The Vancouver Island section of the TransCanada Highway terminates at Nanaimo (population 85,000; the island's second largest town) where ferries leave Departure Bay on the 67 km / 42 mi crossing to Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver). Nanaimo evolved from a Hudson's Bay Company settlement called Colville Town, which owed its existence to the alertness of
Company agents who saw the potential in the coal deposits they were shown by local Indians. The first settlers, mainly English and Scottish miners, arrived in 1851 and for the next 75 years coal dominated Nanaimo's economy. Demand fell sharply after the Second World War however and in 1953 production ceased at the town's last remaining mine. Today Nanaimo makes its living from the timber and fishing industries, from its harbor, and to an ever increasing extent from tourism. The offshore islands in the Strait of Georgia, and the surrounding mountains and lakes, all offer good opportunities for recreation. Indisputably the highpoint of Nanaimo's year is the "Great International Bathtub Race" in mid-July. Nothing daunted the participants in this now classic event set out to cross the 55 km (34 mi.) Georgia Strait to Vancouver in a flotilla of variously modified, outboard-engine bathtubs.
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