NANAIMO

NANAIMO              

Is a large-sized city, overlooking a beautiful harbour on the east coast of Vancouver Island, 110 kilometers north of Victoria.

Coal was discovered here in 1849 and just shortly thereafter, the Hudson’s Bay Company built a trading post. The settlement was first known as Colville Town, named after the company’s governor’s Andrew Colville. It was renamed Nanaimo in 1860 and is a first nations word meaning “strong”. The fort the company built still stands and now is known today as “The Bastion” and is the oldest and fortified Hudson’s Bay Company fort in Canada and today it still stands. Coal played a huge and sustainable role in the city, when production crested at 1,000,000 tonnes in 1923-until World War 2 (WWII), when the coalmines expired giving the city no choice but to close the last mine for good during the 1950s. Nanaimo built good port facilities and was able to make the transaction from being a mining town to a major port city for Vancouver Island.

During the 1990s, Nanaimo became the third-fastest growing city and after Victoria (including all its suburbs), Nanaimo is the second-largest community on Vancouver Island. Tourism, commercial fishing, sawmilling, and just being a major destination center for Vancouver Island are the mainstays of the economy.

Nanaimo became incorporated in 1874 and is third oldest city in British Columbia and the second-oldest in all of Vancouver Island. Malaspina College, one of the most scenic and beautiful post-secondary education institutions on Vancouver Island is located in Nanaimo and is the main college in the city.

The 3,000-seat Frank Crane Arena is home to Nanaimo’s only hockey team; the Nanaimo Clippers of the British Columbia Junior Hockey League (BCJHL) and since the 2003-2004 season, the team has won 2 Fred Page Cups (British Columbia’s Junior Hockey League’s equivalent of the Stanley Cup).

Nanaimo’s population: 78,672