- Orcas Island — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Orcas Island lies in the San Juan archipelago of the Salish Sea in Northwest Washington. Mountainous and heavily forested, the island is nearly divided by the long inlet of East Sound, with two smaller inlets (West Sound and Deer Harbor) indenting its western half. Human habitation stretches back thousands of years and Orcas has been part of the traditional home for the Lummi tribe and other Straits Salish peoples…
- Anacortes — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
The City of Anacortes is located in Skagit County on the northern end of Fidalgo Island in Puget Sound. It is the only incorporated community on Fidalgo, which is separated from the mainland by the Swinomish Channel. Highway bridges link Anacortes to the mainland and to Whidbey Island to the south. Samish and other Northern Straits Salish peoples have inhabited the land in and around Anacortes for thousands of years. Permanent non-Indian settlement began in the 1860s. Anacortes was incorporated in 1891 with an economy based on lumber, fishing and fish processing, and farming. These industries thrived for many years before facing decline in the mid-twentieth century. Several oil companies selected Anacortes for refineries in the 1950s. Refining, tourism, residential and retirement housing, and commercial retail have come to dominate the local economy.
- Murals by the Sea (hakaimagazine.com)
From New York to London, Tokyo to Vancouver, coastal communities are swept by endless waves of commerce and culture. This gives rise to art. When governments and market forces in these communities fail to confront challenges such as climate change and overfishing, street artists and muralists offer critiques by projecting new meaning onto artificial landscapes. Art may have the power to influence, or even renew, our relationship with our coasts, but can murals do more than “write” large the anxieties and hopes of their creators?
- HistoryLink.org
HistoryLink.org is the continually evolving online encyclopedia of Washington state history. We provide a free, authoritative, and easily accessible reference for the benefit of all. With a few noted exceptions, all articles on this site are original works prepared exclusively for HistoryLink.org by staff historians, contract writers, volunteers, and consulting experts.