European explorers, including members of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), initially assumed the island was uninhabited.

Owing to the abundant fish population, they established a herring industry in the region, constructing salteries and fisheries on the northwestern coast of the island.

[3]: 189 While mining for coal, the island's sandstone was found to be of exceptional quality and was soon quarried for other uses: construction of buildings in cities across Canada and other countries.

While industrial uses predominated for years, the Canadian Pacific Railway envisioned the island as a tourist and resort destination.

After a decrease in popularity with competition from other sites and a decline in train passenger travel, the railroad sold the island to the city of Nanaimo.

The Snuneymuxw, the Nanaimo branch of the Coast Salish linguistic group, had two villages located on Saysutshun Island.

They traversed the Strait of Georgia to the mouth of the Fraser River, where they stayed until the end of August in order to catch spawning sockeye and humpback salmon.

The discovery of coal here gave the British a source on the west coast of North America for fuel for their steamships and later railroads.

In April 1850, approximately fifteen months after he first spoke to the blacksmith, Ki’et’sa’kun returned with a canoe full of coal.

In honour of Ki’et’sa’kun's find, the English called him 'Coal Tyee', meaning Great Coal Chief.

In the month of September 1852 alone, 480 barrels of coal collected from surface seams were shipped from Newcastle Island to Victoria; that year's total production was 200 tons.

It was an appealing white-grey colour; it was easy to remove large blocks because its joints and fractures were few and far between; and it was strong and held up well against weathering because of unusually numerous quartz grains.

The first shipment to San Francisco occurred in the mid-1870s and continued throughout the five years to make the grand total of 8000 tons of sandstone removed from Newcastle Island.

A three-masted barque built in Medford, Massachusetts in 1855, the Zephyr arrived at Newcastle Island on 31 January 1872, to transport two of the eight sandstone pillars to San Francisco for the new building.

The immense forestry industry on the west coast processed timber in numerous mills, including some to produce paper and pulp.

After the circular cut had been made, small charges of gunpowder would be placed in holes drilled at the base of the stone to break it free.

All this was taken from them in 1941, at the start of World War II, along with Mr. Tanaka's and Mr. Kasho's salteries, when the Japanese-Canadians were sent to the Interior of British Columbia to be placed in internment camps.

Kakua started working for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1853 and served in Fort Victoria under Governor James Douglas.

After he left his position in the HBC, he moved to Nanaimo, There he met and married his wife, Que-en, also known as Mary, who was of aboriginal descent.

After returning home the night of 3 December, he found her and her parents, mother Sqush-e-lek and father Shil-at-ti-nord, packing her belongings.

The judge concluded the trial that day, saying, "Peter Kakua we find you guilty as charged of four counts of murder and sentence you to be hanged by the neck until dead".

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), owned and operated the British Columbia Coast Steamship Service (BCCSS).

The Union Steamship Co bought 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of land on Bowen Island to develop as a recreational day-trio destination for people of Vancouver.

The Princess Victoria could make the Vancouver–Nanaimo voyage in 2 hours 19 minutes, which is not much slower than the current BC Ferries' runs.

At the start of World War II, the Princess ships were reassigned for military use and tourists could no longer visit the island.

Although the government did try to fulfill all their agreements, correspondence between the Minister of Recreation and Conservation and Nanaimo Alderman R. A. Brookbank show that the master plan, outlined in both points 4 and 5, had not been created.

The original First Nations peoples who inhabited the island left in 1849 when the Hudson's Bay Company started opening up coal mines.

The park has become an extremely popular tourist spot that now caters to hikers, campers, bird watchers, cyclists, and kayakers alike.

A foot-passenger ferry crosses in ten minutes from downtown Nanaimo at Maffeo Sutton Park to the southern end of the island.

[citation needed] In the summer at low tide, one can walk across the narrow strait separating it from Protection Island.