122-525: The Leech River Fault extends across the southern tip of Vancouver Island in British Columbia , Canada, creating the distinctively straight, narrow, and steep-sided valley, occupied by Loss Creek and two reservoirs, that runs from Sombrio Point (southeast of Port Renfrew and Sombrio Beach ) due east to the Leech River, and then turns southeast to run past Victoria . It is a thrust fault that marks
244-405: A deadlock with nothing resolved. Vancouver insisted the entire Spanish establishment be turned over, but Bodega y Quadra held that there were no buildings seized in 1789, and the only possible land was a tiny and useless cove nearby. The two decided to refer the entire matter back to their respective governments. The friendly meeting between Bodega y Quadra and Vancouver led the former to propose that
366-661: A great frenzy among the technology companies in Seattle but the bubble ended in early 2001. In 1999, the World Trade Organization held its conference in Seattle, which was met with protest activity . The protests and police reactions to them largely overshadowed the conference itself. In 2001, the city was impacted by the Mardi Gras Riots and then by the Nisqually earthquake the following day. Another boom began as
488-556: A homestead in Sooke . Following the brief governorship of Richard Blanshard , James Douglas , Chief Factor of the Hudson's Bay post, assumed the role in 1851. The island's first legislative assembly was formed in 1856. Government buildings were built and were occupied in 1859; the replacement, today's Parliament Buildings , were opened in 1898. Fort Victoria had become an important base when prospectors, miners and merchants began arriving for
610-564: A loose grouping of many tribes with numerous distinct cultures and historically speak one of the Coast Salish languages . On Vancouver Island, Coast Salish peoples' territory traditionally spans from the northern limit of the Strait of Georgia on the east side of Vancouver Island and covers most of southern Vancouver Island. Distinct nations within the Coast Salish peoples on Vancouver Island include
732-457: A major area for recreation. The northern, western, and most of the central portions of the island are home to the coniferous "big trees" associated with British Columbia's coast – western hemlock , western red cedar , Pacific silver fir , yellow cedar , Douglas fir , grand fir , Sitka spruce , and western white pine . It is also characterised by bigleaf maple , red alder , sword fern , and red huckleberry . The fauna of Vancouver Island
854-441: A number of technology companies, including Amazon , F5 Networks , RealNetworks , Nintendo of America , and T-Mobile . This success brought an influx of new residents with a population increase within city limits of almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000, and saw Seattle's real estate become some of the most expensive in the country. Seattle in this period attracted attention as home to the companies opened operations in or around
976-478: A number of theaters in the city exhibiting vaudeville acts and silent movies. He went on to become one of America's greatest theater and movie tycoons. Scottish-born architect B. Marcus Priteca designed several theaters for Pantages in Seattle, which were later demolished or converted to other uses. Seattle's surviving Paramount Theatre , on which he collaborated, was not a Pantages theater. War work again brought local prosperity during World War II , centered on
1098-435: A request by Bodega y Quadra that Vancouver: would name some port or island after us both in commemoration of our meeting and friendly intercourse that on that occasion had taken place (Vancouver had previously feted Bodega y Quadra on his ship); ...and conceiving no place more eligible than the place of our meeting, I have therefore named this land ... The Island of Quadra and Vancouver. Bodega y Quadra wrote, however, that it
1220-595: A total area of 142.5 square miles (369 km ), 84 square miles (220 km ) of which is land and 58.1 square miles (150 km ) is water (41% of the total area). According to the Köppen climate classification system, Seattle has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Csb ), while under the Trewartha system, it is labeled an oceanic climate ( Dobk ). It has cool, wet winters and mild, relatively dry summers, covering characteristics of both climate types. The climate
1342-404: Is Nanaimo , which has a population of 115,459 as of 2021. There are also five census agglomeration areas ( Alberni Valley , Campbell River , Comox Valley , Cowichan Valley , and Oceanside ) as defined by Statistics Canada . [REDACTED] Nanaimo [REDACTED] Duncan Within the island's largest city, Victoria , there is a significant IT and technology industry. According to
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#17328559998401464-568: Is a Northern Wakashan language , a grouping shared with Haisla, Heiltsuk and Wuikyala. Kwakwakaʼwakw centres of population on Vancouver Island include communities such as Fort Rupert , Alert Bay and Quatsino , the Kwakwakaʼwakw tradition of the potlatch was banned by the federal government of Canada in 1885, but has been revived in recent decades. The Nuu-chah-nulth (pronounced [nuːʧanˀuɬ]), are indigenous peoples in Canada. Their traditional home
1586-557: Is believed to not extend east of Whidbey Island, and may double-back westward under Seattle , active faulting on the SWIF extends southeast to where it connects with the Rattlesnake Mountain Fault Zone . Thus it appears that the Leech River and Devils Mountain faults were once a single left-lateral oblique fault (having both horizontal strike-slip and vertical dip-slip motion) that has been offset by right-lateral motion along
1708-527: Is considered invasive for its voracious appetite and scaring away of the Douglas squirrels. The island has the most concentrated population of cougars in North America. The Vancouver Island wolf , a subspecies of grey wolf , is found only on the north part of the island. Harbour seals and river otters are common. Resident orcas live in two major groups, one in the waters of the south island and one in
1830-506: Is hilly in some places. Like Rome, the city is said to lie on seven hills ; the lists vary but typically include Capitol Hill , First Hill , West Seattle , Beacon Hill , Queen Anne , Magnolia, and the former Denny Hill . The Wallingford , Delridge , Mount Baker , Seward Park , Washington Park , Broadmoor , Madrona , Phinney Ridge , Sunset Hill , Blue Ridge , Broadview , Laurelhurst , Hawthorne Hills , Maple Leaf , and Crown Hill neighborhoods are all located on hills. Many of
1952-409: Is on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but as in the rest of the region, smallpox and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of some groups and the absorption of others into neighbouring groups. They were among the first Pacific peoples north of California to come into contact with Europeans, as
2074-480: Is part of a group of peaks that include the only glaciers on the island, the largest of which is the Comox Glacier . The west coast shoreline is rugged and in many places mountainous, characterized by its many fjords , bays, and inlets. The interior of the island has many lakes ( Kennedy Lake , north of Ucluelet , is the largest) and rivers. The 49th parallel north crosses the island just north of Ladysmith on
2196-502: Is separated from the mainland of British Columbia by Johnstone Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait on the north and northeast, and by the Strait of Georgia on the southeast, which along with the Strait of Juan de Fuca along its southwest separate it from the United States. West of the island is the open Pacific Ocean, while to its north is Queen Charlotte Sound . The Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca are now officially part of
2318-447: Is similar to that found on the mainland coast, with some notable exceptions and additions. For example, mountain goats , moose , coyotes , porcupines , skunks , chipmunks , and numerous species of small mammals, while plentiful on the mainland, are absent from Vancouver Island. Grizzly bears are absent from the island, where black bears are prevalent, but in 2016, a pair of grizzlies were sighted swimming between smaller islands off
2440-597: Is some overlap, Kwakwakaʼwakw territory includes northern and northwestern Vancouver Island and adjoining areas of the mainland, the Nuu-chah-nulth span most of the west coast, while the Coast Salish cover the southeastern Island and southernmost extremities along the Strait of Juan de Fuca . Their cultures are connected to the natural resources abundant in the area. The Kwakwakaʼwakw today number about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and
2562-491: Is sometimes characterized as a "modified Mediterranean" climate because it is cooler and wetter than a "true" Mediterranean climate, but shares the characteristic dry summer (which has a strong influence on the region's vegetation). Temperature extremes are moderated by the adjacent Puget Sound , greater Pacific Ocean , and Lake Washington . Thus extreme heat waves are rare in the Seattle area, as are very cold temperatures (below about 15 °F; −9 °C). The Seattle area
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#17328559998402684-557: Is the cloudiest region of the Continental United States , due in part to frequent storms and lows moving in from the adjacent Pacific Ocean. Seattle is cloudy 201 days out of the year and partly cloudy 93 days. With many more "rain days" than other major American cities, Seattle has a well-earned reputation for frequent rain: In an average year, there are 150 days in which at least 0.01 inches (0.25 mm) of precipitation falls, more days than in nearly all U.S. cities east of
2806-474: Is the extension of summer dryness to latitudes as high as 50 °N . Only in the extreme north of the island near Port Hardy is the rainfall of the driest summer month as much as one fifth that of the wettest months from November to March. West coasts of other continents at similar latitudes have a practically even distribution of rainfall throughout the year. Vancouver Island is mostly made up of volcanic and sedimentary rock which were formed offshore on
2928-515: The 1962 World's Fair , for which the Space Needle was built. Another major local economic downturn was in the late 1960s and early 1970s, at a time when Boeing was heavily affected by the oil crises , loss of government contracts, and costs and delays associated with the Boeing 747 . Many people left the area to look for work elsewhere, and two local real estate agents put up a billboard reading "Will
3050-608: The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition of 1909, which is largely responsible for the layout of today's University of Washington campus. A shipbuilding boom in the early part of the 20th century became massive during World War I , making Seattle somewhat of a company town. The subsequent retrenchment led to the Seattle General Strike of 1919 , an early general strike in the country. A 1912 city development plan by Virgil Bogue went largely unused. Seattle
3172-618: The Farallon Plate , the Juan de Fuca Plate , are now subducting below the island. This process has led to Vancouver Island being one of the most seismically active regions in Canada. The subduction zone off the coast of the island forms a section of the Ring of Fire . The area has been known to host megathrust earthquakes in the past, the last being the Cascadia earthquake of 1700 . The Forbidden Plateau , in
3294-475: The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in 1858. The Hudson's Bay lease expired in 1859 and the island reverted to Great Britain. The burgeoning town was incorporated as Victoria in 1862. Victoria became the capital of the colony of Vancouver Island, retaining this status when the island was amalgamated with the mainland in 1866. A British naval base, including Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard and a naval hospital,
3416-641: The Lake Washington Ship Canal (consisting of two man-made canals, Lake Union , and the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks at Salmon Bay , ending in Shilshole Bay on Puget Sound). The sea, rivers, forests, lakes, and fields surrounding Seattle were once rich enough to support one of the world's few sedentary hunter-gatherer societies. In modern times the surrounding area lends itself well to sailing, skiing, bicycling, camping, and hiking year-round. The city
3538-745: The Leech River Complex and (near Port Renfrew , but also outcrops near Victoria ) the Pandora Peak Unit . These, along with the Pacific Rim Complex further up the coast, are remnants of the Pacific Rim Terrane which was crushed between Wrangellia and Siletzia. The contact between the bottom of Wrangellia and the top of the subducted PRT continues northwest along the coast as the West Coast Fault , and southeast towards Victoria as
3660-708: The Lower Mainland . The capital was moved to Victoria in 1868. By 1867, Canada was established by the first of the British North America Acts , the Constitution Act, 1867 and the United Colonies joined Canada on 20 July 1871 through the British Columbia Terms of Union , following negotiations that secured the interests of the colonial elite in relation to a rail connection that would unite
3782-459: The Pacific Northwest region of North America , and the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The Seattle metropolitan area 's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 made it one of the country's fastest-growing large cities. Seattle is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound , an inlet of
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3904-586: The Pacific Northwest . Vancouver Island is the world's 43rd largest island , Canada's 11th largest island , and Canada's second most populous island after the Island of Montreal . Vancouver Island has been the homeland of many indigenous peoples for thousands of years. The groupings, by language, are the Kwakwakaʼwakw (also known as the Kwakiutl ), Nuu-chah-nulth , and various Coast Salish peoples . While there
4026-684: The Pacific Ocean , and Lake Washington . It is the northernmost major city in the United States, located about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canadian border . A gateway for trade with East Asia , the Port of Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2021 . The Seattle area has been inhabited by Native Americans (such as the Duwamish , who had at least 17 villages around Elliot Bay) for at least 4,000 years before
4148-768: The Pacific Ring of Fire , Seattle is in a major earthquake zone . On February 28, 2001, the magnitude 6.8 Nisqually earthquake did significant architectural damage, especially in the Pioneer Square area (built on reclaimed land , as are the Industrial District and part of the city center), and caused one fatality. Other strong earthquakes occurred on January 26, 1700 (estimated at 9 magnitude), December 14, 1872 (7.3 or 7.4), April 13, 1949 (7.1), and April 29, 1965 (6.5). The 1965 quake caused three deaths in Seattle directly and one more by heart failure. Although
4270-752: The Rocky Mountains . However, because it often has merely a light drizzle falling from the sky for many days, Seattle actually receives significantly less rainfall (or other precipitation) overall than many other major U.S. cities like New York City , Miami , or Houston . According to the 2012–2016 American Community Survey (ACS), the racial makeup of the city was 65.7% White Non-Hispanic , 16.9% Asian , 6.8% Black or African American , 6.6% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 0.4% Native American , 0.9% Pacific Islander , 0.2% other races, and 5.6% two or more races . Seattle's population historically has been predominantly white. The 2010 census showed that Seattle
4392-538: The Salish Sea , which also includes Puget Sound . The Vancouver Island Ranges run most of the length of the island, dividing it into a wet and rugged west coast and a drier, more rolling east coast. The highest point in these ranges and on the island is the Golden Hinde , at 2,195 m (7,201 ft). Located near the centre of Vancouver Island in 2,500 km (970 sq mi) Strathcona Provincial Park , it
4514-463: The Seattle Fault passes just south of the city center, neither it nor the Cascadia subduction zone has caused an earthquake since the city's founding. The Cascadia subduction zone poses the threat of an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 or greater, capable of seriously damaging the city and collapsing many buildings, especially in zones built on fill. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the city has
4636-964: The Stz'uminus , the Kʼómoks of the Comox Valley area, the Cowichan of the Cowichan Valley , the Esquimalt , the Saanich of the Saanich Peninsula , the Songhees of the Victoria area and Snuneymuxw in the Nanaimo area. Europeans began to explore the island in 1774 when rumours of Russian fur traders caused Spain to send a number of expeditions to assert its long-held claims to
4758-769: The Survey Mountain Fault . The Leech River Fault (LRF) extends off-shore towards Cape Flattery , where the Crescent—Pacific Rim contact continues northwest as the Tofino Fault (TF). The bottom contact of the Crescent Terrane has been uplifted and exposed along the edge of the Olympic Peninsula, where it is known as the Hurricane Ridge Fault (HRF). West of Cape Flattery the southernmost edge of
4880-748: The United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia by the Act for the Union of the colonies, passed by the Imperial Parliament . Arthur Kennedy was appointed governor of the united entity. (He would leave office in 1866 and later became Governor of the West African Settlements, British West Africa .) Victoria became the capital but the legislative assembly was located in New Westminster on
5002-512: The University of Washington negatively. As schools across Washington lost funding and attendance, the university actually prospered during the time period as they focused on growing their student enrollment. While Seattle public schools were influenced by Washington's superintendent Worth McClure, they still struggled to pay teachers and maintain attendance. Seattle was the home base of impresario Alexander Pantages who, starting in 1902, opened
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5124-592: The anti-Chinese riots of 1885–1886 . This violence originated with unemployed whites who were determined to drive the Chinese from Seattle; anti-Chinese riots also occurred in Tacoma . Seattle had achieved sufficient economic success when the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 destroyed the central business district. However, a far grander city center rapidly emerged in its place. Finance company Washington Mutual , for example,
5246-415: The 18th and 19th centuries, sea otters ( Enhydra lutris ) were protected by an international treaty in 1911. Despite protection, the remnant population off Vancouver Island died out with the last sea otter taken near Kyuquot in 1929. From 1969 to 1972, 89 sea otters were flown or shipped from Alaska to the west coast of Vancouver Island. This population expanded to over 3,000 as of 2005 , and their range on
5368-478: The 1980s, the Seattle area developed into a technology center ; Microsoft established its headquarters in the region. In 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle, and Alaska Airlines is based in SeaTac, Washington , serving Seattle–Tacoma International Airport , Seattle's international airport. The stream of new software, biotechnology , and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased
5490-523: The Canadian province of British Columbia . The island is 456 km (283 mi) in length, 100 km (62 mi) in width at its widest point, and 32,100 km (12,400 sq mi) in total area, while 31,285 km (12,079 sq mi) are of land. The island is the largest by area and the most populous along the west coasts of the Americas . The southern part of Vancouver Island and some of
5612-582: The Crescent Terrane appears to be an extension of the LRF, suggesting left-lateral strike-slip along the Leech River Fault that has offset the Crescent Terrane nearly its whole width. The Leech River Fault (LRF) is a key element in understanding regional tectonic history as it and the San Juan Fault mark a change from the relatively simply subduction zone structure to the northwest, to the complex structures of
5734-614: The Denny Party. Members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28, 1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail on the schooner Exact from Portland , Oregon, stopping in Astoria , and landed at Alki Point during a rainstorm on November 13, 1851. After a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square , naming this new settlement Duwamps . Charles Terry and John Low remained at
5856-602: The Goldstream arm of the LRF with the Southern Whidbey Island Fault (SWIF), with splays branching towards Discovery Bay. Discovery of Crescent Formation basalt in an exploration well on Whidbey Island (just east of Port Townsend) has led some writers to locate this extension of the LRF onto the southern part of Whidbey Island, just where the SWIF is found. While the eastern contact of the Crescent Formation
5978-624: The Kula plate, leading to the formation of the distorted Insular Mountains . Much of the central mountainous region around Strathcona Park is part of the Karmutsen Formation , which is a sequence of tholeiitic pillow basalts and breccias . Since Vancouver Island has become an accretionary wedge on the North American continent, the Kula Plate has fully subducted beneath it and the remnants of
6100-413: The Leech River Complex, the LRF and the lineament it follows make a sharp turn to the south (heading S70°E) to run down the Goldstream River past Victoria and into the Juan de Fuca Strait . Such sharp turns are geometrically impossible for individual strike-slip faults, but the southeast-striking Goldstream arm of the LRF parallels the cross-cutting Survey Mountain fault. Strong aeromagnetic anomalies in
6222-410: The Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of trustees managing the city. The Town of Seattle was disincorporated on January 18, 1867, and remained a mere precinct of King County until late 1869, when a new petition was filed and the city was re-incorporated December 2, 1869, with a mayor–council government . The corporate seal of the City of Seattle carries
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#17328559998406344-457: The OWL (see map). About 42 million years ago this northeastward force rotated to a northerly direction which, striking the SWIF more obliquely, caused the strike-slip movement that offset the LRF past Victoria. It was previously believed that apparently undisturbed glacial deposits lying across the fault showed it had been inactive since the last glaciation, and that displacements on the Devils Mountain fault were accommodated through other faults in
6466-427: The Pacific Northwest . The first expedition was that of the Santiago , under the command of Juan José Pérez Hernández . In 1775, a second Spanish expedition under the Spanish Peruvian captain Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was sent. By 1776, Spanish exploration had reached Bucareli Bay including the mouth of the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington , and Sitka Sound . Vancouver Island came to
6588-437: The Pacific Ocean) to the west and Lake Washington to the east. The city's chief harbor, Elliott Bay , is part of Puget Sound, making the city an oceanic port. To the west, beyond Puget Sound, are the Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula ; to the east, beyond Lake Washington and the Eastside suburbs, are Lake Sammamish and the Cascade Range . Lake Washington's waters flow to Puget Sound through
6710-403: The San Juan Islands and the Puget Lowland to the east and southeast. The straightness of its surface trace suggests the LRF has been a strike-slip fault. In these respects the LRF is very similar to the Devils Mountain Fault , which can be traced due west from near Mount Vernon to a point just south of Victoria. Near the Leech River, where the Survey Mountain fault marks the eastern limit of
6832-431: The San Juan Islands. However, a 2017 study reported that the Leech River fault has experienced at least two, and possibly more, large, surface-rupturing earthquakes since the last ice age, and that earthquakes on these faults should be expected as a result of displacements on other faults such as the DDMF and SWIF. Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of
6954-525: The Seattle area and has been open to all residents of Washington since 2002. On March 20, 1970, twenty-eight people were killed when the Ozark Hotel was burned by an unknown arsonist. The Wah Mee massacre in 1983 resulted in the killing of 13 people in an illegal gambling club in the Seattle Chinatown-International District . Prosperity began to return in the 1980s beginning with Microsoft 's 1979 move from Albuquerque, New Mexico , to nearby Bellevue, Washington . Seattle and its suburbs became home to
7076-416: The Seattle area during his 1791–1795 expedition for the Royal Navy , which sought to chart the Pacific Northwest for the British. In 1851, a large party of American pioneers led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River ; they formally claimed it on September 14, 1851. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of
7198-427: The Spanish force seized the Portuguese-flagged British ships. British naval captain George Vancouver was sent to Nootka Sound in 1792 in order to negotiate a settlement. His Spanish counterpart in the negotiations was Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, who was commandant of Santa Cruz de Nuca in 1792. Vancouver had sailed as a midshipman with Cook. The negotiations between Vancouver and Bodega y Quadra ended in
7320-406: The Spanish, Americans and British attempted to secure control of the Pacific Northwest and the trade in otter pelts, with Nootka Sound becoming a focus of these rivalries. The Nuu-chah-nulth speak a Southern Wakashan language and are closely related to the Makah of the Olympic Peninsula , Washington state and the Ditidaht . The Coast Salish are the largest of the southern groups. They are
7442-403: The Strait that curve from Victoria to Discovery Bay (west of Port Townsend ) led to early speculation that the LRF, and the eastern limit of the Crescent Formation, ran down Discovery Bay and the west side of Puget Sound , following the edge of a relict continental margin just as the Tofino Fault follows the present margin. More recent interpretations of marine seismic reflection studies align
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#17328559998407564-506: The Victoria Advanced Technology Council website, over 800 technology companies operate in the Victoria area, with combined annual revenues of $ 1.95 billion. High-speed internet is delivered to the island by Shaw Communications , Telus , and various local providers with their own networks. Wireless Internet connections can be found all over the island, many free for public use. While the island does generate much of its own power at several hydroelectric stations, increased demand required
7686-416: The attention of Britain after the third voyage of Captain James Cook , who spent a month during 1778 at Nootka Sound , on the island's western coast. Cook claimed it for Great Britain. Maritime fur trader , John Meares arrived in 1786 and set up a single-building trading post near the native village of Yuquot (Friendly Cove), at the entrance to Nootka Sound in 1788. The fur trade began expanding into
7808-461: The bigger West Coast city. Seattle had building contracts that rivaled New York City and Chicago , but also lost to Los Angeles. Seattle's eastern farm land faded due to Oregon 's and the Midwest 's, forcing people into town. Hooverville arose during the Depression, leading to Seattle's growing homeless population. Stationed outside Seattle, the Hooverville housed thousands of men but very few children and no women. With work projects close to
7930-429: The city emerged from the Great Recession , commencing when Amazon moved its headquarters from North Beacon Hill to South Lake Union . The move initiated a historic construction boom which resulted in the completion of almost 10,000 apartments in Seattle in 2017, more than any previous year and nearly twice as many as were built in 2016. From 2010 to 2015, Seattle gained an average of 14,511 residents per year, with
8052-430: The city's population by almost 50,000 in the decade between 1990 and 2000. The culture of Seattle is heavily defined by its significant musical history . Between 1918 and 1951, nearly 24 jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District to the Central District . The jazz scene nurtured the early careers of Ernestine Anderson , Ray Charles , Quincy Jones , and others. In
8174-464: The city, Hooverville grew and the WPA settled into the city. A movement of women arose from Seattle during the Great Depression , fueled in part by Eleanor Roosevelt 's 1933 book It's Up to the Women ; women pushed for recognition, not just as housewives, but as the backbone to family. Using newspapers and journals Working Woman and The Woman Today , women pushed to be seen as equal and receive some recognition. The Great Depression did not impact
8296-433: The city. In 1990, the Goodwill Games were held in the city. Three years later, in 1993, the APEC leaders was hosted in Seattle. The 1990s also witnessed a growing popularity in grunge music, a sound that was largely developed in Seattle's independent music scene. In 1993, the movie Sleepless in Seattle brought the city further national attention, as did the television sitcom Frasier . The dot-com boom caused
8418-407: The coast near Port McNeill . Vancouver Island does support most of Canada's Roosevelt elk , however, and several mammal species and subspecies, such as the Vancouver Island marmot are unique to the island. Columbian black-tailed deer are plentiful, even in suburban areas such as in Greater Victoria , as well as the native Douglas squirrels . The Eastern grey squirrel is found in the south and
8540-418: The colonies with the rest of Canada, establish Indian lands policy that would effectively perpetuate BC's pre-Confederation practices, and enshrine colonial officials' security of position. Victoria was named the capital of the province of British Columbia . Three delegates were appointed to the federal government. Vancouver Island is located in the southwestern corner of the province of British Columbia. It
8662-406: The construction of several high-voltage power cables, both HVDC and AC, connecting to the Canadian Mainland . Seattle Seattle ( / s i ˈ æ t əl / see- AT -əl ) is a city on the West Coast of the United States . It is the seat of King County , Washington . With a 2023 population of 755,078 it is the most populous city in both the state of Washington and
8784-511: The date "1869" and a likeness of Chief Seattle in left profile. That same year, Seattle acquired the epithet of the "Queen City", a designation officially changed in 1982 to the "Emerald City". Seattle has a history of boom-and-bust cycles, like many other cities near areas of extensive natural and mineral resources. Seattle has risen several times economically, then gone into precipitous decline, but it has typically used those periods to rebuild solid infrastructure. The first such boom, covering
8906-579: The early part of the 20th century, and funded many new Seattle companies and products. In 1907, 19-year-old James E. Casey borrowed $ 100 from a friend and founded the American Messenger Company (later UPS ). Other Seattle companies founded during this period include Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer . Seattle brought in the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to design a system of parks and boulevards. The Gold Rush era culminated in
9028-486: The early years of the city, rode on the lumber industry. During this period the road now known as Yesler Way won the nickname "Skid Road", supposedly after the timber skidding down the hill to Henry Yesler 's sawmill. The later dereliction of the area may be a possible origin for the term which later entered the wider American lexicon as Skid Row . Like much of the U.S. West , Seattle experienced conflicts between labor and management and ethnic tensions that culminated in
9150-426: The east and Ucluelet on the west. Southern Vancouver Island is typically considered to refer to the area south of Courtenay, while Northern Vancouver Island generally refers to the area north of Campbell River. Those cities and the area between them are sometimes described as "Mid-Island" or "Central Island". There are a number of rivers draining the island, some of which though short are large in volume. Among
9272-488: The east of the Vancouver Island Ranges , was the epicentre of the 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake that registered 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale , the strongest ever recorded on land in Canada. Vancouver Island was the location of the observation of the episodic tremor and slip (ETS) seismic phenomenon. Vancouver Island lies in the temperate rainforest biome . On the southern and eastern portions of
9394-640: The extended Survey Mountain—Southern Whidbey Island Fault. The earlier history of the LRF is revealed by certain metamorphic rocks of the Pacific Rim terrane with a very distinctive mix of minerals. These are also found in the San Juan Islands and in isolated outcrops spread across the Cascades . They formed between 100 and 84 Ma (millions of years ago) during the Late Cretaceous when the Pacific Rim terrane
9516-464: The fifth-largest LGBT community in the U.S. Logging was Seattle's first major industry, but by the late 19th century the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush . The city grew after World War II , partly due to the local company Boeing , which established Seattle as a center for its manufacturing of aircraft. Beginning in
9638-659: The first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party , arrived from Illinois via Portland, Oregon , on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay in 1852 and named "Seattle" in honor of Chief Seattle , a prominent 19th-century leader of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Seattle currently has high populations of Native Americans alongside Americans with strong Asian, African, European, and Scandinavian ancestry, and, as of 2015, hosts
9760-468: The founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement Seattle after Chief Seattle ( Lushootseed : siʔaɫ , anglicized as "Seattle"), chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name "Seattle" appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the village were filed. In 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14, 1865,
9882-411: The growth strongly skewed toward the center of the city, and unemployment dropped from roughly 9 percent to 3.6 percent. The city has found itself "bursting at the seams", with over 45,000 households spending more than half their income on housing and at least 2,800 people homeless , and with the country's sixth-worst rush-hour traffic. Seattle is located between the saltwater Puget Sound (an arm of
10004-401: The hilliest areas are near the city center, with Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Beacon Hill collectively constituting something of a ridge along an isthmus between Elliott Bay and Lake Washington. The break in the ridge between First Hill and Beacon Hill is man-made, a result of two of the many regrading projects that reshaped the topography of the city center. The topography of the city center
10126-562: The island be named after both: "Quadra and Vancouver Island", which became the original name. While we know this island today as "Vancouver Island", the British explorer had not intentionally meant to name such a large body of land solely after himself. In his September 1792 dispatch log report for the British Admiralty, Captain Vancouver reveals that his decision here was rather meant to honour
10248-560: The island remained in dispute between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Spanish Empire in the early 1790s. The two countries nearly began a war over the issue; the confrontation became known as the Nootka Crisis . That was averted when both agreed to recognize the other's rights to the area in the first Nootka Convention in 1790, a first step to peace. Finally, the two countries signed
10370-519: The island's west coast expanded from Cape Scott in the north to Barkley Sound to the south. The majority of Vancouver Island's population lives in the Capital Regional District , more specifically in the primate city and the provincial capital of Victoria . With a population of 397,237 (2021), Greater Victoria is the island's largest population centre and one of its two census metropolitan areas . The island's other metropolitan area
10492-441: The island, eventually leading to permanent settlement. The island was further explored by Spain in 1789 with Esteban José Martínez , who established the settlement of Yuquot and the artillery battery of Fort San Miguel at Friendly Cove , which Spain called Puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca. This was to be the only Spanish settlement in what would later be Canada. Asserting their claim of exclusive sovereignty and navigation rights,
10614-452: The island, this is characterized by Douglas fir , western red cedar , arbutus (or madrone), Garry oak , salal , Oregon grape , and manzanita ; moreover, Vancouver Island is the location where the Douglas fir was first recorded by Archibald Menzies . Vancouver Island is also the location where some of the tallest Douglas fir were recorded. This southeastern portion of the island is the most heavily populated region of Vancouver Island and
10736-418: The last person leaving Seattle – Turn out the lights." Seattle remained the corporate headquarters of Boeing until 2001, when the company separated its headquarters from its major production facilities; the headquarters were moved to Chicago. The Seattle area is still home to Boeing's Renton narrow-body plant and Everett wide-body plant . The company's credit union for employees, BECU , remains based in
10858-666: The late 18th century. The Spanish and British conjointly named it Quadra's and Vancouver's Island in commemoration of the friendly negotiations held in 1792 between the Spanish commander of Fort San Miguel in Nootka Sound , Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra , and British naval captain George Vancouver , during the Nootka Crisis . (Bodega y Quadra's name was eventually dropped.) It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, who between 1791 and 1794 explored
10980-425: The late 19th and early 20th centuries were almost entirely from Guangdong Province . The Seattle area is also home to a large Vietnamese population of more than 55,000 residents, as well as over 30,000 Somali immigrants. The Seattle-Tacoma area is also home to one of the largest Cambodian communities in the United States, numbering about 19,000 Cambodian Americans, and one of the largest Samoan communities in
11102-456: The late 20th and early 21st century, the city also was the origin of several rock bands, including Foo Fighters , Heart , and Jimi Hendrix , and the subgenre of grunge and its pioneering bands, including Alice in Chains , Nirvana , Pearl Jam , Soundgarden , and others. Archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By
11224-483: The mainland U.S., with over 15,000 people having Samoan ancestry. Additionally, the Seattle area had the highest percentage of self-identified mixed-race people of any large metropolitan area in the United States, according to the 2000 United States Census Bureau. According to a 2012 HistoryLink study, Seattle's 98118 ZIP code (in the Columbia City neighborhood) was one of the most diverse ZIP Code Tabulation Areas in
11346-545: The mainland. They are also known as Kwakiutl in English, from one of their tribes, but they prefer their autonym Kwakwakaʼwakw . Their indigenous language, part of the Wakashan family, is Kwakʼwala . The name Kwakwakaʼwakw means "speakers of Kwakʼwala". The language is now spoken by less than 5% of the population—about 250 people. Today, 17 separate tribes make up the Kwakwakaʼwakw. Some Kwakwakaʼwakw groups are now extinct. Kwakʼwala
11468-452: The metropolitan area of Greater Victoria on the southern tip of the island, which includes Victoria , the capital of British Columbia. Other notable cities and towns on Vancouver Island include Nanaimo , Campbell River , Courtenay , Port Alberni and Parksville , all on or near the east coast. Indigenous peoples have inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years, long before the arrival of Spanish and British naval expeditions in
11590-606: The miners in Alaska and the Yukon . Few of those working men found lasting wealth. However, it was Seattle's business of clothing the miners and feeding them salmon that panned out in the long run. Along with Seattle, other cities like Everett , Tacoma , Port Townsend , Bremerton , and Olympia , all in the Puget Sound region, became competitors for exchange, rather than mother lodes for extraction, of precious metals. The boom lasted into
11712-585: The modern day Juan de Fuca Strait and followed the Olympic–Wallowa Lineament (OWL) towards southern Idaho, paralleling the general trend of faulting in British Columbia and the North Cascades . About 50 million years ago the Siletzia terrane, being borne to the northeast by the subducting plate, refused to be subducted. It ran it into the edge of the continent and embayed the overlying crust, bending
11834-887: The more notable rivers are the Somass River in the Alberni Valley , the Nimpkish River in the North Island region, the Englishman River up island from Nanaimo near Parksville , and the Cowichan River whose basin forms the Cowichan Valley region in the South Island region. The climate of Vancouver Island is the mildest in Canada, with temperatures on the coast even in January being usually above 0 °C (32 °F). In summer,
11956-480: The naming of the city of Vancouver in 1885. By March 1843, James Douglas of the Hudson's Bay Company and a missionary had arrived and selected an area for settlement. Construction of the fort began in June of that year. This settlement was a fur trading post originally named Fort Albert (afterward Fort Victoria ). The fort was located at the Songhees settlement of Camosack (Camosun), 200 m (660 ft) northwest of
12078-431: The nearby Gulf Islands are the only parts of British Columbia or Western Canada to lie south of the 49th parallel . The southeast part of the island has one of the warmest climates in Canada, and since the mid-1990s has been mild enough in a few areas to grow Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons . The population of Vancouver Island was 864,864 as of 2021. Nearly half of that population (~400,000) live in
12200-581: The north , while a third group of transient orcas roam much farther and avoid the resident orcas. Residents are watched from a distance and are numbered, with many being named as well. Humpback whales and gray whales are often seen on their migration between Alaskan waters where they feed in the summer and southern waters such as around California and Mexico where they give birth in the winter. The island's rivers, lakes, and coastal regions are renowned for their fisheries of trout , salmon , and steelhead . After near-total extirpation by fur traders in
12322-784: The northernmost exposure of the Crescent Terrane (part of Siletzia ), where basalt of the Metchosin Igneous Complex (correlative with the Crescent Formation on the Olympic Peninsula ) is dragged under Vancouver Island by the subducting Juan de Fuca plate . About ten kilometres north the nearly parallel San Juan Fault marks the southern limit of rock of the Wrangellia terrane, which underlies most of Vancouver Island. Between these two northeast-dipping thrust faults are
12444-533: The now disappeared Kula oceanic plate . Around 55 million years ago during the Paleogene Period , a microplate of the Kula Plate subducted below the North American continental margin with great strain. A volcanic arc on the surface of the Kula Plate was thus accreted and fused onto the western edge of North America. These terranes were subjected to extreme warping from continued subduction of
12566-469: The original landing location, reestablished their old land claim and called it "New York", but renamed "New York Alki" in April 1853, from a Chinook word meaning, roughly, "by and by" or "someday". For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, but in time Alki was abandoned and its residents moved across the bay to join the rest of the settlers. David Swinson "Doc" Maynard , one of
12688-584: The period. But as Spanish interests in the region dwindled, so did the use of Bodega y Quadra's name. The Hudson's Bay Company played a major part in the transition; by 1824 'Vancouver's Island' had become the usual designation in its correspondence for the island. A quarter of a century later, Vancouver Island had become such a well-known geographical feature that the founding of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 gave this name full official status. Period references to "Vancouver" referred to Vancouver Island until
12810-411: The population, Spanish was spoken by 4.5% of the population, speakers of other Indo-European languages made up 3.9%, and speakers of other languages made up 2.5%. Seattle's foreign-born population grew 40% between the 1990 and 2000 censuses. The Chinese population in the Seattle area has origins in mainland China , Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan . The earliest Chinese-Americans that came in
12932-515: The present-day Empress Hotel on Victoria's Inner Harbour . In 1846, the Oregon Treaty , which ended the Oregon boundary dispute , was signed by the British and the United States to settle the question of the U.S. Oregon Country borders. The Treaty made the 49th parallel latitude north the official border between the two countries. In order to ensure that Britain retained all of Vancouver Island and
13054-567: The production of Boeing aircraft. The war dispersed the city's numerous Japanese-American businessmen due to the Japanese American internment . After the World War II, however, the local economy dipped. It rose again with Boeing's growing dominance in the commercial airliner market. Seattle celebrated its restored prosperity and made a bid for world recognition with the Century 21 Exposition ,
13176-484: The second Nootka Convention in 1793 and the third Convention in 1794. As per that final agreement, the Spanish dismantled their fort at Nootka and left the area, giving the British sovereignty over Vancouver Island and the adjoining islands (including the Gulf Islands ). For decades, Quadra's and Vancouver's Island was the most prominent name on maps of the coast, and appeared on most British, French and Spanish maps of
13298-594: The section of the Wrangellia—Pacific Rim contact now known as the San Juan fault to its current easterly orientation. This also initiated the oblique left-lateral Devils Mountain fault, including the section now known as the Leech River fault, and its right-lateral extension, the Darrington fault, that strikes southward from the town of Darrington to converge with the right-lateral strike-slip Straight Creek Fault at
13420-487: The southern Gulf Islands, however, it was agreed that the border would swing south around that area. In 1849, the Colony of Vancouver Island was established. The Colony was leased to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) for an annual fee of seven shillings; the company's responsibility in return was to increase the population by promoting colonization. The first independent settler arrived that year: Captain Walter Grant started
13542-547: The southernmost harbours frequented by American fur traders at 51 degrees north and 128 degrees west . He relates that since Captain Robert Gray of Tiverton, Rhode Island , had sailed the Columbia River in 1792, the trade of the northwest coast had been almost entirely in the hands of Boston merchants, so much so that the natives called all traders "Boston Men". A settlement was not successfully negotiated and ownership of
13664-465: The time the first European settlers arrived, the Duwamish people occupied at least 17 villages in the areas around Elliott Bay . The name for the modern city of Seattle in Lushootseed , dᶻidᶻəlal̓ič , meaning "little crossing-over place", comes from one of these villages, which was located at the present-day King Street Station . In May 1792, George Vancouver was the first European to visit
13786-502: The warmest days usually have a maximum of 28–33 °C (82–91 °F). The southeastern part of the island notably has a warm summer (Csb) Mediterranean climate with numerous vineyards . The rain shadow effect of the island's mountains, as well as the mountains of Washington's Olympic Peninsula , creates wide variation in precipitation. The west coast is considerably wetter than the east coast. Average annual precipitation ranges from 6,650 mm (262 in) at Hucuktlis Lake on
13908-531: The west coast (making it the wettest place in North America) to only 608 mm (23.9 in) at Victoria Gonzales, the driest recording station in the provincial capital of Victoria . Precipitation is heaviest in the autumn and winter. Snow is rare at low altitudes, but is common on the island's mountaintops in winter. Skiing is popular at Mount Washington in the mid-island, with an elevation of 1,588 m (5,210 ft). A notable feature of Vancouver Island
14030-549: Was Vancouver who made the suggestion of combining their names to designate some geographical feature. In 1792, the Spanish explorer Dionisio Alcalá Galiano and his crew were the first Europeans to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. On April 8, 1806, Captain John D'Wolf of Bristol, Rhode Island , sailed the Juno to Nahwitti (Newettee), a small inlet in the northwestern promontory of Vancouver's Island. The captain described Newettee as one of
14152-731: Was also changed by the construction of a seawall and the artificial Harbor Island (completed 1909) at the mouth of the city's industrial Duwamish Waterway , the terminus of the Green River . The highest point within city limits is at High Point in West Seattle, which is located near 35th Ave SW and SW Myrtle St. North of the city center, the Lake Washington Ship Canal connects Puget Sound to Lake Washington. It incorporates four natural bodies of water: Lake Union , Salmon Bay , Portage Bay , and Union Bay . Due to its location in
14274-457: Was crushed between Wrangellia and the North American continental plate , dismembered, and the pieces smeared along what was then the edge of the continent. Continued right-lateral transpression carried outlying portions of Wrangellia and likely some odd pieces of the Pacific Rim terrane northwest to Gulf of Alaska. Note that the ancient continental margin was not along the modern coast line (that runs due south from Vancouver Island), but turned in at
14396-634: Was established at Esquimalt in 1865 and eventually taken over by the Canadian military . Today, as CFB Esquimalt , it is the home port of the Maritime Forces Pacific and parts are designated as National Historic Sites of Canada . The economic situation of the colony declined following the Cariboo Gold Rush of 1861–1862, and pressure grew for amalgamation of the colony with the mainland colony of British Columbia (which had been established in 1858). The two colonies were merged in 1866 into
14518-474: Was founded in the immediate wake of the fire. The Panic of 1893 hit Seattle hard. The second and most dramatic boom resulted from the Klondike Gold Rush , which ended the depression that had begun with the Panic of 1893 . In a short time, Seattle became a major transportation center. On July 14, 1897, the S.S. Portland docked with its famed "ton of gold", and Seattle became the main transport and supply point for
14640-705: Was mildly prosperous in the 1920s but was particularly hard hit in the Great Depression, experiencing some of the country's harshest labor strife in that era. Violence during the Maritime Strike of 1934 cost Seattle much of its maritime traffic, which was rerouted to the Port of Los Angeles . The Great Depression in Seattle affected many minority groups, one being the Asian Pacific Americans; they were subject to racism, loss of property, and failed claims of unemployment due to citizenship status. Seattle
14762-485: Was one of the major cities that benefited from programs such as the Works Progress Administration , CCC , Public Works Administration , and others. The workers, mostly men, built roads, parks, dams, schools, railroads, bridges, docks, and even historical and archival record sites and buildings. Seattle faced significant unemployment, loss of lumber and construction industries as Los Angeles prevailed as
14884-448: Was one of the whitest big cities in the country, although its proportion of white residents has been gradually declining. In 1960, whites constituted 91.6% of the city's population, while in 2010 they constituted 69.5%. According to the 2006–2008 American Community Survey , approximately 78.9% of residents over the age of five spoke only English at home. Those who spoke Asian languages other than Indo-European languages made up 10.2% of
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