1.
Nanaimo
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Nanaimo /nəˈnaɪmoʊ/ is a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is known as The Harbour City, Nanaimo is also the headquarters of the Regional District of Nanaimo. The Native people of the area that is now known as Nanaimo are the Snuneymuxw, a westernized spelling and pronunciation of that word gave the city its current name. The first Europeans to find Nanaimo Bay were those of the 1791 Spanish voyage of Juan Carrasco and they gave it the name Bocas de Winthuysen. Nanaimo began as a trading post in the early 19th century, in 1849 the Snuneymuxw chief Ki-et-sa-kun informed the Hudsons Bay Company of coal in the area. Exploration proved there was plenty of it in the area and Nanaimo became chiefly known for the export of coal, in 1853 the company built a Nanaimo Bastion, which has been preserved and is a popular tourist destination in the downtown area. Hudsons Bay Company employee Robert Dunsmuir helped establish coal mines in the Nanaimo harbour area, with the success of Dunsmuir and Diggle and the Wellington Colliery, Dunsmuir expanded his operations to include steam railways. Dunsmuir sold Wellington Coal through its Departure Bay docks, while competing Nanaimo coal was sold by the London-based Vancouver Coal Company through the Nanaimo docks, the gassy qualities of the coal which made it valuable also made it dangerous. The 1887 Nanaimo Mine Explosion killed 150 miners and was described as the largest man-made explosion until the Halifax Explosion, another 100 men died in another explosion the next year. An Internment camp for Ukrainian detainees, many of local, was set up at a Provincial jail in Nanaimo from September 1914 to September 1915. In the 1940s, lumber supplanted coal as the business although Minetown Days are still celebrated in the neighbouring community of Lantzville. Nanaimo has had a succession of four distinct Chinatowns, the first, founded during the gold rush years of the 1860s, was the third largest in British Columbia. In 1884, because of mounting racial tensions related to the Dunsmuir coal companys hiring of Chinese strikebreakers and that third Chinatown, by then mostly derelict, burned down on 30 September 1960. A fourth Chinatown, also called Lower Chinatown or new town, Buttertubs Marsh is a bird sanctuary located in the middle of the city. The marsh covers approximately 100 acres, within this is the 46 acre Buttertubs Marsh Conservation Area, owned by the Nature Trust of British Columbia. Like much of coastal British Columbia, Nanaimo experiences a climate with mild, rainy winters and cool. Due to its dry summers, the Köppen climate classification places it at the northernmost limits of the Csb or cool-summer Mediterranean zone. Other climate classification systems, such as Trewartha, place it firmly in the Oceanic zone, heavy snowfall does occasionally occur during winter, with a record daily total of 0.74 metres on 12 February 1975, but the mean maximum cover is only 0.2 metres
2.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
3.
Newcastle Island Marine Provincial Park
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Newcastle Island is a provincial park located on a small island off the coast of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Newcastle Island has had quite a journey from a fishing site for the Coast Salish to the beautiful marine park it is today. Each year the Natives would practically pick up their houses and move on, leading the Spanish, the herring that attracted the Coast Salish were an industry of their own. Several Oriental herring salteries and fisheries were built on the Northwestern coast of the island, a migrating Snuneymuxw pointed out the existence of coal on the island, which produced the industry that would provide work for Nanaimoites for years to come. During the mining for coal, the sandstone was found to be exceptional and was sought after for years by different cities. Many different companies from all over fought for leases to cut the Newcastle Island stone, also wanting the durable stone was an industry entirely different from architecture. It was pulp-stones that were needed up and down the coast to grind up tree fibres into pulp for papermaking, even with all those different uses of the land, the Canadian Pacific Railway saw the beauty within and bought the island to create their own little island resort. It was then sold, after a decrease in popularity, to the City of Nanaimo who got so far into debt that they sold it to the BC Government, after years of success as a marine park, we get the lovely, picturesque island that we enjoy today. The two Native villages located on Newcastle Island were called Saysetsen and Clotsun, the Snuneymuxw, the Nanaimo branch of the Coast Salish linguistic group, inhabited both. Saysetsen, located on the east side of the island facing nearby Protection Island near Midden Bay, had access to the herring that spawned in The Gap during late winter. To catch the herring, the Snuneymuxw would use a hardwood stick inlaid with sharp teeth along one side of the stick. By striking this device into the water, they were able to catch ten to twelve fish per try, quickly filling their canoes. The people of Saysetsen would live on Newcastle from January to April in order to catch the spawning herring before moving on to Gabriola Island where they would stay until early August, then they would traverse the Strait of Georgia to the mouth of the Fraser River. They would stay there until the end of August to catch the sockeye and they would then be back on Newcastle Island by January. Not much is known about the village, Clotsun, except that its name means Protector. The burial rites of the Snuneymuxw involved the deceased being placed in trees, if there were burials in the caves, they are believed to be from the members of other tribes employed in Nanaimo or on Newcastle Island to mine coal. The island is named after the mining town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Coal was an important commodity in the mid-19th century, the British needed a colony on the west coast of North America to provide good quality coal for their steamships
4.
Protection Island (Nanaimo)
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Protection Island is a small island located 1.5 km north-east of downtown Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. There are no paved roads on the little island, some residents move about the island in golf carts, others with cars, but most walk. Locals frequently transport their groceries from the community dock with their own wheelbarrows, access to the island can be via private vessel or a small, privately run ferry. Some residents also commute by kayak or rowboat as well
5.
Nanaimo River
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The Nanaimo River is a river on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located near the city of the same name on the islands east coast. From its source it flows east then north into the southeast corner of Nanaimo Harbour, the river has a notable canyon, which is the site of a bungee jumping operation and is also known as a rock-climbing area. The Nanaimo River supports pockets of old growth Douglas fir forest, the Douglas fir forests along the coast are one of the four most endangered ecosystems in all of Canada. The Nanaimo River is also regarded by anglers as one of the best steelhead rivers in the country
