Early industries included a sandstone quarry which employed 30 men at its height but closed
in 1915, the year the Farmer's Institute was formed. Logging, agriculture and fishing were
also important industries.
The island was named after the commander of the H.M.S. Sutlej, who was on this coast in 1864
when he received orders to pursue and to punish the perpetrators of the Matilda Creek Massacre
of the sloop, Kingfisher, in which all aboard were murdered. The subsequent pursuit by Admiral
Denman destroyed nine native villages, killing 15.
Off Boytle Point, on Denman's southernmost point, the steamer Alpha was wrecked in 1900,
drowning nine sailors.
Denman Point was the site of the fiery death of the steam tug Vulcan in 1925.
