Chase River is a quiet area about 8-15 minutes south of downtown Nanaimo, adjacent to where the highway and parkway (bypass) meet. It has some great shopping amenities at the highway end, including a RONA, Buckerfields, a huge supermarket, gas stations, lots of restaurants, a liquor/beer store, and more. Above and behind the commercial district is the hilly residential area, about 3 square kilometers in size.
As you make your way south along Extension Rd, you are leaving Chase River proper and entering the peaceful Cinnabar Valley area, a dramatic green valley between two ridges. This is a good place for view properties, some overlooking pretty little lakes. This is the closest you can get to the city while still having horses. (Jingle Pot is the other close equestrian option.)
Chase River / Cinnabar is a great choice for families and outdoorspeople. There is lots of greenspace with great trails, and the Nanaimo River is within walking distance (sort of). Chase River Elementary is near the grocery store, so you can just grab your kids after getting stuff for dinner.
In the 1880s, this was a farming community beside the railway. The last bits of those fields are being developed now, but there are still some beautiful old farmhouses around Fourteenth St especially.
Along bus routes? There is one bus (#7) that comes down here from Nanaimo regularly.
Schools: Chase River Elementary, John Barsby Secondary (8 min drive from Chase River)
Nearby parks: Extension Ridge, Morden Colliery Park, Nanaimo River
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Why's it called Chase River?
In the very earliest days of Nanaimo and the Colony of Vancouver Island, Governor James Douglas sent a gunboat from Victoria to apprehend two murderers, one of which was hiding in a First Nations village on the lower Nanaimo River. The suspect fled through the snow and made his way up a small river. A party of soldiers and HBC guides gave chase, and found him in his hiding place because they heard the click of his flintlock rifle (which failed to fire because the snow had made the powder wet). The man was hanged at Gallows Point on Protection Island.
Then in 1863, coal was discovered along the banks of the Chase River, setting the stage for decades of activity at the Chase River mines (near what is now Park Avenue Elementary School, as well as near Petroglyph Park and the Chase River Estuary).
If you have any questions about Chase River or Cinnabar Valley real estate, please contact me!