Mount Seymour Park viewpoint, elevation 3200 feet
It was a forest, dense and silent when Captain George Vancouver came in 1792. By-passed in the gold rush of 1858, men of vision saw it as a British gateway to the Pacific. In 1886 came the railway and Vancouver flourished! Through Canada’s third largest city now move the products of a nation and from its fine harbour sail ships of the world.
The Musqueam and Skokomish (members of the Coast Salish Nation) were the first people who lived in the Greater Vancouver area. The first non-native settlers were 3 Englishmen who arrived in 1862 and bought land for $1 per acre. They built a cabin in what is now the city's West End. In 1863, a lumber mill was set up on the North Shore and attracted a settlement. Capt. Edward Stamp started his Hastings Mill at the foot of what is now Dunleavy Street in 1865. Two years later, "Gassy Jack" Deighton, often referred to as Vancouver's first citizen, opened his saloon half a mile west of the mill. It was known as Gastown and its inhabitants were mostly ex-soldiers, sailors and prospectors. Granville was its oficial name and it was a rough frontier town, famous for the quantity and quality of its lumber.
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed to Port Moody in 1885. It was to be the terminus, but the following year the CPR began laying tracks farther west. Granville was re-named Vancouver to honour the explorer who had bestowed many names on the area during his 1792 visit. On June 13, 1886 the infant city was destroyed by a fire that had been started to clear bush in the west end. Reconstruction began immediately and by the end of the year the population had reached 2,200. The first train arrived at the new terminus on May 23, 1887 from Eastern Canada and trade with Asia was started, laying the foundations for Vancouver to become one of Canada's largest cities.
