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Bowen Island lies near Vancouver, British Columbia in Howe Sound. Approximately 6 km wide by 12 km long, the island sits about 6 km west of the mainland, with regular ferry service from Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. There are about 3,500 permanent residents, a number that is supplemented in the summer by roughly 1,500 visitors, as Bowen Island is a popular vacation home location for British Columbians.
Bowen Island emerged from the massive ice sheet that filled Howe Sound 14,000 years ago. It was first peopled by Coast Salish hunters and fishermen who used the present village site of Snug Cove as a temporary camp. The Squamish name for this part of the island is Xwilil Xhwm, which means "fast drumming ground" a name that references the Squamish story of how the black tailed deer were created on Bowen Island. The island is still used by First Nations people for deer hunting.
When Spanish explorers arrived on the west coast of Canada, they named many of the features of what is now the Strait of Georgia. Bowen Island was called Isla de Apodaca by Quadra but the name was changed a week later by George Vancouver who named it for Rear Admiral James Bowen who fought in The Glorious First of June naval battle.
Bowen remained a wilderness until the 1870s when homesteaders built houses and started a brickworks, which supplied bricks to the expanding city of Vancouver. Over the years, Bowen industry has included an explosives factory, logging, mining, and milling, although there is no heavy industry on the island at present.
In the first half of the 20th century, life on Bowen was dominated by the Union Steamship Company that operated a very busy resort at Snug Cove. The resort disbanded in the 1960s and the island returned to a quiet period of slow growth. In the 1980s, real estate pressures in Vancouver accelerated growth on Bowen and currently the local economy is largely dependent on commuters who work on the mainland in Greater Vancouver.
In 1999 the Bowen Island Municipality was incorporated, becoming the first 'island municipality' in BC.
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There is also a Bowen Island off the coast of Australia.
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