Vancouver Island
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an island belonging to British Columbia; in lat. 48° 19′-50°53′ N. and lon. 123° 17′-128° 28' W.; is separated from the mainland by Queen Charlotte Sound, Johnstone Strait, and Strait of Georgia, which taken together form an open sea way. The island is 275 miles in length, and from 50 to 65 miles in breadth; area, about 12,000 square miles; pop. about 100,000. Its outline is boldly picturesque. The shores are marked by abrupt rocky cliffs and promontories, by pebbly beaches and sheltered coves, with fine harbors. The W. shores are gloomy and frowning in aspect, deeply indented by fiord-like arms of the sea, the banks of which are formed by steep rocks rising like walls. The whole country is more or less densely wooded, except where the mountain summits afford no foothold for plants, or where open grass lands occur. There are no navigable rivers, and the streams, which are torrents in winter, and are nearly dry in summer, are short, and are valuable only as supplying power for mills. The climate resembles that of southern Britain; the warm Pacific Gulf Stream striking the coast preserves a mild and equable temperature; and in the S. E., where there is much less rain than in the N. or on the mainland, snow seldom falls. Only a small proportion of the surface is suited for agriculture-perhaps a million acres. Fruit culture is profitably carried on. The island is very rich in minerals. Besides gold, silver, copper, iron, etc., it possesses great fields of excellent coal, at Nanaimo in particular. Another source of wealth is in the fisheries; good banks lie off the coast, and fish and fish products of a considerable value annually are exported from VICTORIA (q. v.), the capital. The island was discovered in 1592 by Juan de Fuca, and visited in 1792 by Capt. George Vancouver (1758-1798), an officer in the British navy; but the first permanent settlement was not made till 1843, when the Hudson Bay Company built a fort and trading post where Victoria now stands. See BRITISH COLUMBIA.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 figures for size still hold — 275 miles long, some 12,000 square miles — but the population it gave as "about 100,000" is now close to 900,000, most of it in Greater Victoria and the Nanaimo area, and the island is still reached only by ferry and air, with no bridge or tunnel to the mainland. The "great fields of excellent coal, at Nanaimo in particular" are gone: coal mining there wound down through the mid-20th century, and the economy now rests on forestry, tourism, government and the naval base at Esquimalt rather than on minerals. Logging itself became a national political fight, most famously in the 1993 Clayoquot Sound protests on the west coast, which produced one of the largest mass arrests in Canadian history; Pacific Rim National Park Reserve was established there in 1970. Historians have also dropped the claim that the island was "discovered in 1592 by Juan de Fuca" — that voyage is now generally treated as an unverified tale, and credit for the 1792 circumnavigation is shared between Vancouver and the Spanish commanders he met at Nootka.
Written for this edition, 2026.