Nanaimo

British Columbia, Canada
Also known as: Colvilletown, Sne-ny-mo
Pierre Poilievre draws thousands to rally north of Nanaimo Apr. 26, 2025, 11:07 PM ET (CBC)

Nanaimo, city, southwestern British Columbia, Canada, on Vancouver Island and the Georgia Strait. Founded as Colvilletown around a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, it developed after 1849 when coalfields were discovered nearby by local Indigenous people. In 1860 the settlement was renamed Sne-ny-mo (whence Nanaimo) from an Indigenous word meaning “a big, strong tribe,” which was applied to a tribal confederation. An important distributing center, Nanaimo is connected with Vancouver and the mainland by ferries. Coal mining was the chief industry until the last mine closed in 1953. The economy now depends chiefly on lumbering, pulp processing, commercial fishing, agriculture, shipbuilding, and tourism. The federal government maintains a fisheries and oceanographic research station at the north edge of the city. Historical features are Petroglyph Park, with its ancient rock carvings, and the Bastion, part of a fort built by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1853 to protect the miners and settlers. The city is host to a unique sporting event—the annual mid-July Bathtub Race across the strait to Vancouver. Inc. city, 1874. Pop. (2006) 78,692; (2011) 83,810.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Vancouver Island, island lying off southwestern mainland British Columbia, Canada. With an area of 12,079 square miles (31,285 square km), it is the largest island on the Pacific coast of North America. Vancouver Island is separated from mainland Canada by the straits of Georgia, Johnstone, and Queen Charlotte and from the United States by Juan de Fuca Strait. The island, averaging 50 miles (80 km) in width and extending for 285 miles (460 km) along a northwest–southeast axis paralleling the mainland, is actually the top of a partially submerged mountain system. It has a deeply dissected, heavily wooded, mountainous interior with several peaks of more than 7,000 feet (2,100 metres). Flanked on the east by a coastal plain, its coastline, especially on the west, is deeply indented with fjords. Strathcona Provincial Park occupies 847 square miles (2,193 square km) in the central part of the island, while Pacific Rim National Park (193 square miles [500 square km]) is in three sections along the west coast, and Cape Scott Provincial Park (58 square miles [151 square km]) is at its northwestern tip.

First discovered by Captain James Cook (1778), the island was surveyed in 1792 by George Vancouver and was held by the Hudson’s Bay Company until it was made a British crown colony in 1849. In 1866 it was united with the mainland colony of British Columbia, which entered (in 1871) the Dominion of Canada as a province, with Victoria, the island’s chief city, as the provincial capital. The island’s main industries include lumbering, fishing, mining (coal, iron ore, and copper), agriculture (dairy products, fruits, and vegetables), and tourism. The major population centres, situated predominantly along the east coast, apart from Victoria, are Duncan, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Courtenay, North Cowichan, Port Hardy, and Campbell River. The island is served by air and ferry service to mainland Canada and the United States.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.