1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vancouver (Washington)

VANCOUVER, a city and the county-seat of Clarke county, Washington, U.S.A., on the Columbia river about 100 m. from its mouth, about 5 m. E. of its confluence with the Willamette, and 8 m. N. of Portland, Oregon. Pop. (1890) 3545; (1900) 3126 (547 foreign-born); (1910) 9300. It is served by the Northern Pacino, the Great Northern, the Oregon & Washington, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle railways, and by steamship lines, being accessible to sea-going vessels; a ferry connects with the Portland Electric railway. The city is the seat of St James College (Roman Catholic; 1856) and of the state school for defective youth (1886). Vancouver Barracks, east of the city, is an important U.S. military post (established in 1849) and the headquarters of the Military Department of the Columbia (including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, except the part in Yellowstone Park, and Alaska); the military reservation includes some 640 acres. The post commands an excellent view of the Columbia, and of the mountain peaks, Mt Hood, Three Sisters, Jefferson and St Helens. The city has a public library and a public park, and there is a U.S. Land Office here. Vancouver lies in a region of extensive forests and of fruit growing and farming lands; among its manufactures are lumber products, barrels, condensed milk, flour, beer and canned fruit. It was a post of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1828–1846, and was protected by a large stockade, to which settlers fled for protection when attacked by the Indians. It was made the county-seat in 1854, was incorporated as a village in 1858 and was chartered as a city in 1889.