Deadman Island is a 3.8 ha

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

 island to the south of Stanley Park

Stanley Park

Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....

 in Coal Harbour

Coal Harbour

Coal Harbour is the name for a section of Burrard Inlet lying between Vancouver, Canada's downtown peninsula and the Brockton Peninsula of Stanley Park...

 in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, 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...

. The indigenous Sḵwxwú7mesh name is "skwtsa7s", meaning simply "island." Officially designated "Deadman Island" by the Geographical Names Board of Canada

Geographical Names Board of Canada

Geographical Names Board of Canada is a national committee of the Canadian Government Department of Natural Resources which authorizes the names used on official federal government maps of Canada since 1897. The board consists of 27 members including one from each of the provinces and territories...

 in 1937. it is commonly referred to as Deadman's Island. Vancouver's Naval Reserve Division, HMCS Discovery

HMCS Discovery

HMCS Discovery is a Royal Canadian Navy Reserve division and shore facility based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Created during World War II from the Vancouver Half Company of the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve, Discovery was used for recruitment and training, and provided almost 8,000...

, is strategically located on the island in support of the security of Vancouver Harbour. The facility housed the Joint Maritime Operations Centre for the APEC Summit in 1997

APEC Canada 1997

APEC Canada 1997 was a series of meetings focused on economic cooperation, held in Vancouver. It was the fifth APEC meeting in history and the second held in the Americas...

 and the 2010 Winter Olympics

2010 Winter Olympics

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...

. In addition to the Naval Reserve, RCSCC

Royal Canadian Sea Cadets

Royal Canadian Sea Cadets is a Canadian national youth program sponsored by the Canadian Forces and the civilian Navy League of Canada. Administered by the Canadian Forces, the program is funded through the Department of National Defence with the civilian partner providing support in the local...

 Corps 47 Captain Vancouver and NLCC

Navy League Cadet Corps (Canada)

The Navy League of Canada created the Navy League Cadet Corps for young boys in 1948, and the Navy League Wrennettes for girls in 1950. The Wrennette program no longer exists as Navy League Cadet Corps are now open for boys and girls between the ages of 9 to 13.The Navy League Cadet Programme is...

 Captain Rankin have their weekly parades at HMCS Discovery and the facility houses a naval museum. The island is connected to the mainland of Stanley Park at low tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

, and otherwise via a short timber-structure bridge.

Early history

One of Vancouver's first white settler

Settler

A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...

s, John Morton, visited the island in 1862. Morton discovered hundreds of red cedar

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...

 boxes lashed to the upper boughs of trees and one had evidently fallen and broken to reveal a jumble of bones and a tassel of black hair. The island was the tree-burial grounds of the Sḵwxwú7mesh. Undeterred, Morton took a fancy to the island and attempted to acquire it. He changed his mind when Chief Capilano

Joe Capilano

Joe Capilano , was a leader of the Sḵwxwú7mesh , who called him Sa7plek . He fought for the recognition of Native rights and lifestyle.Capilano spent his youth fishing and hunting...

 pointed out that the island was "dead ground" and was a scene of a bloody battle between rival tribes in which some two hundred warriors were killed. It's said that "fire-flower" grew up at once where they fell, frightening the foe into retreat. The macabre name of the island is thought to reflect this history, although the Squamish name is simply skwtsa7s, meaning "island."

Settlers continued to use the island as a cemetery prior to the 1887 opening of Mountain View Cemetery

Mountain View Cemetery (Vancouver)

Mountain View Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in the City of Vancouver, British Columbia. Opened in 1887, it is located west of Fraser Street between 31st and 43rd Avenues...

. Between 1888 and 1892, Deadman Island became a quarantine site for victims of a smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 epidemic and burial ground for those who did not survive.

The Ludgate Affair

This small islet again became the site of conflict when Theodore Ludgate leased the island from the federal government in 1899, to the chagrin of the mayor and other civic officials who assumed that it was included in the original Stanley Park land grant. Mayor Garden

James Garden

James Ford Garden was a Canadian engineer and the seventh Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, serving from 1898 to 1900. Under his tenure the city developed a street car system, sidewalks, road grades and water connections.Born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, the son of son of H. M. G. and E...

, with police accompaniment, tried to prevent Ludgate from clearing the land by reading the first ever Vancouver riot act

Riot Act

The Riot Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain that authorised local authorities to declare any group of twelve or more people to be unlawfully assembled, and thus have to disperse or face punitive action...

 after a showdown between Ludgate's men and the police. Ludgate escaped arrest, and police guards were left on the island, but the protracted legal battle that followed gave Ludgate the opportunity to proceed with his plan to build a saw mill and log the island. By 1911, Ludgate had won his case, cleared the island of both trees and the squatter community that lived there. Ludgate was subsequently unable to meet the terms of his lease, and the sland reverted to the Dominion government. In 1930 the island was offered to the city by the federal government to be used as a park, but a park never materialized, and it was instead turned into a naval station in 1944.

Future of the Island

The city's lease of Deadmans Island from the federal government expired in 2007 and was subsequently rolled over in 2008. The former mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan

Sam Sullivan

Sam Sullivan, CM served as the 38th mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and has been invested as a Member of the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian award...

, "envisioned it as the home for a ferry shuttle from downtown, a maritime museum and a building to celebrate the island's aboriginal heritage." The Musqueam First Nation, however, claim the island as part of its land claim in the area. The Island's future remains with the Department of National Defence and its status controversial, as it has been through much of Vancouver's history.

External links

• Satellite image of Deadman's Island at Google Maps
• Correspondence and papers in reference to Stanley Park and Deadman's Island, British Columbia, Ottawa, Ontario, s.n.1899, Sessional Papers No. 68A, Parliament of Canada, S.E. Dawson, Queen's Printer, by Order of Parliament.