A brief History:

The first mention of Bowen Island was by Spanish explorer Narvaez who was on a 22 day exploration of the Strait of Georgia in July of 1791. Narvaez sailed across the entrance of Howe Sound only charting the outlines of Passage Island, the Pasley Island Group and Bowen Island. Bowen Island was originally inhabited by the Squamish Indians who used it as their hunting and fishing grounds. Early settlers say the Indians had some shake dwellings and a smoke house in Snug Cove. Bowen was also apparently a neutral meeting ground for the Squamish and other Indians, 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. As early as the 1880’s there were already tourists coming to camp at the tent camps, rent boats and ride the merry-go-round at Picnic Grounds. The tent camps were sites on Snug Point. It was the colourful Captain Jack Cates who first opened up Bowen Island as a resort for the day excursionist. He started by purchasing the 320 acre Mannion estate on Bowen’s Deep Bay in 1900. After some twenty years, Cates sold his thriving resort and company to the long established Union Steamship Company. They started making runs with “Lady Alexandra”, “Lady Cecilia” and “Lady Cynthia”. The new owners made immediate changes to the Terminal Resort. They built a store, one hundred and fifty summer cottages were either renovated or newly built, new trails were built and six well equipped picnic grounds were established to handle the growing business. In 1921 the Sannie Transportation Company (a subsidiary of the Union Steamship Company) began operating three steam launches between Horseshoe Bay and Bowen. 1984 saw the dedication of Crippen Regional Park, a 600 acre day use park.