The Fir Island Farm Unit is located in southwest Skagit County on Fir Island. The unit is located on Fir Island Road, about 2.7 miles west of the South Fork Skagit River bridge in Conway.
The Island Unit is located between Steamboat and Freshwater Sloughs in the Skagit River’s South Fork in Skagit County.
May 28th [of 1853]. We had a troublesome time with our boat. The tide was coming in, and the beach being lined with small boulders, the launch was in danger of being thumped to pieces by the action of the waves which beat the shore with great violence. There was no alternative but to put some men to work to keep her away from the beach until the tide was at the highest. This involved five or six hours of hard rowing, and at 9 o’clock when I did order the boat in she came in with such a force as to knock down the men who were on hand to pull her up. The waves did the work for us and landed her high and dry and safe for the night. Fortunately there were no bones broken. There is not a sailor among us, but if experience is to be relied on, it is to be hoped we will learn something.