Cedar is a small community in the Canadian province of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. It is located near the east coast of Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

 — about 8 kilometres (5 mi) southeast of Nanaimo. Its geographical coordinates are 49°07′N 123°51′W. Near Cedar are DeCourcy Island and Ruxton Island, which were once home to the mystical rake Brother XII

Brother XII

Edward Arthur Wilson, better known as Brother XII, was a notorious English mystic who founded a spiritual community in the Pacific Northwest near Canada's Nanaimo region in the late 1920s.-History:...

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The village was so named because of the profusion of Thuja plicata

Thuja plicata

Thuja plicata, commonly called Western or pacific red cedar, giant or western arborvitae, giant cedar, or shinglewood, is a species of Thuja, an evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae native to western North America...

trees in its vicinity, known as the Western Red Cedar. Cedar as a locality certainly existed prior to 1888, as on 1 April of that year a post office was opened.