Georgia Street 1886

Logging, literally and metaphorically, built Vancouver. The first settlers here started a mill. Gastown, the first settlement in what would become Vancouver, was built around Hastings Sawmill. That meant plenty of quality lumber to build new structures and jobs. While there isn’t really any old-growth forest left in the city now, it once had a fairly dense forest with truly massive trees. Nowadays most of B.C.’s lumber industry operates in more remote locations around the province, but in the 1860s, 70s, 80s and 90s, there were still large trees around Vancouver, so lumberjacks didn’t have to go far to find what they were looking for, especially with how difficult it was to move trees.