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The city’s name is derived from the Coast Salish people who had several villages in the area. They called themselves the “Snuneymuxw” which translates as “a great and mighty people.” While the small commuity was first called Colvile Town, it was soon changed to Nanaimo, an adaptation of Snuneymuxw.
In the mid 1800s, the Hudson’s Bay Company, better known for furs than mining, began to mine the rich coal deposits near the harbour. Many of the Nanaimo’s neighbourhoods commemorate the mines that were located here: Northfield, Newcastle, Extension, Wellington, Northfield and South Wellington are former mining communities. The Company needed skilled workers to extract the coal and they placed advertisements in British newspapers in the spring of 1854. A group of 24 miners and their families from the “Black Country” responded. In June 1854, they left London on the HBC’s sailing ship Princess Royal. They finally arrived in Nanaimo on November 27, 1854 after a long journey around Cape Horn to Vancouver Island.
The tiny communiy was protected from potential attack by the Bastion, which occupied a commanding position over the harbour. Constructed in 1853, the eight-sided building served as a warehouse, defensive structure and Company clerk’s office. The clerk was responsible for the operation of the mine and the well-being of the settlement. While the cannons were never fired in defense, they were frequently fired to celebrate community events. Three floors of the Bastion are open to visitors and its exhibits provide a great insight into life in Nanaimo over 150 years ago.
No mention of Nanaimo is complete without mentioning its Asian communities. The Chinese first arrived here in the 1860s and were an important part of the mining and service industries. Over the years, the community occupied various parts of the city until the last Chinatown was destroyed in a dramatic September 1960 fire.
The Japanese were also part of the community as they operated herring and salmon salteries on Newcastle Island and a small shipyard. Salted herring was packed into fir boxes and shipped to the Orient.The Japanese community was dismantled in 1942. Newcastle Island was also the site of a stone quarry that was developed to provide stone for the construction of the U.S. Mint building in San Francisco.
While Nanaimo always had a small logging and sawmill industry, it became more important as the coal mines closed. Development of a local large-scale forest industry began in the early 1940s and many men were employed in the various aspects of the logging industry. In 1950, the Harmac Pulp Mill opened near Duke Point.It uses wood chip waste from island sawmills to produce kraft pulp.
Over the past 25 years, the city’s economy has diversified from that of a resource based to community to being a regional service centre. The city is a centre for fisheries research, an important shellfish production centre and is home to a variety of technology-based industries. Malaspina Univresity-College offers a variety of unique programs that produces some of the best young talent in the country.
History buffs will delight in exploring Nanaimo’s rich and colourful past. There are several walking tours that guide you through different neighbourhoods where you can learn about our buildings, people and events. Markers and plaques provide directions and descriptions of the stops along the route.
To explore more of our community’s heritage, visit the Nanaimo District Museum. The museum’s exhibits feature First Nations history, the rise and fall of the coal mining industry, the forest industry, Chinatown as well as the rich and diverse social life of the community. In the park next to the museum, visit an authentic miner’s cottage and 1889 Baldwin steam locomotive. Nanaimo had the first railway in Western Canada. Be sure to visit at the Bastion at noon in the summer for the daily cannon firing.
Other heritage attractions include the Garden Memorial to Chinese Pioneers on Stewart Avenue and the Vancouver Island Military Museum at Rutherford Mall.
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