VANCOUVER HISTORY

A BRIEF HISTORY OF VANCOUVER
Vancouver was named after an explorer called George Vancouver, a British navigator who had previously sailed with Cook. It was indeed Sir James Cook that sparked the first interest in Vancouver but never truly explored the area as he mistook it for the North American mainland.

In 1792 Captain George Vancouver was exploring the area and came across Frasier River which he claimed for Britain. He then sailed north and to what would be in future known as Vancouver. He entered a natural port which he named Burrard after one of his crew and traded with the Squamish in a forested village, which would later be known as Stanley Park. After spending little more than a day here a century later the place would be named after Vancouver.

The fur trade soon took off and in 1827 the Hudson Bay Company established a trading post at Fort Langley on the Fraser River, which saw the areas first European settlement. In 1858 the Fraser River was home to the Gold Rush but all this still brought little development.

In 1867 an English man named 'Gassy' Jack Deighton rowed into Burrard inlet and built a pub which he called the Globe Saloon in an area known today as Gastown. From that five more saloons, three hotels and a hardware store were built and in 1869 the area was incorporated as the town of Granville. It was another eighteen years in 1886 that the Canadian Pacific Railway's vice president incorporated Granville as the City of Vancouver. The Canadian Pacific Railway continued to develop and shape Vancouver building residential areas, known today as the West End, Kitsilano and Granville Street which is a main thoroughfare of the city.

It could be that old 'Gassy's' pub was a basis of the city but whatever the reason the people hear are so laid back, sometimes scarily so, until you let the Canadian way take hold of you and immerse yourself in their friendly relaxed spirit. This is probably one of the reasons why year after year Vancouver is voted the best place to live in the world.

To find out more on the history of Vancouver and the History of Vancouver Island, Click Here!