. At 32,134 square kilometers (12,407 square miles), it is the largest island on the western side of the Americas. As of 2002, Vancouver Island had an estimated population of 750,000. Slightly less than half of these (326,000) live in Victoria, British Columbia. Other major cities on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Parksville, Courtenay, and Campbell River.
History
Native Settlement
The island has been inhabited by humans for some eight thousand years. By the late 1700s, the primary tribes on the island were the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) on the west coast, the Salish on the south and east coasts, and the Kwakiutl in the centre of the island and the north.
European Exploration
Europeans began to encroach on the island in 1774, when rumours of Russian fur traders caused the Spanish to send a ship, the Santiago, north under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández. In 1775 a second Spanish expedition, under Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, was sent. Neither actually landed.
Vancouver Island came to the attention of the wider world after the third voyage of Captain James Cook, who landed at Nootka Sound of the Island's western shore in 1778 and claimed it for the United Kingdom. The island's rich fur trading potential led the British East India Company to set up a single-building trading post in the native village of Yuquot on Nootka Island, a small island in the Sound.
The island was further explored by Spain in 1789 by Esteban José Martínez, who built Fort San Miguel on one of Vancouver Island's small offshore islets in the Sound near Yuquot. This was to be the only Spanish settlement in what would later be Canada. The Spanish began seizing British ships and the two nations came close to war, but the issues were resolved peacefully in favour of the British with the Nootka Convention in 1792. Coordinating the handover was Captain George Vancouver, who had sailed as a midshipman with Cook and from whom the island gained its name.
British Settlement
The first British settlement on the island was a Hudson's Bay Company post, Fort Camosun, founded in 1843, and later renamed Fort Victoria. Shortly thereafter, in 1846, the Oregon Treaty was signed by the British and Americans to settle the question of the Oregon Territory borders. It awarded all of Vancouver Island to the British, despite a portion of the island lying south of the 49th parallel.
Fort Victoria became an important base during the Fraser Gold Rush in 1858, and the burgeoning town was incorporated as Victoria in 1862. Victoria became the capital of the colony of Vancouver Island, then retained that status when the island was amalgamated with the mainland in 1866. A British naval base was established at Esquimalt, British Columbia in 1865, and eventually taken over by the Canadian military.
Economy
Vancouver Island's economy outside Victoria is largely dominated by the forestry industry, with tourism and fishing also playing a large role. Many of the logging operations are for paper pulp, in "2nd growth" tree farms that are harvested approximately every 30 years. In recent years the government of British Columbia has engaged in an advertising program to draw more tourists to beach resorts such as Tofino.
Logging operations involving old-growth forests such as those found on Clayoquot Sound are controversial and have gained international attention through the efforts of activists and environmental organizations.
Between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland there are several AC and DC high-voltage power cables.
Transportation
Marine Transportation
Marine transportation is very important to Vancouver Island because it is separated by water from the mainland of British Columbia and Washington State. There are no bridges connecting the island to the mainland. The only vehicle access to Vancouver Island is via ferries; there are six vehicle ferry routes:
BC Ferries
- Tswassen BC (38 km south of Vancouver) - Swartz Bay B.C.E. (32 km north of Victoria)
- Tswassen BC - Duke Point BC (13 km south of Nanaimo)
- Horseshoe Bay B.C.E. (20 km northwest of Vancouver) - Departure Bay B.C.E. (3 km north of Nanaimo)
- Powell River BC - Comox BC
Washington State Ferry
- Anacortes WA - Sidney B.C.E.
Black Ball Transport
- Port Angeles WA - Victoria BC
In addition, there are four passenger-only ferry services from the mainland to Vancouver Island:
- Downtown Vancouver BC - Nanaimo BC
- Seattle WA - Victoria BC
- Port Angeles WA - Victoria BC (operates May through September)
- Bellingham WA - Victoria BC (operates one trip per day May through October)
Rail Transportation
The last remaining rail service on Vancouver Island is ViaRail's Malahat, a tourist passenger train service operating on the E&N Railway between Victoria and Courtenay. The E&N operated rail freight services on Vancouver Island, carrying forest products, coal, chemical and general freight from 1886 until 2001, when freight services ended.
External links
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