How Captain George Vancouver Mapped and Shaped the Modern Pacific Northwest

In the late 18th century, George Vancouver and his crew systematically sighted 75 geographical features in the Pacific Northwest, giving them entirely new names based on European taxonomy and imperial ambitions. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons On April 29, 1792, two ships carrying around 150 British sailors lingered off the coast of what is now Washington State. It had taken more than a year for the Discovery…