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European Captain James Cook was the first to explore Vancouver Island. The first to map the island was George Vancouver.
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Alexander MacKenzie, David Thompson, and Simon Fraser were the first to explore the interior portions of British Columbia.
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The original residents in BC, prior to the arrival of explorers, were First Nations people including the Tlingit, Shuswap, Chilcotin, Haida, and Sekani tribes.
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British Columbia became the 6th province of Canada on July 20th, 1871 when it joined the confederation.
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The provincial mammal of BC is the Kermode Bear - a white colored black bar - which is very rare. It is also referred to as the Spirit Bear.
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BC is home to 25% of all of the black bears in Canada and 25% of the grizzly bears in North America.
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BC's provincial flower is the Pacific Dogwood. The provincial tree is the western red cedar.
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There is a tree on Meares Island in BC believed to be as old as 2000 years. It is called the Hanging Garden Tree.
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BC is a popular and growing wine region. It is also a top three producer of blueberries and cranberries in the world.
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It is estimated that more than 50% of the residents in British Columbia live in Vancouver's Metro area.
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BC covers about 10% of the land area of Canada.
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BC's largest provincial park is Tweedsmuir Park. It is 989,616 hectares in size.
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British Columbia is so large that only 30 countries in the world are larger than the province.
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BC has many sasquatch sightings, the first dating further than 200 years ago.
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The warmest freshwater lake in Canada is BC's Osoyoos Lake.
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BC's longest river is Fraser River. It is 1,399 km in length. In 2012 a 500kg sturgeon fish was caught by rod, and released in the Fraser River.
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BC is the only Canadian province that shares two borders with the U.S.
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It is estimated that half of the residents of BC are not native English speakers. Chinese is the second most common language in BC, following English.
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There are many people living in BC in areas not serviced by the power grid, and they rely on solar, wind, and sometimes generators for their hydro.
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The film and television industry in British Columbia is growing, with more than 25,000 people working in the industry. The Twilight movies were filmed in British Columbia.
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