Nanaimo National Historic Event

Nanaimo, British Columbia
Old fort, Hudson's Bay Company, Nanaimo, BC, 1903 © Wm. Notman & Son / Musée McCord Museum / VIEW-3655
Hudson's Bay Company bastion, Nanaimo, 1903
© Wm. Notman & Son / Musée McCord Museum / VIEW-3655
Nanaimo Coal Mines, Vancouver Island, BC, 1903 © Wm. Notman & Son / Musée McCord Museum / VIEW-3654Old fort, Hudson's Bay Company, Nanaimo, BC, 1903 © Wm. Notman & Son / Musée McCord Museum / VIEW-3655
Address : Nanaimo, British Columbia

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 1924-06-04

Other Name(s):
  • Nanaimo  (Designation Name)

Importance: First commercial coal mine in British Columbia in 1852

Plaque(s)


Existing plaque:  Corner of Wharf and Front Streets, Nanaimo, British Columbia

This memorial stands between the point of discovery and the pithead of the first commercial coal mine in British Columbia. The bastion nearby was built in 1853 by the Hudson's Bay Company to protect the miners and settlers. The discovery of the great coal beds of this vicinity in 1852 and their development ushered in a period of expansion in the industrial life of the province and aided the growth of British trade on this coast.