Museums
Antiques in a window (David Gluns photo)
The new-look Nanaimo Museum captures the city's history with archival images, colorful memorabilia and state-of-the-art displays.
Revitalized and relocated, the museum moved downtown in the summer of 2008 to a $7.4 million ground-floor quadrant of the newly minted Vancouver Island Conference Centre. It's easy to find on Commercial Street at Museum Way.
Nanaimo Museum and History
Spend an hour at the Nanaimo Museum and learn much about this watery, resource-rich part of the world – First Nations, Victorian-era, 20th century and contemporary accounts included. Displays are dedicated to the Snunéymuxw, the region's original inhabitants, as well as the arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1852 and the subsequent development of the coal, marine and lumber industries. One interesting factoid: Nanaimo was once known as Herring Town because it exported a million pounds of fish to Asia annually prior to the industry's collapse in the 1940s.
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A regular turnover of visiting exhibits shares space with the Sports Hall of Fame, a vintage motorized bathtub from the city's famed bathtub race, and a gallery of Nanaimo's best-known citizens – among them First Nation's chief Che-wich-i-kan (named Coal Tyee for his part in telling Europeans about coal in the area), World War I fighter pilot Raymond Collishaw, 1930s-era cult leader Brother XII, and bestselling jazz musician Diana Krall.
The Bastion
Each summer, museum staff are on hand for tours of the Bastion, the 1853 Hudson's Bay Company fortress on nearby Front Street. The simple wooden structure, North America's last free-standing, original HBC Bastion, stands on the top shelf of a multi-tiered set of walkways leading down to the harbour. The Bastion's cannon is fired daily at noon beginning in mid-May.
History on the Hoof
Interpretative plaques and signs are commonplace in downtown Nanaimo, so feel free to stop, read and learn while wandering the streets. One highlight: "The Ships that Built Nanaimo" display near the Pacifica high-rise on the waterfront promenade.
Morden Mine
Morden Colliery Historic Provincial Park, just south of Nanaimo off the Trans Canada Highway in Cedar, is home to some the last remnants of the island's coal-mining heritage. Learn more via interpretive signs in the parking lot off Morden Road.
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100 Museum Way
Nanaimo, British Columbia
V9R 5J8
Websitehttp://www.nanaimomuseum.ca
Toll-free
Phone250-753-1821
Discover our fascinating history & modern day contributions to Canada's West Coast in our 1,486 sq m (16,000 sq ft) museum located in the Vancouver Island Conference Centre. Stroll through time in our main gallery to get a sense of what life was like for Nanaimo's earliest settlers & hear stories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. Feel what it was like below the surface in our new replica Coal Mine exhibit. The museum also manages the Bastion, an original Hudson's Bay Company outpost built in 1853. Don't miss the cannon firing at noon daily in the summer.
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