Denman Island was first inhabited by Indigenous peoples including the Pentlatch and Sliammon as evidenced by middens, gravesites, and oral history. The site most recently occupied by Pentlatch people was previously named Village Point but is now called Denman Point. That village was occupied until the 1862 smallpox epidemic severely reduced its population and the survivors moved to join the K'ómoks people in nearby Comox.[2]
The earliest colonial settlers of Denman Island arrived during the 1870s. Some were attracted by the establishment of the Baynes Sound Coal Mine on the Tsable River, across Baynes Sound from Denman Island. Mine construction started in 1873 and coal was shipped in 1876. Several large families migrated to Denman Island from Eastern Canada in1876 including the McFarlane, Piercy and Graham families.[6] After being briefly in production the Baynes Sound mine closed in 1877 and mine surveyor David Pickles moved to Denman Island, preempting a large wetland in the middle of the island.[7]
Denman Island life
Regular ferry service links Denman Island to both Hornby Island from Gravelly Bay on the east side of Denman and across Baynes Sound via the MV Baynes Sound Connector cable ferry to Buckley Bay on Vancouver Island on the west side. The Village of Denman consists of one general store and Post Office, two community halls and a museum, the Dora Drinkwater Volunteer Library, a community school, an Anglican church and the Arts Centre. There is also a hardware store, craft store and Abraxas Book Gifts, a book and gift store and coffee shop.[8] Around the corner on Piercy Road is the Denman Island Health Centre.[9]
A number of potters, weavers and painters have made Denman Island their home for decades.[10] The island has a land area of 51.03 square kilometres (19.70 sq mi).
The author Emily St. John Mandel spent most of her childhood on Denman Island,[11] and modeled much of the fictional Delano Island in her novel Station Eleven after it.[12]
Vegetation and soils
The western part of Denman Island is covered by a dense forest dominated by Douglas fir, western hemlock, and western red cedar on deep loamy glacial till or marine deposits mapped as Royston gravelly loam or Tolmie-Merville complex. Some areas have shallow soils over sedimentary rock and are mapped as Haslam shaly loam or Rough Stony-Haslam complex. The eastern part has a loamy sand (Kye-Qualicum complex or Bowser series) on which arbutus is frequently present near the shore. Poorly drained depressions are mapped as Tolmie loam, Parksville sandy loam, or Arrowsmith peat.[13]
Denman Island Disease
An infectious disease among Pacific oysters was identified in 1960 off Denman Island. The disease causes visible yellow/green pustules on the body and adductor muscles of the oysters therefore reducing marketability of the oysters. It was found that the causative agent of these lesions are associated with microcells, which were later identified as Mikrocytos mackini.[14]
Provincial Parks located on Denman Island
Baynes Sound Connector arriving at Denman West Ferry Terminal
Denman Island has a monthly news and artistic journal called the Flagstone,[15] a weekly news and advertising circular called the Grapevine,[16] and several active online groups on social media.
^McDowell, Jim (2015). Uncharted Waters, The Explorations of Jose Narvaez (1768 - 1840). Vancouver, BC, Canada: Ronsdale Press. pp. 146–148. ISBN978-1-55380-434-5.
^Richards, Captain G.H. (2012). Dorricott, Linda; Cullon, Deidre (eds.). The Private Journal of Captain G.H. Richards, The Vancouver Island Survey (1860-1862). Vancouver BC Canada: Ronsdale Press. p. 33. ISBN978-1-55380-127-6.
^Mackie, Richard Somerset (1995). The Wilderness Profound, Victorian life on the Gulf of Georgia. Victoria BC Canada: Sono Nis Press. pp. 189, 190. ISBN1-55039-058-9.
^Isenor, D.E.; McInnes, W.N.; Stephens, E.G.; Watson, D.E (1987). Land of Plenty A History of the Comox District. Campbell River, BC Canada: Ptarmigan Press. p. 115. ISBN978-0-919537-45-3.
^"About Denman Island". Visit Denman Island. November 11, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
^"The Flagstone". Denman Job Board. October 22, 2015. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
^"Home". The Islands Grapevine. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
Further reading
Day, J.H., L. Farstad, and D.G. Laird, 1959. Soil Survey of Southeast Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands, British Columbia. B.C. Soil Survey, Rept. No. 6, Can. Dept. Agric.
