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63 unusual facts about Vancouver Island


1918 Vancouver Island earthquake

The epicenter was located east of the Stewardson inlet on the west coast of Vancouver Island, with damage occurring at the Estevan Point lighthouse on the Hesquiat Peninsula.

1964 Alaska earthquake

The tsunami then reached Tofino, on the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island, and traveled up a fjord to hit Port Alberni twice, washing away 55 homes and damaging 375 others.

2012 Haida Gwaii earthquake

A tsunami warning was issued for the North American Coast from the Alaskan Panhandle to Vancouver Island, but later limited to the North Coast region of British Columbia.

5688 Kleewyck

It is named after the name given by the Nuu-chah-nulth of Vancouver Island's west coast to Canadian artist Emily Carr.

Aaron Arrowsmith

Mount Arrowsmith, situated east of Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, is named for Aaron Arrowsmith and his nephew John Arrowsmith.

Adam Grant Horne

Adam Grant Horne (1829 – August 10, 1901) was a Hudson's Bay Company employee at the Colony of Vancouver Island, a municipal politician and a businessman.

In 1856 Horne led what is thought to have been the first crossing of mid-Vancouver Island by a European.

Alberta Legislature Building

The first floor is faced with Vancouver Island granite; upper floors feature sandstone from the Glenbow Quarry in Calgary.

Asplenium viride

It is a diploid species, with n = 36, and hybridizes with Asplenium trichomanes to produce Asplenium × adulterinum, found on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Baxter Aviation

Shortly after, the Baxters received a class 3 scheduled license to provide services between downtown Vancouver and Vancouver International Airport to downtown Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.

Benjamin Pearse

Benjamin William Pearse (January 19, 1832 – June 17, 1902) was a public servant for the colonies of Vancouver Island and of British Columbia.

Born in Devon, England, Pearse left England in 1851 to become a surveyor for the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.

British Columbia Highway 14

An east-west highway on the southwestern coast of Vancouver Island in the Capital Regional District, it is sometimes known as the Juan de Fuca Highway, as well as Sooke Road, Sooke being one of the largest communities that the highway passes through.

British Columbia Highway 30

Highway 30, also known as Port Alice Road, is a 30 km (19 mi) long northeast-to-southwest scenic route in the Regional District of Mount Waddington on Vancouver Island, connecting Port Alice with a location on Highway 19 known as Keogh, between Port Hardy and Port McNeill.

Cariboo camels

One baby camel was born during their stay, and another escaped with its mother into the wilds of Vancouver Island and wouldn’t be seen until that fall near Cadboro Bay.

Carmanah Point Light Station

Carmanah Point Light Station is a lighthouse on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island at the entrance from the Pacific Ocean to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

CCGS Cape Sutil

She was commissioned by The Honourable Herb Dhaliwal, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, on August 1 2000 at CCG Station Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

Coat of arms of British Columbia

The wapiti of Vancouver Island and the bighorn sheep of the mainland of the province symbolize the union of the two colonies which united to form British Columbia in 1866.

Cowichan Bay Fire Rescue

The Cowichan Bay Fire Rescue Department exists to provide fire, medical and other life safety services to those who reside, work, or travel through the Cowichan Bay Improvement District, which borders the City of Duncan, British Columbia on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Cyphornis

It is only known with certainty from a single specimen, the rather abraded proximal part of a left tarsometatarsus which was found at Carmanah Point on Vancouver Island (Canada), where the Juan de Fuca Strait opens into the Pacific.

Dame Pattie

Due to the restrictions on use of equipment and materials sourced from outside the defenders country, the Australian syndicate had to obtain permission from the New York Yacht Club to buy the edge grain fir from Stone Brothers Logging, Maple Bay, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Doug Peden

When Doug was 13 he won the provincial under-15 doubles tennis championship, at 18 the singles, doubles and mixed doubles for Vancouver Island.

ECCW Vancouver Island Championship

As its name suggests, the title is defended almost exclusively at ECCW events on Vancouver Island, in cities such as Nanaimo and Victoria.

Edward A. Irving

He mapped the movements of Vancouver Island and other parts of the Cordillera that have moved sideways and rotated relative to the Precambrian Canadian Shield.

Edward Stamp

Edward Stamp (1814–1872) was an English mariner and entrepreneur who contributed to the early economic development of British Columbia and Vancouver Island.

Franco-Columbian

The province is served by a francophone school board (Le Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique) which operates 40 schools offering education from kindergarten through grade 12 in the Lower Mainland, Sunshine Coast, Vancouver Island, Okanagan, Kootenays, Prince George, Fraser Valley, and other parts of the province.

Geoffrey Hornby

He had no appointment in the Royal Navy until 1858, when he was sent out to China to take command of the Tribune frigate and convey a body of marines to Vancouver Island, where the dispute with the United States about the San Juan Islands was threatening to become very bitter.

George Washington Kipp

He resumed his former business pursuits until the 1910 congressional election when he was once again reelected, serving in the Sixty-second Congress until his death, before Congress assembled, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Gestalt therapy

In 1969 Fritz Perls left the United States to start a Gestalt community at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Green Party of Manitoba candidates, 2007 Manitoba provincial election

Bennet-Clark was born in Matsqui, British Columbia on September 24, 1949, and was raised in and around Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Haines Highway

It has no number in British Columbia, but editions of The Milepost up to at least 2004 list it as Hwy 4, a number actually in use on Vancouver Island.

Harold Finch-Hatton

He also worked for the development of the Pacific route to Australia, and was secretary to the Pacific Telegraph Company for the formation of a line from Vancouver Island to Australia.

Inside Passage

It includes the narrow, protected Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the B.C. mainland, the Johnstone and Queen Charlotte Straits between Vancouver Island and the mainland, as well as a short stretch along the wider and more exposed Hecate Strait near the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Island Corridor Foundation

The Island Corridor Foundation (ICF) is a Canadian non-profit that owns all former Canadian Pacific and Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway (E&N) track on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Southern Railway of Vancouver Island, part of the Washington Companies, was selected in 2006 as the exclusive operator on the track, both of freight and Via Rail's Victoria – Courtenay train.

Island Highway

The Island Highway is actually a series of highways that follows much of the eastern coastline of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Jamie Lowery

Born in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, Lowery joined the Coulson-Prescott Football Club.

Jordan River Dam

It is part of the second hydroelectric development on Vancouver Island.

Lady Alexandra

Although Alexandra had been designed primarily as an summer-time day excursion steamer, the company had intended to use the ship, which had a 300 ton cargo capacity, as a freighter in the off-season to transport canning supplies to, and pick up packed salmon from, the many canneries along the coast of British Columbia north of Vancouver Island.

Leaky condo crisis

It primarily involves multi-unit condominium (or strata) buildings damaged by rainwater infiltration in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island regions of coastal British Columbia (B.C.).

Lincoln Alexander

(James Douglas, who was of mixed descent, was Governor of Vancouver Island and of British Columbia prior to Canadian Confederation when these were British colonies with no connection to the Canadas.

Mountain biking in British Columbia

Vancouver Island, though not as well known for mountain biking as the North Shore, boasts a growing number of trails.

Nanaimo Station

The station takes its name from the street it is on, which in turn, is named after the city of Nanaimo, British Columbia, located on Vancouver Island.

Penelakut First Nation

The Penelakut First Nation is a First Nation government of the Penelakut people on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

Penelakut Island

Following this defeat, the colonial government responded with one of the largest military operations in British Columbia's history, which took place on the east coast of Vancouver Island and extended throughout the waters and islands of Active Pass, Trincomali Channel and Stuart Channel.

There is frequent car and passenger ferry service to Penelakut from Chemainus on Vancouver Island.

Quamichan

Quamichan (or Kw’amutsun) is a traditional nation of the Coast Salish people, commonly referred to by the English adaptation of Qu'wutsun as the Cowichan Indians, or First Nations, of the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, in the area of the city of Duncan, British Columbia.

Race Rocks Light

The Islands of Race Rocks are located just off the southern tip of Vancouver Island, about 16 km southwest of Victoria, British Columbia.

Reed Elley

During that time he and his family moved to Vancouver Island, where he became involved in the winning campaign of Bob Ringma in 1993.

Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre

The Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre is a not-for-profit aquarium and marine education centre that focuses on the ecosystem of the Salish Sea and is located inside the Sidney Pier Hotel on the Vancouver Island town of Sidney, Canada, in the Greater Victoria region.

Sovanco Fracture Zone

The Sovanco Fracture Zone is a right lateral-moving transform fault and associated fracture zone located offshore of Vancouver Island in Canada.

SS Cardena

As if in anticipation of the indignities of her later groundings and collisions, the Cardena’s well-earned moment of glory came in the summer of 1927, when she freed the CNR liner SS Prince Rupert from the clutches of Ripple Rock in Seymour Narrows, a treacherous, three-mile tidal surge lying in Discovery Passage between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island.

Stand Up For Mental Health

SMH hopes to introduce a pre-release program into William Head Institution on Vancouver Island for Corrections Canada.

Steamboats of the Island to the Mainland

Ship connection from Vancouver Island to the mainland began when gold was discovered in the interior.

T. D. Judah

D. Judah was sold to the Wellington Colliery Company on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, where it found service as Wellington Colliery Railway's Queen Anne.

Thomas Blinkhorn

Thomas Blinkhorn (May 3, 1806 – October 13, 1856) was a pioneer farmer on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Todd Bergen

He was a club pro in Prince Albert, then later on Vancouver Island.

Todea

So far the fossil record of the genus Todea consists only of the permineralized rhizome Todea tidwellii from the Lower Cretaceous of Vancouver Island, Canada and the species Todea amissa, known from the Eocene of Patagonia, Argentinia.

Tomás de Suría

The two astronomers, Ciriaco Zevallos and José Espinosa y Tello, are immortalized in the places names for the Vancouver Island town of Zeballos and the nearby Espinoza Inlet.

Western Speedway

It is southern Vancouver Island's prime speedway with its president Darrell Midgley.

William Alexander Mouat

One of their daughters, Ethel Margaret, married Dr James Douglas Helmcken, grandson of Sir James Douglas, colonial governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

William Head Institution

William Head Institution is a Canadian minimum-security federal correctional institution for men located in Metchosin, British Columbia, about 25 kilometers southwest of Victoria on the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island.

William Raybould

Raybould came to Vancouver Island with his wife, the former Phoebe Shakespeare, in 1864 from Staffordshire, England.


Active Pass

Currently, the pass is used by BC Ferries' passenger and vehicle ferry runs between B.C.'s Lower Mainland, the southern Gulf Islands and Swartz Bay on southern Vancouver Island.

Albert Goodwin

Albert "Ginger" Goodwin (May 10, 1887 – July 27, 1918) of Treeton, England was a migrant coal miner who found work in the Cumberland mines; arriving on Vancouver Island in late 1910.

Anne Vallée

She chose Tufted Puffins as a research subject and, starting in 1980, spent her summers on Triangle Island, an ecological reserve located in the Pacific Ocean west of the north tip of Vancouver Island.

Cassin's Auklet

It nests on offshore islands, with the main population stronghold being Triangle Island off Vancouver Island's Cape Scott, where the population is estimated to be around 550,000 pairs.

CKKQ-FM

Thanks to the prime position of CKKQ's transmitter on the Malahat Ridge, its signal reaches up Vancouver Island as far north as Nanaimo, onto the Lower Mainland as far east as Kent and into Washington as far south as Tacoma, on a good day.

Columbia Bar

The Columbia Bar is part of a set of major marine coastal hazards along the Pacific Northwest coast, including Cape Flattery at the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula and Cape Scott, which is at the north tip of Vancouver Island.

François Norbert Blanchet

Then on July 24, 1846, the Vatican under Pope Pius IX divided the vicariate apostolic into three dioceses: Oregon City, Vancouver Island, and Walla Walla.

Jean-Nicolas Lemmens

Jean-Nicolas Lemmens (also Joannes Nicolaas Lemmens or Joannes Nicolaus Lemmens) (Schimmert, 3 June 1850 - Cobán (Guatemala), 10 August 1897) was a Dutch Catholic priest and Bishop of Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada.

Julius Bloedel

In 1911, he and two new partners, John Stewart and Patrick Welch, came to Canada and began acquiring large blocks of forests on British Columbia's Vancouver Island.

Kinsol Trestle

The Kinsol Trestle, also known as the Koksilah River Trestle, is a wooden railway trestle located on Vancouver Island north of Shawnigan Lake in the Canadian Province of British Columbia.

MacMillan Bloedel

In 1911 Julius Bloedel, a Seattle lawyer, along with his two partners, John Stewart and Patrick Welch, began acquiring large blocks of Vancouver Island forests.

Paul Nettleton

At that time he resided in the capital Iqaluit with his wife Elite and their two children Disa and Thorin.In November 2009, Paul joined the law firm of Robson O'Connor located in his hometown of Ladysmith BC, on Vancouver Island.

Pygmy smelt

It is also found in the north eastern Pacific Ocean from Vancouver Island, British Columbia to Bathurst Inlet, Northwest Territories.

Volcano Lake

Volcano Lake, formally called Crater Lake, is a lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, located just south of Puzzle Mountain and west of Elkhorn Mountain on west side of Strathcona Provincial Park.

Wakashan languages

Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.