Welcome to the Vancouver Lexicon. Its purpose is to pin down the patois of the City of Vancouver by recording its toponyms, nicknames, slang terms, personalities, places, and other Van-centric things. Full A-Z here.

Slumach | historical figure | A locally famous Katzie First Nations man. Persistent legend has it that old ‘Slumach’ found an unfathomably rich gold deposit near Pitt Lake at the start of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. He was hung for murder in 1891, taking the secret of the gold’s location to his grave. Slumach’s elusive gold – which is conveniently ‘cursed’ – has been the subject of several books and sensational documentaries (such as the one above, from 1994), and the search for it continues to this day.

Usage: “I’ve been reading up on Slumach all winter and have been considering taking the summer off to look for his long lost gold…”