The Encyclopedia of British Columbia includes articles on every established community in the province, large and small, past and present. Editor Daniel Francis has travelled extensively throughout BC in order to ensure complete coverage of local features, people and events. He and the editorial team of the EBC have worked closely with local experts from across the province to research, write and check articles and statistics.

From the Preface by Daniel Francis: "A decade has passed since Howard and I began work on the Encyclopedia. During that time I discovered just how diverse, and fascinating, a place British Columbia is. I read hundreds of books about the province, and still did not exhaust the subject. I consulted scores of experts on every conceivable aspect of life in BC, from abalone to Nanaimo bars to rum-runners right on through the alphabet to the acclaimed bassoonist George Zukerman. At the same time I made several excursions up the coast and into the Interior--by car, airplane, ferry and sailboat--visiting smaller communities and exploring the different regions that make up the provincial mosaic. On Vancouver Island I stayed overnight in the former home of the famed nature writer Roderick Haig-Brown, the only historic site I know of that doubles as a bed and breakfast. Outside of Bella Coola my battered old Honda laboured up the infamous Big Hill, still unpaved and as terrifying as on the day it opened to traffic in 1953, to reach the stunningly beautiful Chilcotin plateau. At Hudson's Hope I plunged underground into the bowels of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam to view the giant turbines that generate close to 30 percent of the province's hydroelectricy. I saw whales in the Inside Passage, hoodoos at Farwell Canyon, the largest tree crusher in the world at Mackenzie, the open Pacific breaking onto the stone beach at Yuquot, the world's tallest totem pole at Alert Bay, the site of the Last Spike at Craigellachie, a historic salmon cannery at Port Edward, the goats on the roof at Coombs. And each time I returned home feeling I had hardly scratched the surface, there was so much still to see."