Coombs, British Columbia

Coombs is a small community on Vancouver Island in the Regional District of Nanaimo, British Columbia, situated on provincial highway 4A approximately 10 km (6.2 mi) west of Parksville.

The area was hostorically inhabited by the Coast Salish peoples, including the Snuneymuxw First Nation, who have lived in the region for more than 5,000 years.

The area was named after Commissioner Thomas Bales Coombs, head of the Salvation Army movement in Canada in the early 1900s.

In 1908, Walter Ford built a log house that is still standing today on the Alberni Highway.

[5] The community was established in 1910 under a Salvation Army emigration plan, in which people were relocated from crowded cities in Great Britain to Canada.