Brenda Nicolls (PREC) Coast Realty Parksville & Qualicum Beach

Parksville is a beautiful city on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Often called The Jewel of Vancouver Island, it is located along provincial highway 19A, 150 kilometres (94 miles) North of Victoria, and 37 kilometres (23 Miles) North of Nanaimo, lying between breathtaking Englishman River and French Creek.

For thousands of years the area was inhabited by the Coast Salish First Nations people and was left undiscovered by Europeans until 1792 when Captain George Vancouver sailed by. It is said that in the early 1850s an Englishman died crossing an unnamed river, and soon after the entire area was known as “The River” or “Englishman River”. Later in the 1860s a trail was pushed North from Victoria to Comox, opening the area up to settlers. It was not until 1886 that the first family arrived, lead by John Hirst. Parksville was named officially named in 1877 after the area’s first postmaster, Nelson Park, in 1877 and was not incorporated as a village until June 19, 1945. Parksville became a Town on April 1, 1978 and a City on June 1, 1981.

Today Parksville is a bustling tourism and retirement hub, with over 12,000 full-time residents. With two world famous sandy beaches, Parksville Beach and Rathtrevor Beach (part of Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park), innumerable public parks, an expanding downtown core and a vibrant social scene, it’s no wonder that that this amazing little city has experienced it’s unprecedented growth year after year.