Fidalgo Island

adjacent to

note: clockwise from north (Anacortes)
Guemes Channel
Padilla Bay
Swinomish Channel
Skagit Bay
Deception Pass
Rosario Strait

area

Fidalgo Island has a land area of 106.684 km² (41.19 sq mi).

bays

bridges

The only bridge that reaches Whidbey Island is the Deception Pass Bridge, State Route 20, which connects the north end of Whidbey to the mainland via Fidalgo Island.
Canoe Pass Bridge

cape

Lighthouse Point

city

Anacortes, Washington

city park

Washington Park

cliff

Rosario Head

down the Pacific Northwest coast

Fidalgo Bay

glacial till

highest point

At 1,273 feet (388 m) tall, Mount Erie is the highest point on Fidalgo Island.

history

In the early years of the 20th century, travelers of the horse-and-buggy era used an unscheduled ferry to cross from Fidalgo Island to Whidbey Island. To call the ferry, they banged a saw with a mallet and then sat back to wait.

informally not technically

Deception Pass Bridge

island in

mention

June 5th [of 1853]. We sailed across the Straits of Fuca heading for the north end of Whidby island, where we expected to go through Deception passage. The wind carried us within a few miles of Deception pass and then died away, so that we were obliged to resort to the oars. The tide being at its ebb, the guide said it was impossible to get through, so we went into camp in a small cove north of the entrance…Deception pass is a narrow channel between Whidby and Fidalgo islands. Its existence is connected with fearful stories of whirlpools and eddies, and it is only at the flood or ebb of the tide, when the waters are said to be quiet, that it is possible to go through with any safety.

mountain

Mount Erie

namesake

Fidalgo Island is named for the Spanish explorer and cartographer Salvador Fidalgo who explored the area in 1790 with the fleet of Francisco de Eliza.

OpenStreetMap

https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/3958301

people

Samish People

photograph

random

reservation

Swinomish Reservation

straits

tagged

In the spring of 1792, Joseph Whidbey, master of HMS Discovery and Captain Vancouver’s chief navigator proved that it was not really a small bay as charted by the Spaniards (hence the name “Deception”), but a deep and turbulent channel that connects the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Saratoga Passage, which separates the mainland from what they believed was a peninsula (actually Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island).

tags

island

vicinity

Pass Island

vicinity to

webcam

Wikidata

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1411131

Wikimedia

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fidalgo_Island

Wikipedia

Fidalgo Island (Wikipedia) Fidalgo Island is an island in Skagit County, Washington, located about 60 mi (97 km) north of Seattle. To the east, it is separated from the mainland by the Swinomish Channel, and from Whidbey Island to the south by Deception Pass. The island is named after the Spanish explorer and cartographer Salvador Fidalgo, who explored the area in 1790.