The “Plains” of Vancouver Explained:
After regional Indian tribes used this stretch of the river for centuries as a commercial crossroads, Fort Vancouver became the Northwest hub of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur-trading empire. When the new occupants got around to mapping the neighborhood, they took note of several open meadows scattered among the nearby forest. They referred to them as plains. An 1846 map drawn by Richard Covington designates several areas east and north of the Fort as “Plains.”
Today only 3 “Plains” survive - You can still find Fifth Plain Creek on some local maps. But, the roads that were established to Mill Plain and Fourth Plain are still part of the community as names of major east-west thoroughfares. – Today, you stand on the Fourth Plain (now known as the Orchards and Sifton areas).