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The Squamish Nation were the first to inhabit on Deadman's Island, which is part of Coal Harbour. The Squamish Nation had also inhabited on Brockton Point and Lumberman’s Arch, in Stanley Park. The Squamish Nation had used Deadman’s Island as a burial site for their deceased, after a brutal war between two tribes, the the Northern and Southern Salish nations. The Squamish people also used Deadman's Island for victims of the smallpox epidemic and those who were suffering from the breakouts. They would place their dead in cedar coffins within branches of old trees. Writer - N.S |
George Henry Richards George Henry Richards was a second British commissioner to the San Juan Islands Boundary Commission. He was also a hydrographer on the coast of British Columbia from 1857-1862. He was responsible for the section and designation of the areas' names along the British Columbia coast. Richards’ engineering friend Francis Brockton had found a vein of coal and due to the discovery, Coal Harbour received it’s name. Writer - N.S Kanakas In the 1787, Kanakas imported Native Hawaiian workers to settle down near the Westin Bayshore and the eastern end of Lost Lagoon, known as Kanaka Rancherie. Hundreds sailed to British Columbia to obtain work in the fur trade and the lumber mills industries. Writer - N.S |