Vancouver tourist information

Archeological records indicate the presence of Aboriginal peoples in the Vancouver area for at least 3,000 years. The traces of several settlements around Vancouver, indicate a food-gathering people with a complex social system.

Jose Maria Narvaez
The arrival of ships captained by Jose Maria Narvaez of Spain in 1791 and George Vancouver of Britain the following year, heralded great change for the lives of the First Nations. 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 as far as Point Grey, near the University of British Columbia. The first European settlement was established in 1862 at McLeery's Farm on the Fraser River, just east of the ancient village of Musqueam in what is now Marpole. A sawmill established at Moodyville (now North Vancouver) in 1863, began the city's long relationship with lumbering, and was quickly followed by mills on the south shore of the inlet owned by Captain Edward Stamp. Stamp, who had begun lumbering 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 to a point near the foot of Dunlevy Street, known as Hastings Mill.

Gastown
The settlement of Gastown grew up quickly around the original makeshift tavern established by “Gassy” Jack Deighton in 1867 on the edge of the Hastings Mill property. In 1870, the colonial government surveyed the settlement and laid out a townsite, renamed “Granville,” in honour of the then British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville. This site, with its natural harbour, was eventually selected as the terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway to the chagrin of Port Moody, New Westminster and Victoria, all of which had vied to be the railhead. The building of the railway was among the preconditions for British Columbia joining Confederation in 1871. The City of Vancouver was incorporated on April 6, 1886, the same year that the first transcontinental train arrived.

Big Fire
A fire on Sunday, June 13 of that year destroyed most of the city, which was quickly rebuilt. 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 and, as Rudyard Kipling noted on his visit to the new city in 1887, the "curious institution...called 'real estate'" and the speculative buying and selling of property.

Electric Street Railways
By 1890 the beginnings of one of the world's first electric street railways were promoting growth along what are now the city's main arterials, powered by ample hydroelectricity generated from nearby rivers and lakes (first at Buntzen Lake, and soon after on the Stave River, and two "interurban" rail lines were built between Vancouver and New Westminster, with one of those lines - all owned and operated by the BC Electric Railway Company, extending through the Fraser Valley to Chilliwack. Another separately-owned interurban line, the Lulu Island Railway, ran via the Arbutus corridor to Richmond from a station near Granville and Drake Streets.

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, which until the introduction of the autmobile later on were a popular form of transportation. Automobiles were scarce until after World War I due to the distance from the industrial centres of eastern North America.

Theatre and the arts Prominent theatre companies in Vancouver include the Arts Club Theatre Company, the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, and Bard on the Beach. Smaller companies include Touchstone Theatre, Carousel Theatre, and the United Players of Vancouver. Until 2005, Theatre Under the Stars produced shows at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park. In addition, Vancouver holds an annual Fringe Festival and International Film Festival.

In 1986, Greater Vancouver’s cultural community created the Alliance for Arts and Culture to provide a strong voice for the sector and an avenue to work together. This coalition now numbers more than 320 arts groups and individuals. The Alliances mission is to, "strive towards an environment that recognizes, respects, and responds to the contribution our sector makes to society’s well-being."

Museums and Galleries
Vancouver is the home to a number of museums and galleries. The Vancouver Art Gallery has a permanent collection of over 7,900 items and is the home of a significant number of works by Emily Carr. The Vancouver Maritime Museum is a nautical museum with the St. Roch, an historic arctic exploration ship, as its centrepiece. The Museum of Anthropology at UBC is a leading museum of Pacific Northwest Coast First Nations culture. More interactive museums include Science World and the Storyeum.