1. According to Amazon.com, Vancouver is the seventh Most Romantic City in the Nation, based on residents' purchases at the online retailer.
2. By law, you can’t attach a vending machine to a utility pole unless you have consent from the utility company. You might want to go back to the drawing board with that get-rich-quick vending machine venture.
3. Sorry guys, strippers aren’t allowed to come closer than four feet to their customers.
4. Famed NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was born right here in Vancouver.
5. A law on the books meant to reduce crime mandates that a motorist with criminal intentions must stop at city limits to call the chief of police before he enters the city. A trap those criminals will obviously never see coming.
6. It is illegal to harass Bigfoot here in Vancouver, or any Sasquatch or undiscovered subspecies for that matter. Violations are punishable by a fine or even imprisonment. But, if you do decide to harass Bigfoot, chances are he’ll take care of you himself first.
7. Chuck Palahniuk, famous writer of Fight Club and other awesomely twisted novels, lives in what he describes as a “former church compound just outside of Vancouver, Washington” with his partner.
8. Legally speaking, you’re not allowed to walk around in public in Vancouver if you knowingly have a common cold. Of course, it’s not exactly recognized or enforced – although when you’re getting coughed on in the checkout line, you might wish it were.
9. Up until 2001, mothers were not allowed to breastfeed their children in public. The law was repealed in 2001, though.
10. It is illegal to pretend that one’s parents are rich, which means quite a few Facebookers could be in trouble if the law was actually enforced.
Source: Instagram
11. It’s okay to like polka dots, but it is illegal to paint polka dots on the American flag.
12. Any facility that has pay-to-use toilets in Vancouver has to have an equal number of free toilets for public use by law. Fair's fair, people.
13. The Vancouver Wine and Jazz Festival in Esther Short Park brings out an average of 13,500 visitors, making it the largest jazz festival in the Pacific Northwest.
14. Planted in 1826, Vancouver has the reputed oldest apple tree in the Northwest. It has been called the “great grandfather” of the apple industry and it has its own festival every fall.
15. It’s illegal to catch a fish by throwing a rock at it. Luckily, there are fishing rods for that now, so your aim doesn't have to be quite as good.
16. Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver is the oldest public square in the West.
17. Pearson Field is now the oldest continually operating airfield in the country. Located at Fort Vancouver, it is home to a museum and an education center focusing on aviation and flight history.
18. Now the site of Pearson Field was once the world’s largest spruce cut-up mill for construction of airplanes used during World War I.
19. Pearson Field was also the landing site of the first transpolar flight from Moscow in 1937. Piloted by Valery Chkalov on a Tupolev ANT-25RD airplane, the landing took over 63 hours. An obelisk stands at Pearson Field commemorating the event.
20. Every August, the Vancouver Brewfest boasts over 38 breweries, 5 cider companies, 2 wineries, 1 distillery, 1 meadery… No partridge in a pear tree, though.
21. The Vancouver Barracks was established in 1849 as the first American military post in the Pacific Northwest. Some of the most notable soldiers to serve at the Vancouver Barracks include President Ulysses S. Grant and General George McClellan.
22. Named after George Vancouver, a British explorer, Vancouver was incorporated as a city in 1857. Clark County was named after famed explorer William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
23. Back in the 1920s, Clark County was considered the prune capital of the world, with an overabundant crop. At the time, prunes were the country’s most popular breakfast fruit.
24. From 1859 to 1860, Vancouver was briefly the Washington Territory capital before the status was returned to Olympia.
25. According to The Atlantic, Vancouver is listed as being the 10th most peaceful metropolitan region in the United States – tied with Portland, Oregon.
26. Vancouver’s famous fourth of July fireworks display has been called the largest Independence Day show west of the Mississippi River. Before major budget cuts scaled them back in recent years, reports were that the show lasted for 31 minutes and left behind approximately 5,500 shells.
27. Vancouver is known for being rainy. But, with an average rainfall of 42 inches a year, the city sees less rainfall annually than other cities like Houston (48 inches), Nashville (60 inches), Memphis (52 inches), and Miami (58 inches), just to name a few.
28. Mount St. Helens volcano stands tall, just outside of Vancouver. During the past 4,000 years, Mount St. Helens has erupted more frequently than any other volcano in the Cascade Range.
29. A magnitude 4.2 earthquake in March of 1980 reawakened Mount St. Helens after 123 of sitting dormant.
30. Mount St. Helens erupted continuously from September of 2004 to January of 2008.
31. Eruptions during the occurrences over the past three decades have created domes on the crater floor taller than the Empire State Building.
32. The Grant House was built in 1849 and is the oldest residence in Vancouver. It is now operational as a popular restaurant.
33. Inconvenient food laws keep you from buying meat of any kind on Sundays and also ban all lollipops. Luckily, the laws are all but obsolete.
34. Each September sees St. Joseph Catholic School host the Vancouver Sausage Fest, which generally attracts between 25,000 and 30,000 people annually. 2014’s Sausage Fest will sadly be the last.
35. The Ice Cream Renaissance restaurant features a Mount St. Helens dessert experience that literally erupts with awesomeness and flavor.
What’s your favorite fun Vancouver fact? Tell us in the comments below!
