Ruskin, British Columbia

Ruskin
Rural community
Ruskin is located in British Columbia
Ruskin
Ruskin
Location in British Columbia
Coordinates: 49°12′00″N 122°26′00″W / 49.20000°N 122.43333°W / 49.20000; -122.43333
CountryCanada
ProvinceBritish Columbia

Ruskin is a rural, naturally-treed community, about 35 mi (56 km) east of Vancouver on the north shore of the Fraser River. It was named around 1900 after of the English art critic, essayist, and prominent social thinker John Ruskin.

Ruskin is one of the historical communities of the municipality of Maple Ridge. In that context Ruskin borders on its west side with the community of Whonnock by the Whonnock Creek and the Whonnock Reserve, and on the east side with the municipality of Mission. The border to the south is the Fraser River and to the north the point where Whonnock Creek crosses the Mission borderline. Ruskin touches the Stave River at the tip of the southwest corner where the Stave River flows into the Fraser River.

The area generally understood as Ruskin goes beyond those boundaries. Ruskin in a social sense straddles the municipal border of Maple Ridge and Mission. In that close-knit community there was and is no border separating residents from Maple Ridge from those in Mission. Residents who lived and are still living along the western shore of the lower Stave River, even if they live in the municipality of Mission, consider their neighbourhood as Ruskin.[1]

  1. ^ The community built by the hydro company adjacent to Ruskin Dam is formally the Ruskin Townsite per the District of Mission's licensing of its local water supply; Ruskin Crescent is the main loop forming the townsite. The former postal code V0M 1R0 was "RR No. 1, Ruskin" and including Wilson Road from there all the way up to Dewdney Trunk.