Vancouver Island History
...from the mists of time!
Vancouver Island history seems to have started in a mist, which is quite appropriate for the west coast of Canada. It’s a “mist” because there is a great deal of uncertainty about any starting point.
When the ice age withdrew, about 8 000 years ago, humans arrived. Who was first, seems to be debateable. Explorers from Japan arrived very early on as did Chinese Priests and at least one Buddhist Monk (about 499 A.D.) On the other hand there are large stone figures and petroglyphs on the east and north-east coast which pre-date the present First Nations that were forming settlements on the island during the 1700’s.
March 25th 2008:
An article in the local newspaper (Vancouver Sun) points to a series of discoveries on Vancouver Island, of bison bones, suggesting the existance of food for ice-age hunters as early as 14 000 years ago. Fourteen seperate finds of this ancestor of the plains buffalo, include bones that appear to have been "butchered" by humans, which suggested west coast shoreline hunters, who were seafarers, probably from Siberia, coming across the Bering Strait. They would have hunted the west coast of the island as the interior (east) coastline would still have been closed by ice.
Out of this misty beginning we know that by the 1700’s the Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) were established on the west (Pacific) coast, the Salish had settlements on the south and east coast and the Kwakiutl were getting established in the centre and north of the island. This grouping of First Nations people stretched from the Queen Charlottes to what is now the coast of Washington State, U.S.A.
[Incidentally, the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria has a very good exhibit of this period in Vancouver Island history…always worth a visit!]
Vancouver Island History: The Europeans arrive.
The first European interest came from Russian Fur traders in the early 1700’s which brought interest from the Spanish in the form of “The Santiago” captained by Juan Jose Perez Hernandez, when it arrived in 1774. The following year (1775) Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra led another expedition to the island: neither group seems to have actually landed however just looked, recorded the look and left!
It was Captain James Cook, on his third exploratory voyage that first landed at Nootka Sound (West Coast) on March 31st, 1778: he, of course, claimed it for England, even though there were people already living there. Cook didn’t work out that he had landed on an island of course but his landing did lead to the setting up of fur trading and interaction with the First Nations peoples. (This was the British East India Company at Yuquot on Nootka Island.)
In 1789, Spain sent another ship, captained by Estaban Jose Martinez and they successfully set up a small Fort on the west coast (Fort San Miguel) which was to become the only one as the Spanish started attacking British ships, and war was eminent, which resulted in the Nootka Convention of 1792 where each side recognized the other…not including the original inhabitants of course!
Vancouver Island History: The Island is finally named.
It was George Vancouver, a midshipman on the Captain Cook voyage, who eventually sailed around the island (this has a very special term “circumnavigated”) to prove it existed as an island. This was between 1792 and 1794. It was Captain George that named the island “The Island of Quadra and Vancouver” including the Spanish explorer in the title.
But as time went on, interest in the island by the Spanish waned and the name changed to just “Vancouver Island”. In fact The Hudson Bay Company, that managed most of the international trade were the ones that started to refer to the island as “Vancouver Island”, so much so that in 1849 Great Britain made Vancouver Island a “Crown Colony” and leased the whole island back to the Hudson Bay Company for seven shillings a year!
The first British settlement had actually been a Hudson Bay Company fort at Fort Comosun (later re-named Fort Victoria) and the drawing of the 49th parallel (the 1846 Oregon Treaty) awarded all of the island to Canada even though the southern end of the island lies below the 49th parallel.
Vancouver Island History: Victoria becomes a city.
Fort Victoria became the centre of the gold rush of 1858 and saw incorporation as a town in 1862. Victoria became the capital of the colony of Vancouver Island and continued that status after joining with the mainland of British Columbia in 1866.
The Dominion of Canada was made official in 1867 and British Columbia joined in 1871 as the sixth province. Victoria became the official capital of British Columbia, Canada and the parliamentary buildings have remained in use to this day. British Columbians have to take an hour and a half ferry ride to get to their capital city, but no-one would have it any other way!
An interesting history, from a misty beginning, through eager explorers to a Commonwealth colony and watched by various First Nation groups. Which is why Vancouver Island is a mixture of First Nation, Spanish and English place names. (with some French thrown in to confuse you!)
Now you have discovered the history, why not take some time to discover the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria……..and see if you can discover some of those interesting place names….start with “Nanaimo”, “Ladysmith” and “Tofino”!
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