About Vancouver

Vancouver, WA did not begin its steps towards becoming a city until forty years before the American Civil War. In 1824, the Hudson Bay Company, famous for its fur trading business, made Fort Vancouver a trading post. The fort had been named after British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver. With occupation by both British and American forces, this area (along with Oregon) would become a point of contention for many years. Both countries realized the significance both in terms of military and natural resources. On January 23, 1857, Vancouver became an incorporated city. Vancouver served as the capital of the Washington territory for a little over a year at the end of the 1850s.

Situated close to the Columbia River, Vancouver, WA continued to grow both as a military site and a commercial center. The United States Army tabbed the city as the new home of the Department of the Columbia. All the while the non-military citizens reveled in the boom of fishing and lumber that helped them earn a living. Vancouver quickly began to place itself among the nation's cities in the areas of fur trade, salmon fisheries, and lumber mills. After the Civil War, Vancouver became dedicated to lumber and shipbuilding. The boom produced by the following two World Wars would take shipbuilding from a cottage industry to an important factor in the growth of the city. The population rose from just over one thousand seven hundred in 1880 to over forty thousand residents by 1950. The population boom can also be credited to the 1889 adoption of the state of Washington as the forty-second state of the United States of America.

As the 1960s turned to the 2000s, the shipbuilding empires of the Northwest began to return to a smaller portion of Vancouver's economy. With influences from nearby Portland, Oregon and the ever present Washington metropolis of Seattle, Vancouver witnessed a surge in entertainment and commuter interests. Today, the city is home to over one hundred and sixty thousand residents. Many of the residents are those who worked in the two aforementioned bigger cities or those who still commute. Vancouver itself had reinvented its own economy to center on the technological industries that have changed the nation. It is also home to many corporate offices including those of Nautilus and The Holland Group.

Written by Lyndsey Morgan