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Nanaimo was originally populated by five bands of Coast Salish natives, who called the area Sneneymexw, meaning The Meeting Place, from which the present name is derived. For thousands of years, they fished the fertile waters and hunted in the island forests.

It was the Spaniard Captain Jose Navarez and his crew who first visited the Salish natives in 1791. But it was when agents of the Hudson's Bay Company became aware of coal in the region, nearly 60 years later, that Nanaimo's first modern industry was born. At the peak of production, there were ten working mines. During this period, Victorian magnate Robert Dunsmuir was given £750,000 and almost half the island in return for building the Victoria-Nanaimo railway.

The Bastion, built in 1853 by the Hudson's Bay Company, is a wood-planked tower that was used as a store and a stronghold against native attack. It is the oldest structure of its kind in the west, and today houses a small museum. During the summer, there is a ceremonial cannon firing each day at noon. The Bastion has been moved on two occasion, and now stands approximately twenty metres from its original site.

Incorporated in 1874, Nanaimo is the third oldest city in B.C. The city of Nanaimo was originally called Colville.

Today, Nanaimo is fuelled by six deep water docks, a booming port, forestry, deep-sea fishing, tourism and a host of smaller industries. In B.C., only Vancouver and Kelowna are expanding faster. Nanaimo is now the communications, transportation and distribution centre of Vancouver Island.