Chilliwack is a agricultural Canadian city in the Province of British Columbia, located east of the city of Vancouver. It has a estimated population of 70,000 people. Chilliwack is located in the lower Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver, on the Fraser River. surrounded by mountains and has many parks close by such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake. There is many activities to do such as hiking, biking, camping, fishing, and golfing. The current mayor of Chilliwack is Clint Hames . It is the seat of the Fraser Valley Regional District.

There is also a musical group called Chilliwack which was popular in the 1980s.

Location

Chilliwack is located in British Columbia, Canada, 92 kilometers east of Vancouver in the Pacific Standard Time (PST) (GMT -8) time zone.

Surrounding Municipalities

Abbotsford, British Columbia

Demographics

(according to Statistics Canada 2001 census)
Population: 62,927
Growth Rate (1996-2001): 4.6%
Total Private Dwellings: 25,119
Area: 257.96 sq. km.
Density: 243.9 people per sq. km.

Industry

Primary Industries are Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Tourism. Chilliwack is particularly famous for fishing, golf, hiking and year round whitewater rafting.

History

Sometime between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago the Sto:lo first arrived in the Chilliwack area. At the time of first contact it is estimated that there may have been as many as 30,000 people living within Sto:lo territory.

In 1857, word spread that gold had been found in the Fraser River canyon area and by 1858 over 30,000 gold miners found their way to the goldfields. Almost all of the miners travelled through the Chilliwack area. By the mid 1860's a handful of farms were established around the Fraser River steamboat landings called Miller's Landing, Sumas Landing and Chilliwack Landing.

The Township of Chilliwhack was incorporated in 1873, the third oldest municipality in British Columbia. Initially the settlement was concentrated along the Fraser River at Chilliwack Landing. Here the steamboats (the main mode of transportation between Chilliwack and New Westminster), arrived and departed goods and passengers.

Since the small community had little room for expansion along the river, the main commercial area of the town moved up the road to the junction of the New Westminster-Yale Wagon Road, Wellington Avenue and Young Road. The centre came to be called Five Corners.

In 1881 a large subdivision called Centreville was developed. In 1887 the name Centreville was replaced by a more popular name, Chilliwhack, and the area was incorporated in 1908 as a separate municipality, the City of Chilliwack. The City and the Township co-existed for 72 years, and finally in 1980 they merged to form the City of Chilliwack.

You may have noticed the slight variation in spelling of Chilliwack. It used to be spelled Chilliwhack and then was changed to Chilliwack.

(Source: http://www.gov.chilliwack.bc.ca/main/page.cfm?id=167)

Scenery

Chilliwack is surrounded by beauty such as the mountains that surround the city, the beautiful lakes such as Cultus and the awesome parks. Flowers are all around.

Climate

Chilliwack's mild climate with limited extremes provides excellent growing conditions for a wide variety of crops and agricultural products. The average temperature is 1.6 degrees Celsius in January and 18 degrees Celsius in July. Precipitation is limited to rainfall with barely any snowfall - except on the ski-hills.