Deas Island Regional Park

Tunnel construction next door

Parts of the park are closed, including ground at the island's west end, while the Province builds the George Massey Tunnel's replacement right beside it. Metro Vancouver's park page lists what's closed and carries the construction advisories, so look there before you plan a walk.

The replacement is a toll-free, eight-lane tunnel with a separate path for walking and cycling between Richmond, Deas Island and Delta.

What's in the park

Metro Vancouver puts the park at 91 hectares, with about 6 km of trails, and its brochure calls the walking flat and easy. Tinmaker's Walk, a tree-lined 1.2 km out and back between the Riverside and Fisher's Field picnic areas, has river views in places, and Metro Vancouver suggests looking out for warblers, chickadees and downy woodpeckers along it. Each trail is either for walkers only or shared with horse riders.

The park's forest, meadow and wetland are protected habitat, including for great blue herons, Metro Vancouver says. Look up as well: its description of a visit includes hawks and eagles overhead. Coyotes live here too, and Metro Vancouver's coyote brochure covers what to do if you meet one.

Washrooms, drinking water, picnic areas and shelters, a viewing tower, viewpoints, an interpretive exhibit, a canoe and kayak launch and a dock are all on Metro Vancouver's list, and its park map shows the drinking water as seasonal. The Riverside and Fisher's Field picnic areas each have tables and toilets, and there are more tables beside the rowing club.

For groups there's the Fisher's Field Picnic Shelter, which holds 75 people and has a fire ring but no power; the Muskrat Meadow group campsite, an overnight site for up to 40 with 10 tent pads; and the Inverholme Schoolhouse, a small historic venue for about 40. Metro Vancouver's pages for the Fisher's Field shelter, Muskrat Meadow and Inverholme say whether each one is taking bookings.

Deas Slough

Deas Slough, the channel between the island and Ladner Marsh, is shared by paddlers and waterskiers. The groups who use it agreed on a recreational use schedule, and Metro Vancouver asks everyone to keep to it; the schedule has the current time blocks.

The park's dock takes only human-powered craft, such as canoes and kayaks. Nobody patrols the slough regularly, so you're out there at your own risk, and the usual safe-boating rules apply. The Delta Deas Rowing Club has rowed out of the park since 1986.

The heritage buildings

Three buildings were moved here from elsewhere in Delta in the 1980s, at a time when moving threatened heritage buildings into a group like this one was often thought the only way to save them. All three are on the City of Delta's Heritage Register.

Burrvilla

Burrvilla is a Queen Anne Revival house, built in 1905–06 for Henry Benjamin Burr, known as Harry, by the designer-builder David Price with the carpenter Fred Land. It first stood where 62B Street meets River Road, and in its day neighbours gathered there, steamers called at a landing on the property, and for a short time it held the local post office. The Burrs kept it until 1974. In 1981 it became the first building Delta designated for its heritage, and soon after it came to the park, to make way for a wider River Road. Metro Vancouver's brochure calls its attic "a summer nursery for hundreds of bats".

Inverholme Schoolhouse

Inverholme is a one-room school from 1909, built to a standard provincial design. It started out on 72 Street in East Ladner and was a school only until 1926. Later it was moved north beside the Paterson farm, Inverholme, which gave the building its name, and it served as the farm manager's house and then as storage. It came to the park and was restored in the early 1980s, and Delta made it a municipal heritage site in 1983. Metro Vancouver lists it as wheelchair accessible, with accessible washrooms in another building about 35 m away, across the road.

Delta Agricultural Hall

The Delta Agricultural Society built the hall in 1899 as its exhibition building, and Delta's farm and home-economics fairs were held in it until the 1920s. It stood on the edge of Ladner Village until the late 1980s, when it came to the park, and Metro Vancouver's 2022 brochure calls it the park's operation centre.

Getting there

Deas Island Road leaves River Road about 110 m north of where 62B Street meets it, enters the park at its east end and runs west through it to Fisher's Field. The City of Delta lists the park at 6090 Deas Island Road.

From Ladner Village it's about 7 km by road: Ladner Trunk Road, Highway 17A, 62B Street and Deas Island Road. From Highway 99, take Exit 28 (River Road North on Metro Vancouver's map) and follow 62B Street north to River Road; the park road turns off about 110 m farther north.

Metro Vancouver says transit reaches the park, and TransLink's Trip Planner has the routes.

On foot or by bike, the Millennium Trail follows the slough and the river toward Ladner, but the tunnel work closes a section near Highway 99 for periods during construction; the Province posts the trail's status. You can't walk or cycle through the tunnel itself, and our Massey Tunnel guide explains the Province's shuttle for cyclists. Inside the park, bikes can use the paved park road but not the trails. There are racks at the Riverside washroom building, the Tinmaker's Walk kiosk, the dock entrance by the rowing club and the Fisher's Field lot.

Parking

The main lot is just inside the entrance, beside the Delta Deas Rowing Club and the dock, about 300 m in from River Road. There's more parking along the park road by the Riverside picnic area and by the heritage buildings, and Fisher's Field has a smaller lot of its own about 1 km farther along, which Metro Vancouver calls limited. Riders have a horse unloading area.

The park is gated. Metro Vancouver changes the gate hours through the year and posts them on its park page, and they're posted at the entrance too.

Rules worth knowing

Dogs stay on a leash no longer than 2.5 m and under control, owners pick up after them, and dogs don't go into the heritage buildings. Fishing from the shore is allowed with a BC tidal waters sport fishing licence from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, which also sets the limits.

Fires go only in the two fire rings, at the Fisher's Field shelter and the Muskrat Meadow campsite, and only with bundled firewood. Metro Vancouver tightens campfire and barbecue limits when the fire danger rises, and the park page has the current ones. Leave the wildlife alone (no feeding, no getting close) and take your garbage with you. Metro Vancouver's regulations cover the rest, smoking, liquor and cannabis included.

What's nearby

The George Massey Tunnel surfaces at the island's west end, beside the park. Our tunnel guide covers traffic and counterflow, and our replacement guide covers the new tunnel going in next door. Across Deas Slough to the southwest is Ladner Marsh, a saltmarsh whose nearest edge is about 1.2 km from the middle of the park, and Ladner Harbour Park is about 3.5 km away in a straight line.

History

First Nations people fished the salmon of the Fraser delta for thousands of years, and Metro Vancouver notes that they showed settlers how to catch the fish and use them.

The island is named for the tinsmith John Sullivan Deas, a free Black man born in South Carolina in 1838 and, by the Province's account, one of BC's first Black business owners. Provincial place-name records have him pre-empting the island in 1873. His salmon cannery stood where the park's viewing tower is now, and for a few years it out-produced every other cannery on the Fraser. He sold it in 1878 and moved to Portland. A second, more modern cannery later ran on the same site. Today the site, with the viewing tower, an old boiler and archaeological remains, is on the City's Heritage Register.

Greek fishing families settled on the island around 1900, about 80 people at the time, most of them from the village of Glossa on Skopelos. The last of them left in the mid-1950s.

Then came the highway. The tunnel opened in 1959 as the Deas Island Tunnel, named for the island it surfaces on, and building it left its mark on the island: a causeway now ties it to the mainland, and a large canal was dug near its southwest end. The tunnel was later renamed for George Massey, Delta's MLA from 1956 to 1960, who had campaigned for the crossing.

The regional park was established in 1981, and Metro Vancouver says its park interpreters have run nature programs and events there since that year.

Questions and answers

Is Deas Island Regional Park open?

Parts of the park are closed while the new tunnel is built next door. Metro Vancouver posts the gate hours and the closed trails and areas on its park page.

Are dogs allowed at Deas Island Regional Park?

Yes, on a leash no longer than 2.5 m and under control. Dogs can't go into the heritage buildings.

Can you bike at Deas Island Regional Park?

On the paved park road, yes. The trails are for walkers and, on some of them, horse riders. There are bike racks at the Riverside washroom building, the Tinmaker's Walk kiosk, the dock entrance and the Fisher's Field lot.

Can you fish at Deas Island?

From the shore, with a BC tidal waters sport fishing licence. Fisheries and Oceans Canada issues the licences and sets the limits.

How long are the trails at Deas Island Regional Park?

Metro Vancouver gives about 6 km of trails in all. Tinmaker's Walk is 1.2 km out and back.

Who is Deas Island named after?

The tinsmith John Sullivan Deas, a free Black man from South Carolina, who ran a salmon cannery on the island in the 1870s.

Where do you park at Deas Island Regional Park?

In the lot just inside the entrance, beside the rowing club and the dock. There's more parking along the park road and a smaller lot at Fisher's Field.