PORT COQUITLAM

PORT COQUITLAM

Is a huge suburb of Vancouver, located on the north side of the Fraser River and between the rivers of Pitt and Coquitlam, about 30 kilometers east of Vancouver. Thousands of years before white settlement, Port Coquitlam was first inhabited by the Coast Salish people including the Kwikwetl’em people. Farming and agriculture began near the Pitt River in 1853 when Alexander McLean and his family, who coincidently were the first Europeans settlers in the area. Port Coquitlam was almost chosen as the capital of Mainland British Columbia, instead of New Westminster in 1859 because of the easily defensible statue of ground at Mary Hill. In 1886, The Canadian Pacific Railway built a branch of rail line from its main line to New Westminster and it grew up at an area known as Westminster Junction. The Canadian pacific Railway moved its freight operations from Vancouver to what’s is now known today as Port Coquitlam at the banks of the Fraser River, which was renamed in 1913 and derives from an aboriginal word meaning “little red salmon”. The railway (which as a huge rail yard in the central part of the city), continues to drive the city’s economy along with the forest industry and agriculture. Following the Second World War (WWII), Port Coquitlam’s population grew rapidly and by the 1960s, it actually doubled during the 1990s, at a rate of 9.8%. Port Coquitlam was incorporated as a city on March 7, 1913 and is also mostly a residential suburb of Vancouver.

PORT COQUITLAM’S POPULATION: 55,375