History of Bowen Island

Bowen Island was originally inhabited by the Squamish First Nations who used it as their hunting and fishing grounds.

Early settlers discovered shake dwellings and a smoke house in Snug Cove. Bowen also served as a neutral meeting ground for the Squamish and other First Nations, as well as a stopping place on the way up or down the coast.

The first preemption of land by a white settler was in 1874, by William Eaton, who claimed 160 acres south of Killarney Lake.

Bowen Island was named in 1860 after Rear-Admiral James Bowen (1751-1835), master of the HMS Queen Charlotte, the flagship of Lord Howe. While on an exploration of the Strait of Georgia back in 1791, the Spanish explorer Narvaez had already named this island and the one to the west 'the isles of Apodaca,' after Spanish naval official Sebastian Ruiz de Apodaca.