Vancouver, one of Canada's youngest major cities, has a rich and complex history that dates back 8,000 to 10,000 years, long before European settlers arrived. The Indigenous peoples of the Coast Salish group—including the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh (Burrard) Nations—established thriving villages throughout the region. Areas such as Stanley Park, False Creek, Kitsilano, Point Grey, and the Fraser River delta were home to communities with deep cultural and environmental ties to the land.

European awareness of the area began in 1791, when Spanish explorer José María Narváez navigated around Point Grey and Burrard Inlet. Some historical speculation suggests Francis Drake may have arrived even earlier in 1579, although this remains debated. In 1808, explorer and fur trader Simon Fraser and his crew became the first recorded Europeans to reach the area by land, descending the Fraser River, possibly as far as Point Grey.

The Fraser Gold Rush of 1858 brought a surge of over 25,000 fortune-seekers, mainly from California, to British Columbia. Though many passed through New Westminster, they largely bypassed what would become Vancouver. European settlement in the area began in earnest in 1862 with McCleery’s Farm, located east of the Musqueam village in present-day Marpole.

Vancouver’s industrial foundations were laid with the establishment of sawmills, beginning with Moodyville in 1863 and followed by Captain Edward Stamp's operations on the south shore of Burrard Inlet. His first mill attempt at Brockton Point failed due to navigational hazards, leading him to relocate to a site near today’s Dunlevy Street. This became Hastings Mill, the economic heart of early Vancouver. Around it, the town of Gastown rapidly developed, named after “Gassy Jack” Deighton, who opened a tavern on the mill’s edge in 1867.