The earliest inhabitants of the North Shore were from the Squamish Nation, a group within the larger family of communities known as the Coast Salish First Nations. They had settled in villages along the coast and Lower Mainland of British Columbia. The earliest known Squamish settlements in the West Vancouver area were villages called Homulchesum at the mouth of the Capilano River and Stuckale near Cypress Creek. They resided in this area since an estimated 1200 B.C., oblivious to white people until the onset of European exploration in the 19th century.In A year later, in June, 1792, a British navigator, whose impact to the region was far greater than Narvaez's, arrived in Burrard Inlet. His name was Captain George Vancouver. In command of his ship, the H.M.S. Discovery, Vancouver did an extensive survey of the coast from Washington to Alaska over a period of 2 years. He recorded his observations in a journal, commenting on the geography of the region and the names he bestowed on them. Following these encounters with the two European explorers in the 1790s, the First Nations people of the Lower Mainland were left undisturbed for another 60 years. However, George Vancouver's mappings and commentaries of the area did not go unnoticed by British colonial authorities. The region's economic potential was keenly observed and the lure of the New World, with its promise of gold, timber and furs, attracted Europeans into southwest British Columbia to change it forever. From its earliest colonized beginnings, as recent as the 1880's, the landscape of West Vancouver was altered from its natural state of wilderness into the present-day, bustling, residential community. It was through the efforts of pioneers such as John Lawson, Francis Caulfeild and the Guinness Family that this landscape was transformed from impenetrable forests and swamps into the distinct communities we know today. West Vancouver has seen two distinct periods of growth, both related to the development of transportation to the surrounding areas. In the early 20th century, the era of ferry transportation brought development to the shoreline communities. The second period, in the late 1930s, saw of the North Shore connected to Vancouver by a bridge, thus beginning an age of continuous development for West Vancouver.
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1791, a small Spanish expedition led by José Maria
Narvaez sailed into Burrard Inlet. He explored the Inlet and Indian Arm and made
some quick charts of the area. As a result, many of the original names of the area
were in Spanish: one of Howe Sound's major landmarks, Bowen Island, was first named Isla
de Apodaca ("the isles of Apodaca"), after Sebastian Ruiz de Apodaca, a
Spanish navel officer. Despite his being the first European explorer to navigate
the area, Narvaez's charting was brief and unfinished. 