City of Port Coquitlam Metro Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia

City - A populated place with legally defined boundaries, incorporated as a city municipality under the provincial Municipal Act. N side Fraser River, between Coquitlam and Pitt Rivers, New Westminster Land District

Mapped Location

City of Port Coquitlam: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

 

Information

General information on City of Port Coquitlam

  • Feature Type: Incorporated

 

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Port Coquitlam

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name Description
City of Port Coquitlam Official

 

Origin Notes and History of City of Port Coquitlam

References to City of Port Coquitlam that document the origin of its place name

Incorporated as a City municipality 7 March 1913; Port Coquitlam (City) confirmed in the 17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1922, as labelled on BC map 2B, 1914. Re-confirmed 11 February 1936 on 92G/2.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

Coquitlam Post Office was opened 1 March 1881; renamed Port Coquitlam Post Office 1 July 1913. The railway station here was labelled "Westminster Junction" on Dominion Sectional sheet #10, Port Moody, 1913. See also the municipality's own website.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office  |  Province of British Columbia

The name Coquitlam is that of a Salish tribe in the [area] speaking the Cowichan dialect.

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
17th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1921 (supplement to the Annual Report of the Dept of the Interior, 1922, Ottawa)  |  Province of British Columbia

The name Coquitlam is of Indian origin and signifies a "small red salmon".

B.C. Geographical Names in Province of British Columbia
Nelson, Denys; Place Names of the Delta of the Fraser River; 1927, unpublished manuscript held in the Provincial Archives  |  Province of British Columbia

 

A Selected Bibliography of City of Port Coquitlam, Metro Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia

A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.

A History of Coquitlam and Fraser Mills, 1858-1958 by H. A. J. Monk, John Stewart

Title Cover Image

H. A. J. Monk and John Stewart’s A History of Coquitlam and Fraser Mills, 1858-1958 chronicles the explosive industrial colonization of a sprawling, heavily timbered riverine expanse located at the strategic confluence of the Coquitlam and Fraser rivers. The narrative maps how the impenetrable biological mass of the ancient coastal rainforest and the volatile, flood-prone hydrology of the lower Fraser delta initially choked overland movement, forcing early settlers and timber barons to rely exclusively on this massive aquatic highway to transport raw logs and export milled lumber. By detailing the monumental industrial effort required to construct Fraser Mills—which evolved into the largest lumber processing facility in the British Empire—and the grueling pioneer labor needed to clear the dense alluvial floodplains for viable agriculture, the text illustrates how large-scale economic expansion was strictly governed by the severe physical realities of this riparian topography. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that systematically harvesting these colossal timber stands and engineering robust mechanized milling infrastructure directly upon the riverbanks were the absolute prerequisites for transforming a rain-soaked, isolated wilderness into a globally dominant epicenter of Pacific seaboard timber manufacturing.

76 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Desiderata
History · 1st Edition · District of Coquitlam-Fraser Mills Centennial Commission, New Westminster, 1958
Related Catalog Items: City of Port Coquitlam · Metro Vancouver Regional District · City of Coquitlam · Fraser Mills

 


Place Names Around Port Coquitlam by Denys Nelson

Title Cover Image

5 leaves ; 28 cm

Desiderata
Place Names · 1st Edition · [date not identified]
Related Catalog Items: City of Port Coquitlam · Fraser Valley Regional District

 


 

Metro Vancouver Regional District

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2025-09-23