Editing West Coast Region (section)

==History==
[[File:Dillman Town.jpg|thumb|270px|[[Dillmanstown]], a gold mining town]]<!-- this image is width-forced to the infobox width – please adapt if infobox width changes -->

The region is home to [[Ngāi Tahu]], who value it for the [[Nephrite jade|greenstone]] (pounamu) found there in abundance.

The region was only occasionally visited by Europeans until the discovery of [[gold]] near the Taramakau River in 1864 by two Māori, Ihaia Tainui and Haimona Taukau. By the end of the year there were an estimated 1800 prospectors, many of them around the Hokitika area, which in 1866 was briefly the most populous settlement in New Zealand.

The region was divided between [[Nelson Province]] and [[Canterbury Province]] from 1853: in 1873 the Canterbury portion of the region formed its own province, the [[Westland Province]], until the abolition of the provincial system in 1876.
[[File:TWC Fox • Nimmo • MRD 23.jpg|alt=|left|thumb|374x374px|[[Fox Glacier]], a popular visitor destination on the West Coast]]
The [[West Coast gold rush]] between 1864 and 1867 created numerous gold rush towns such as Ōkārito, which at one time was the largest town on the West Coast but quickly almost vanished as miners moved on. After that time, the population dwindled, but the main towns that still exist had become established.

Following greenstone and gold, the next valuable mineral was coal. Discovered near the [[Buller River]] in the mid-1840s, mining began in earnest during the 1860s. By the 1880s coal had become the region's main industry, with mines throughout the northern half of the region, especially around [[Westport, New Zealand|Westport]]. Many of these continued in operation until the mid-20th century, and several survive.

Timber has also long been a major industry, although in recent years there has been an uneasy balance between forestry for wood and forestry for conservation. Much of the region is public land administered by the [[New Zealand Department of Conservation|Department of Conservation]] and the region has some of the best remaining stands of native forest, along with a wealth of rare wildlife. [[Ecotourism]] is now an important industry, and this goes hand in hand with the conservation efforts.