A Description Of Nanaimo

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The community that I am going to talk about is Nanaimo. Nanaimo is located on the east coast of Vancouver Island, BC Canada, 113 km north of Victoria and 23 km west of Vancouver across the Straight of Georgia. It has the specific coordinates of 49o 09’ 51” N and 123o 56’ 11” W. Nanaimo has various names. The first visitors from Spain called it Winthuysen Inslet or Boca de Winthuysen after the Spanish explorer. The first English settlers called it Colville Town after Andrew Collville, governor of the Hudson Bay Company. The HBC established a fortified post in 1849 and discovered coal in 1852 which led to a permanent settlement. The building of the Bastion occurred in 1853. The city was incorporated in 1874.After coal mining peaked in the 1920s, forestry and the pulp and paper industry replaced it. The aboriginal Salish who lived here called it Snuneymuxm which meant gathering place. The name Nanaimo was the English corrupted version of the Salish name. It is called the Hub City or Harbour City because of where it is located. It also has the unique distinction of being the Bathtub Rac...

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