Tofino

About the Area

With a year-round population of approximately 1,403 (2000 census figures pending) that swells, according to RCMP figures to 22,000 people on some days during the summer months of July and August, Tofino comprises a mere 11.05 square miles of land on what is called the Esowista Peninsula. Bordered on the South by its boundary with Pacific National Park Reserve and on its other three sides by the Pacific Ocean, Tofino is as far west as you can drive by car or bus and is still the only paved road to the open Pacific Ocean in Canada. This end of the road distinction has earned Tofino the official terminus of the Trans-Canada Highway.

Ucluelet

About the Area

Ucluelet's population lives 'Life on the Edge', and visitors get to experience it. Ucluelet is on the rugged west edge of Vancouver Island, the beautiful west edge of British Columbia, the beckoning west edge of Canada.

European explorers first set foot in the Ucluelet area in the late 1770s returning as traders to pursue maritime fur-trading, sealing, and whaling. Settlement didn't start until the late 1800s. Among the first documented white settlers in Ucluelet were William and James Sutton in the late 1880s who operated a saw mill and general store.

The discovery of gold around 1900 at nearby Wreck Bay (also called Florencia Bay) brought more settlers to the area. But pursuing the gold commercially eventually proved impractical. Mining again figured prominently in Ucluelet's economy in the early 1960s when iron concentrates were shipped to Japan and Ucluelet became the largest shipper of iron concentrates in British Columbia.

Ucluelet was incorporated as a village February 26, 1952 and officially became a district in 1997. The last census indicated the poulation in 2001 at 1753.