Santa Cruz de Nuca was a Spanish colonial fort and settlement and the first European colony in what is now known as British Columbia. The settlement was founded on Vancouver Island in 1789 and abandoned in 1795, with its far northerly position making it the "high-water mark" of verified northerly Spanish settlement along the North American west coast. The colony was established with the Spanish aim of securing the entire west coast of the continent from Alaska southwards, for the Spanish crown.
Reconstruction of Fort San Miguel and Santa Cruz de Nuca
Friendly Cove, Nootka Sound. Volume I, plate VII from: A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World by George Vancouver.
Three Nuu-chah-nulth children in Yuquot, 1930s
Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km2 (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km2 (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas.
Terra satellite image of Vancouver Island, 2003
A Kwakwakaʼwakw wedding ceremony in 1914
Dionisio Alcalá Galiano was the first European to circumnavigate Vancouver Island
The Great Seal of the Island of Vancouver and its Dependencies was designed by Benjamin Wyon, Chief Engraver of Her Majesty's Seals, c. 1849. The symbolic badge he designed was the basis for the flag of Vancouver Island, which is still unofficially flown today.