There are several versions of where Fourth Plain, now called Orchards, got its name. One suggests that in 1846 Dugald McTavish, an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, explored the land in back of the Vancouver fur trading post. He described finding four "plains" that were each separated from the next by a band of timber. When he described the plains, McTavish probably meant natural changes in the thick woods.
Officials at Fort Vancouver seem to have identified their grazing plains consecutively from one to six from their headquarters near the Columbia River. Others have suggested that the name was taken for steps of land up from the river or from flatland separated by east-west ridges.
The Orchards area was formerly called Fourth Plain. The residents wanted a name that would identify them alone. Because of the many fruit trees there, they chose the name Orchards in 1904.
Want to guess what was located on Mill Plain?
