The village of Cumberland was originally named Union, British Columbia after the Union Coal Company, which was in turn named in honour of the 1871 union of British Columbia with Canada.

The town was renamed after Cumberland in Great Britain by James Dunsmuir in 1891. Robert Dunsmuir had the town built in 1888. 

The Union Coal Company was begun in 1871 to exploit a coal discovery made the previous year on Coal Creek which flows into Comox Lake. By 1874 the company had built a tramway and a road to Comox Harbour at what is now Royston but after this initial work, the high cost of opening a mine proved too high for the original partners and work stopped.

In 1884, the same year he received the land grant related to the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, Robert Dunsmuir bought the Union Coal Company.

He bought the nearby Perseverance Mine at what is now Union Bay in 1888 and the Baynes Sound Mine in 1881. Two slopes were open at the Union Mine by 1893.

By 1897 the mine was producing 700 to 1000 tons per day, employed 600 men and supported a town of 3000.

Fun Fact: For decades the village has been known as Dodge City. It has to do with the people, the way they call across the street to one another and take the time to chat. Some take the name as a slur; others consider it an affectionate term that captures the village's unique charm.