Chilliwack

Location

Chilliwack is located at the end of the upper Fraser Valley, 100 km (60 mi) east of Vancouver on the Trans-Canada Highway, Highway 1. The city is bounded on the north by the Fraser River, and on the south by the Canada-United States border. Huntingdon Border is the nearest crossing and is located at the end of Highway 11 between Abbotsford and Sumas, 3 km (2 mi) south of Highway 1.

A Step Back in Time

Between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago, the Sto:lo arrived in the area. At the time of their first contact with Europeans, it is estimated that there were as many as 40,000 people living within Sto:lo territory. The word Chilliwack is the name of a local Indian tribe as well as a geographic description of the area. Originally spelled Chilliwhack, this “Halkomelem” word means “quieter water at the head” or travel by way of a backwater.

In 1857, gold was discovered in the Fraser Canyon and by 1859, over 40,000 gold miners had trekked to the goldfields, most travelling through the Chilliwack area. The main mode of travel was by steamboat from New Westminster to this area and by the mid 1860s several farms had grown up around the steamboat landings on the Fraser.

The Township of Chilliwack was founded in 1873, and the commercial area of the town moved south from the river to the junction of the New Westminster-Yale Wagon Road, Wellington Avenue, and Young Road, called “Five Corners.” A large subdivision called Centreville was built in 1881 which was replaced in 1887 by the more popular “Chilliwhack.” The area was incorporated in 1908 as the City of Chilliwack. The City and the Township co-existed for 72 years until 1980 when they merged to form the District of Chilliwack. It became the City of Chilliwack in the early 1990s. Today, some 80,000 people live in the area.

Lexw Qwò:m Park, Halq’emeylem for "always lots of moss" and pronounced luhw KWOM, is a smaller park with several trails, including the Thaletel (THA la tell) trail which climbs approximately 300 metres over three kilometres and ends at the main Community Forest parking lot. The trail is truly lovely, running along a ridge above Dunville Creek for some distance before cutting off into the forest. Thaletel is Halq’emeylem for “wild ginger” and in the spring these plants can be seen along the trail.