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The City of Chilliwack is a community of 64,000 people and is growing rapidly. It is located 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Vancouver, marking the start of the Fraser lowland. In its pioneering days the community served as a gateway as well as a hinterland to the fur trade and gold mines at Yale and Hope. |
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 Sometime
between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago the Sto:lo first arrived in the
Chilliwack area. At the time of first contact it is estimated that
there may have been as many as 30,000 people living within Sto:lo
territory.
In 1857, word spread that gold had been found in the
Fraser River canyon area and by 1858 over 30,000 gold miners found
their way to the goldfields. Almost all of the miners travelled through
the Chilliwack area.
By the mid 1860's a handful of farms were established around the Fraser
River steamboat landings called Miller's Landing, Sumas Landing and
Chilliwack Landing. The Township of Chilliwack was incorporated in
1873, the third oldest municipality in British Columbia. Initially
the settlement was concentrated along the Fraser River at Chilliwack
Landing. Here the steamboats (the main mode of transportation between
Chilliwack and New Westminster), arrived and departed goods and passengers.
Since the small community had little room for expansion along the
river, the main commercial area of the town moved up the road to the
junction of the New Westminster-Yale Wagon Road, Wellington Avenue
and Young Road. The centre came to be called Five Corners.
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In
1881 a large subdivision called Centreville was developed. In 1887
the name Centreville was replaced by a more popular name, Chilliwack,
and the area was incorporated in 1908 as a separate municipality,
the City of Chilliwack. The City and the Township co-existed for 72
years, and finally in 1980 they merged to form the City of Chilliwack.