The island is within the traditional territories of the Tsawout First Nation. Hereditary chief Louie Pelkey of the Tsawout was born on the island in 1860. Although it is east of the North Saanich Douglas Treaty area and south of the Hul'q'umin'um Treaty area, it is not within a Douglas Treaty area. In the early 1900s, the island was used as a private hunting ground for Victoria sportsmen including then British Columbia Premier Richard McBride, who served between 1903 and 1915. In 1913 a dynamite plant was established on the island. The plant was owned by a company that merged into Canadian Explosives Ltd, which in turn changed its name to Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) in 1927. From the outset of World War II, the plant was operated by Defence Industries Ltd, a subsidiary of CIL. The plant, and many of its workers' cottages, had been moved to the island from Nanaimo. At its peak, the plant employed 800 people, most of whom lived in a small, traffic-free village on the opposite end of the island. During World War II, the plant produced of TNT per month. The TNT plant closed in 1977, and it and the village were disassembled and removed from the island in 1979.