Many of the early settlers of West Vancouver were tied to the growth of industry in the region.  As early as 1869, the timber of West Vancouver began to be logged alongside the growth of the lumber mills in Moodyville (now North Vancouver).  A number of logging operations had sprung up in the forests of West Vancouver,  the largest enterprise being McNair Fraser Lumber Co. in the Hollyburn area which remained in operation until 1917.  Later, there were a number of smaller logging companies operating between Horseshoe Bay and the Capilano River such as King & Allen Co., Vedder River Shingle Co., Cypress Lumber Co., Capilano Timber Co., McRae & Co., Gillespie Hart & Co., and Nasmyth Lumber Co.

The only other significant growth industry in early West Vancouver was fish canning.   The largest  was the Great Northern Cannery built in 1891, owned and operated by members of the Millerd family from 1922 until 1967.  The site of this cannery is now Environment Canada's Pacific Research Laboratories. The other canning plant was the Eagle Harbour Cannery, built in 1897.

Under the Land Proclamation passed by Governor Douglas in 1869, settlers were allowed to pre-empt as much as 150-acre blocks of land, later increasied to 160 acres.  In 1872, James Blake became West Vancouver's first land owner with the acquisition of a plot of land that cut across Hollyburn Creek.  Blake did not hold onto the property for long, and he gave it up a year later to the first European settler, John Thomas, who also went by the nickname Navvy Jack.  Thomas, a Welsh deserter from the Royal Navy, promptly settled on the land, constructing a house for himself in 1873 which holds the title of being the oldest continuously inhabited residence in the Lower Mainland and still stands to this day at 1768 Argyle Avenue.  He married Row-i-a, a granddaughter of Chief Ki-ep-i-lan-o, after whom the Capilano River was named.  Besides being a settler, Thomas was also an entrepreneur who owned a gravel pit operation that was located at the mouth of the Capilano River.   Another venture Thomas initiated was West Vancouver’s first, by-request ferry service.  This service began in 1866 and was a mere rowboat and lasted only a year, but it addressed one of the major development needs of West Vancouver that the entrepreneurial Navvy Jack recognized: transportation.

Still, unabated by the hardships associated with early settlement life, the pioneers of West Vancouver carried on.  Pre-empting privileges were suspended between 1882 and 1886, in order to decide on the layout of the final route of the Canadian Pacific Railway.  Within 35 days following the 1886 restoration of pre-emption rights, the most valuable land between the Capilano River and Horseshoe Bay had been snatched up by a total of only 16 people.  While land ownership changed hands many times in following years, the basis of one person owning a large plot of land was the model for the development of the area..

For a time, the industrial economy was able to operate with relative success in West Vancouver, but because of its terrain, this municipality was not conducive to industrial or agricultural expansion.  This geographical fact and the post-World-War-I influx of residents prompted the Municipal Council to pass the Town Planning Act of 1926.  The outcome of this legislation effectively sealed the coffin on any further expansion of an industrial sector and ensured a predominantly residential composition of the municipality. The burden of development in West Vancouver was, therefore, left primarily to a residential and small business tax base.