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Deadman's Island


DEADMAN'S ISLAND is a small island in Coal Harbour in VANCOUVER, connected to STANLEY PARK by a short causeway. Originally a FIRST NATIONS burial ground, it was used for a SMALLPOX isolation hospital during the 1890s. In 1908 a LOGGING company claimed to have the right to cut timber on the island and the city had to intervene with police in the so-called "Battle of Deadman's Island." The parks board took over the island and it remained home to a group of squatters until WWII, when the defence department took possession and built HMCS Discovery, a naval cadet training school, which opened in 1944 and still occupies the site.