Chilliwack

In Halq'eméylem, the language of the Stó:lō communities around Chilliwack and Sardis, Tcil'Qe'uk means "valley of many streams".[6] It also lends its name to the Chilliwack River, and group of aboriginal people, the Ts'elxweyeqw.[7] The spelling of Chilliwack is sometimes a matter of confusion. Prior to the amalgamation of the City of Chilliwack and the Municipality of Chilliwhack, there were two different spellings. When amalgamated, the current spelling of the city was adopted.[8] Anglicized spellings include "Chilliwhyeuk" and other versions closer to the original Halq'eméylem.

Yale Road Chilliwack c. 1908 at the present-day site of City Hall museum

The archeological record shows evidence of Stó:lō people in the Fraser Valley, or S'ólh Téméxw, 10,000 years ago. Permanent structures in the Chilliwack area date from around 5,000 years ago.[9] It is estimated that at the time of the first contact with Europeans, there were as many as 40,000 people living within Stó:lō territory.

By 1859, over 40,000 gold miners had trekked to the goldfields, most travelling through the Chilliwack area. By the mid-1860s, several farms had grown up around the steamboat landings on the Fraser River called Miller's Landing, Minto Landing, Sumas Landing and Chilliwack Landing.

The Township of Chilliwack was incorporated in 1873, the third municipality in British Columbia. The initial settlement was along the Fraser River at Chilliwack Landing. Steamboats were the main mode of transportation, carrying goods and passengers between Chilliwack and New Westminster. After the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, many residents began to cross the Fraser River at Minto Landing to catch the train at Harrison Mills.

With little room for expansion along the river, the commercial area of the town moved south 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. The name "Centreville" was replaced In 1887 by the more popular "Chilliwack." The area was incorporated in 1908 as a separate municipality, the City of Chilliwack. The city and the township co-existed for 72 years. In 1980, they merged to form the District of Chilliwack. The District of Chilliwack became the City of Chilliwack in early 1999.[10] Chilliwack has the highest number of Rainbow Crosswalks in BC. Although it's against the City Council's decision to not include more.

Vedder River Campground near Cultus Lake, located just south of Chilliwack

Vedder River

Chilliwack is located in the Upper Fraser Valley, 100 kilometres (60 mi) east of Vancouver on the Trans-Canada Highway. The city is bounded on the north by the Fraser River, and on the south by the Canada-United States border.

Chilliwack is surrounded by tall mountain peaks, such as Mount Cheam and Slesse Mountain, and large rivers (the Fraser and Vedder).

The Chilliwack Batholith forms much of the North Cascades in southwestern British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. state of Washington. The geological structure is primarily named after the City of Chilliwack, where it is the most notable geological feature.

The Chilliwack Batholith is part of the Pemberton Volcanic Belt and is the largest mass of exposed intrusive rock in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. The age of the Chilliwack batholith ranges from 26 to 29 million years old.

In 2013, Maclean's reported that, with an average annual temperature of 10.5 °C, Chilliwack is the warmest city in Canada.[11]

Bridal Veil Falls near the Village of Popkum

The city is made up of several amalgamated villages and communities. The urban core follows a north–south axis bisected by the Trans-Canada Highway. The city is bounded in the north by the Fraser River, in the east by the Eastern Hillsides, in the south by the Canada–US border, and in the west by the Vedder Canal. With 939 farms on approximately 17,322 hectares (42,800 acres) of dedicated farmland, farming is essential to the city's identity.[12]

Front view of the newly constructed City of Chilliwack City Hall in 1912. The building later became the Chilliwack Museum and Historical Society.

Chilliwack is known for its locally-grown corn. From June until September the farmers take advantage of the sunny weather and produce up to two crops of corn for both human consumption as well as for cattle feed.

The Book Man used bookstore is the second-largest in the Province of British Columbia.

Piper James C. Richardson was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the Battle of the Somme

Former lieutenant-governor, Steven Point, hails from Chilliwack

Academics

• Rita Steblin, Ph.D., musicologist in Vancouver and Vienna, Austria
• Homer Thompson, Ph.D., classical archaeologist and excavator of the Ancient Agora of Athens
• Wayne Smith, M.Econ, Chief Statistician of Canada
• Allan Brooks DSO, Ornithologist and distinguished wildlife artist
• Charlotte Froese Fischer, Ph.D., mathematician and computer scientist

Activists

• Betty Fox, cancer research activist, mother of Terry Fox.[18]
• Tony Clarke, activist, who graduated from Chilliwack Senior Secondary.

Arts and entertainment

• Patrick Gallagher, actor from Glee, True Blood and Night At The Museum. Graduated from Chilliwack Senior Secondary.
• Tasha Tilberg, Covergirl model. Born in Chilliwack on July 23, 1979. Appeared on the covers of magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire.
• Jim Vallance, OC, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger and producer
• Bernie Herms, Grammy Award-winning artist[19]
• Bria Skonberg, jazz musician, Juno Award winner for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year in 2017

Athletes

• Dave Archibald, a former professional hockey player with the Minnesota North Stars and Ottawa Senators.
• Rick Klassen, former professional football player with the BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders.
• Amber Allen, a former professional soccer player with the Vancouver Whitecaps.
• Jordyn Huitema, a soccer player for Paris Saint-Germain.

Canadian Military

• Piper James C. Richardson †, recipient of the Victoria Cross

Journalists

• Jack McGaw, journalist and radio operator.
• Diana Swain, television journalist. Graduated from Chilliwack High School in 1983.

Justices

• William H. Davies QC, Supreme Court Justice and Chair of the Davies Commission Inquiry

Politicians

• Barry Penner QC, former Attorney General
• Chuck Strahl, former member of Parliament and cabinet minister
• Dorothy Kostrzewa, first Chinese-Canadian woman elected to political office in Canada
• Steven Point, OBC, first aboriginal Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.

Writers

• Allan Fotheringham, columnist. Worked for The Chilliwack Progress as a student.
• W.P. Kinsella, OC OBC, author of Shoeless Joe, lived in Chilliwack.[20]
• Gayle Friesen, novelist

Others

Blake Goward -student

• Prest Family - One of the pioneer Chilliwack families
• Keith Hunter Jesperson, serial killer who committed crimes in Canada and the U.S

The British Columbia Hockey League's Chilliwack Chiefs, play at the Chilliwack Coliseum. The team used to be the Quesnel Millionaires. The franchise was purchased and moved to Chilliwack by the Chiefs Development group. They started in the BCHL's Interior Conference for the 2011/2012 BCHL Season. While the original Junior "A" team, the Chilliwack Chiefs, plays in Langley, British Columbia, as the Langley Rivermen (the Chiefs Development Group sold their interest in the Langley Chiefs but retained the 'Chiefs' name and history). The Western Hockey League's Chilliwack Bruins used to play at the Prospera Centre. The expansion franchise began to play in 2006 and ended when the team was sold at the end of the 2011 season. It became the Victoria Royals WHL hockey team in 2011.

Community sports include hockey, lacrosse, softball, soccer, football, baseball, field hockey and swimming. The Canadian Junior Football League's Chilliwack Huskers play at Exhibition Stadium.

Chilliwack Turbo Fastball club won the 1997 Canadian Jr. Men's National Championships. In 2013 the team was an inaugural induction into the Chilliwack Sports Hall of Fame.

Chilliwack's minor baseball Cougars were the 2003 Midget AAA Provincial champions as well as the 2006 Western Canadian tier 2 champions.

Chilliwack Cougars College Prep Baseball Team won the Provincial Championship in 2016,2017 and 2019. Most recent title against the Ridge Meadows Royals

Chilliwack hosted the 2007-2008 Synchronized Skating Canadian Championships at the Prospera Centre.

Chilliwack Minor Hockey Association was organized in 1958 with the opening of the Chilliwack Coliseum.

The climate is typical oceanic (Köppen: Cfb) but with some influence of the land mass being some distance from the sea, similar to Orléans, France (although the former has a precipitation more than twice as long and with a tendency towards the Mediterranean pattern).[22][23][24] Chilliwack's mild climate with limited extremes provides excellent growing conditions for a wide variety of crops and agricultural products. In fact, when averaged from 1981 to 2010, Chilliwack had one of the warmest mean temperatures for any city in Canada.[25] The highest temperature recorded in Chilliwack was 39.4 °C (102.9 °F) on Aug 10, 1898.[26] The lowest recorded temperature was −26.7 °C (−16.1 °F) on Jan 31, 1929.[27] Precipitation falls mostly as rain, with snow limited to the surrounding mountains, except for two or three weeks per year generally in December or January. In 2013, Maclean's wrongly reported that with an average annual temperature of 10.5 °C, Chilliwack is the warmest city in Canada.[11] The actual warmest city in Canada is Victoria, with an average annual temperature of 11.2 °C (52.2 °F).[28] In Chilliwack, snow is most likely to fall from Oct 31 to April 1. Chilliwack enjoys some of the warmest average high temperatures in Canada, with 15.5 °C (59.9 °F) being the yearly average high.

Chilliwack receives nearly the same number of days of precipitation (184.6 days at greater than 0.2 mm) as comparable local communities nearer Vancouver such as Maple Ridge (185.8 days) and the City of Mission (186.0 days) (Environment Canada Statistics). Summers in Chilliwack are usually sunny and warm, with long days (light out until well after 10 pm in June with dusk that lasts for hours) and with occasional stretches of heat where temperatures rise above 30 °C (86 °F).

Due to its location at the eastern end of the Fraser Valley, there has been some debate about preserving Chilliwack's air quality. However, the 2011 World Health Organization's study of air quality shows that Chilliwack enjoys air quality among the best in the world. For PM₁₀ (10 µm) size particulates, Canada averaged third best in the world (along with Australia) at an average of 13 micrograms per cubic metre. The City of Chilliwack and the Greater Vancouver Regional District were tied at a low 8.0 MPCM. For smaller particulate of 2.5 µm size (PM_2.5), "the City of Chilliwack averaged 4.9 micrograms per cubic metre. Vancouver also had 4.9, Calgary had 5.6, Winnipeg had 5.6, Toronto had 7.9, Montreal had 11.2 and Sarnia had 12.7."

(according to Statistics Canada 2016 census)

• Population: 83,788
• Growth Rate (2011–2016): 7.5%
• Total Private Dwellings: 34,038
• Area: 261.65 km².
• Density: 320.2 people per km².

Chilliwack is part of the Lower Mainland-Southwest economic region. Chilliwack's service and retail sectors account for approximately 50% of GDP. Other growing industries include manufacturing accounting for 13%, construction at 8% and agriculture and forestry at 5% of Chilliwack's GDP.[31]

• Chilliwack City Council
• Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon
• Chilliwack-Hope
• Neighbourhoods in Chilliwack
• Chilliwack (band)

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Chilliwack.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chilliwack, British Columbia.

• Official website