__NOTOC__ Deadman Island is a 3.8 ha island to the south of

Stanley Park Stanley Park is a public park in British Columbia, Canada, that makes up the northwestern half of Vancouver's Downtown Vancouver, Downtown peninsula, surrounded by waters of Burrard Inlet and English Bay, Vancouver, English Bay. The park bor ...

in Coal Harbour in

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. The indigenous Squamish name is "''skwtsa7s''", meaning simply "island." Officially designated Deadman Island by the

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in 1937, it is commonly referred to as Deadman's Island. In its long history, it has been a battle site, a native tree-burial cemetery, and a smallpox and squatter settlement. Today it is the site of Vancouver's Naval Reserve Division, HMCS ''Discovery''.

Early history

One of Vancouver's first white

settler A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...

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

Squamish people The Squamish people ( , historically transliterated as Sko-ko-mish) are an indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Archaeological evidence shows they have lived in the area for more th ...

. Undeterred, Morton took a fancy to the island and attempted to acquire it. He changed his mind when Chief Capilano 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. Between 1888 and 1892, Deadman Island became a quarantine site for victims of a

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

epidemic and burial ground for those who did not survive.

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

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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 island 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.

His Majesty's Canadian Ship ''Discovery''

is Vancouver's Naval Reserve Division that is housed in the

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that 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 and the

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. In addition to the Naval Reserve Division, RCSCC Corps 47 ''Captain Vancouver'' and NLCC ''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, as well as via a short timber-structure bridge.

Future of the island

The city's lease of Deadman Island from the federal government expired in 2007 and was subsequently renewed in 2008. The former mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan, "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 The Musqueam Nation ( Hunquminum: ) is a First Nation whose traditional territory encompasses the western half of what is now Greater Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada. It is governed by a band council and is known officially as the Musq ...

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.For the controversy over the island's status in the late 19th century, see "Correspondence and Papers in Reference to Stanley Park and Deadman Island, British Columbia," Ottawa, 1899. Available on microfiche at

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, Special Collections.

Notes

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. Coast of British Columbia History of Vancouver Islands of British Columbia Stanley Park