When Forests Built a City: Vancouver’s Early Logging Days, Hastings Mill and the Great Fire of 1886
Before Vancouver – A Landscape of Giant Trees
Imagine standing in downtown Vancouver 160 years ago.
Instead of glass towers, busy streets and waterfront promenades, you would have encountered an extraordinary coastal temperate rainforest. Enormous Douglas-firs, western redcedars and western hemlocks dominated the landscape, some reaching heights of more than 60 metres.
These forests were not untouched wilderness. For thousands of years, the lands surrounding Burrard Inlet had been home to Indigenous peoples, including the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.
Long before European industrial logging, Indigenous communities had developed sophisticated relationships with the forests, using western redcedar for canoes, houses, tools, clothing and ceremonial objects.
The arrival of industrial sawmills during the 1860s would dramatically change this landscape.
1863–1865: Two Sawmills That Changed Burrard Inlet:
Vancouver’s transformation began not with skyscrapers or railways, but with timber.
In 1863, a sawmill was established on the north shore of Burrard Inlet. It later came under the ownership of American entrepreneur Sewell Prescott Moody, whose name became associated with the growing settlement of Moodyville.
Across the water, Captain Edward Stamp established his lumber enterprise in 1865 on the south shore, near today’s Gastown. Its operation became known as Hastings Mill.
These two industrial centres took advantage of three extraordinary natural resources: enormous forests, a sheltered deep-water harbour and access to international shipping routes.
The trees growing around Burrard Inlet were especially valuable. Their great height, straight trunks and exceptional timber quality made them suitable for ship masts, structural beams and construction lumber.
Before Vancouver became a major Canadian port, ships were already carrying its timber to markets around the Pacific and beyond.
Moodyville – The Forgotten Lumber Town:
Today, North Vancouver is known for its waterfront neighbourhoods, mountain views and outdoor recreation.
But in the 1860s and 1870s, Moodyville was one of the most important industrial communities on Burrard Inlet.
A company town developed around the sawmill, with workers’ homes, shops and community facilities.
Its workforce reflected the diversity of the Pacific Coast. Indigenous workers and immigrants from Europe, China, the Americas and the Pacific participated in the expanding lumber economy.
Logging camps spread into the surrounding forests, where enormous trees were felled, cut into manageable sections and transported toward the water.
The work was physically demanding and extremely dangerous.
Before modern chainsaws and heavy machinery, loggers relied on axes, long crosscut saws, wedges, cables, horses and steam-powered equipment.
The timber industry was rapidly changing both the economy and the natural environment.
Hastings Mill – Where the Future City Took Shape
On the southern shore, Hastings Mill became another centre of activity.
The sawmill attracted workers, merchants, sailors and entrepreneurs. Nearby, a rough settlement of wooden buildings, boarding houses and saloons gradually emerged.
In 1867, John “Gassy Jack” Deighton openedj a saloon serving the area’s workers and visitors. The surrounding settlement became popularly known as Gastown, although its official name was Granville.
The famous neighbourhood that visitors explore today grew from this early industrial and commercial community.
The mill’s general store became much more than a place to purchase supplies. It served as a gathering place, postal centre and important link between isolated logging camps and the outside world.
Hastings Mill also helped establish an early library and school.
For decades, the timber industry remained one of Vancouver’s principal sources of employment and economic development.
A Forester’s Perspective – Understanding the Giant Trees
As a Vancouver tour guide with a background in forestry, plants and nature interpretation, I find the city’s early logging history particularly fascinating.
When I look at historical photographs showing enormous tree trunks, workers standing beside giant logs or forests cleared by hand, I see more than the beginnings of an industry.
I see the story of an extraordinary forest ecosystem.
Douglas-fir was particularly valuable for its strength, straight grain and structural properties.
Western redcedar, naturally resistant to decay, was prized for its durability and versatility.
Western hemlock, another dominant species of the coastal rainforest, also became an important commercial timber.
The extraordinary size of these trees reflected centuries of growth under the mild, wet conditions of the Pacific Northwest.
Some trees harvested during the nineteenth century had begun growing long before Europeans arrived on the Pacific Coast.
During my tours, I enjoy helping visitors understand the difference between these species, how forests develop over centuries and why British Columbia’s timber attracted international attention.
The photographs of early logging camps also provide an opportunity to discuss forestry practices, technological change and the long-term ecological consequences of industrial harvesting.
It is a history of remarkable human effort, economic opportunity and significant environmental transformation.
1886 – Vancouver Becomes a City:
By the early 1880s, the small lumber settlement was preparing for another major transformation.
The Canadian Pacific Railway had selected Vancouver as its Pacific terminus, promising to connect the region with the rest of Canada.
Land speculation accelerated, construction expanded and the former logging settlement began developing into a rapidly growing commercial centre.
On April 6, 1886, the City of Vancouver was officially incorporated.
Wooden buildings appeared along hastily cleared streets, and the town seemed destined for extraordinary growth.
But just over two months later, disaster struck.
June 13, 1886 – The Great Vancouver Fire
On Sunday, June 13, 1886, fires associated with land-clearing operations spread out of control.
Strong winds drove flames through dry logging debris, brush and remaining trees before the fire swept into the newly established city.
Vancouver’s wooden buildings, closely packed together and surrounded by combustible material, offered little resistance.
Within less than an hour, much of the young city had been reduced to ashes.
Residents fled toward the waterfront and False Creek, desperately seeking safety.
At least a dozen people lost their lives, and many more were left homeless.
Remarkably, Hastings Mill and its historic general store survived.
The mill community helped provide shelter and assistance to survivors, while people from Moodyville and neighbouring communities also contributed to relief efforts.
The disaster revealed the dangers of rapid urban expansion into a heavily forested landscape, particularly when land clearing relied on open burning and effective firefighting services were still lacking.
From Ashes to a New Boomtown – 1887 and Beyond
The Great Fire might have ended the ambitions of the young city.
Instead, Vancouver rebuilt with remarkable speed.
Within days, construction was underway. New businesses opened, streets were improved and the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1887 accelerated immigration, trade and investment.
The same forests that had helped create the settlement supplied much of the timber needed for its reconstruction.
Hastings Mill continued operating into the twentieth century, while Moodyville’s sawmill closed in 1901.
Vancouver gradually evolved from a lumber settlement into a major Pacific port, transportation centre and international city.
Yet the influence of the timber industry remained visible in its economy, architecture, waterfront and neighbourhoods.
What Remains of Vancouver’s Logging Past?
Today, visitors walking through Gastown can still discover traces of the city’s early development.
The famous Gastown Steam Clock, installed in 1977, is a modern landmark rather than a relic of the nineteenth-century logging era. Nevertheless, it stands in a neighbourhood whose streets tell the story of Vancouver’s transformation from a mill settlement into a bustling city.
One of the most remarkable surviving historical buildings is the Old Hastings Mill Store.
Saved from demolition and relocated to its present site near Jericho Beach in 1930, it now operates as a museum preserving the memory of Vancouver’s early years.
Across Burrard Inlet, Moodyville Park and its historical interpretation recall the industrial community that once occupied the North Vancouver waterfront.
And in Stanley Park, magnificent surviving forest stands remind us of the coastal rainforest that once covered much of the region.
Discovering Vancouver Through Its Forests
For me, Vancouver’s history is inseparable from its natural environment.
As a guide with a background in forestry, nature interpretation and photography, I enjoy connecting the city’s architectural and industrial heritage with the forests, mountains and waterways that made its development possible.
During my walking tours, I invite visitors to imagine the transformation of the landscape: from Indigenous territories and ancient coastal forests to logging camps, sawmills, wooden settlements and, eventually, the modern city.
The historical photographs of giant trees and early logging operations help bring these stories to life.
They remind us that Vancouver’s prosperity was built partly upon an extraordinary natural resource, but also that this development came with profound environmental and social consequences.
The next time you walk through Gastown or admire Vancouver’s skyline, imagine the enormous trees that once stood there. The story of Vancouver begins not with its skyscrapers, but with its forests.
Ati Gereb
Tour Guide | Forestry & Nature Interpretation | Photographer
East WOWs West Travel Adventures
Vancouver, British Columbia