Piers Island

Piers Island
Piers Island Location of Piers Island in British Columbia
Coordinates: 48°42′00″N 123°25′00″W / 48.70000°N 123.41667°W / 48.70000; -123.41667Coordinates: 48°42′00″N 123°25′00″W / 48.70000°N 123.41667°W / 48.70000; -123.41667
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia

Piers Island is an island in British Columbia, Canada, located on the boundary of Discovery Passage, a waterway which with nearby Haro Strait forms the section of the United States-Canada border separating the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, of which Piers is a part, and the San Juan Islands of Washington state.

Name

The island is named for Henry Piers (d. 1902), a Royal Navy surgeon who served on the HMS Satellite and HMS Investigator and at the Pacific Station (Esquimalt), later Deputy Inspector of Hospitals and Fleets.

History

In the early 1930s a portion of the island was a penal colony used to house Sons of Freedom (a group of Doukhobor extremists.)

References

• "Piers Island". BC Geographical Names. http://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/39288.html.