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NATURAL
AND CULTURAL
HISTORY.
What we see today of Whidbey Island is a
long (60-mile), narrow “sand
bar” lying on average about 250 ft.
above present day sea level and
“anchored” only at the extreme
north end at Deception Pass by solid rock.
That rock “anchor” is
responsible for the “sand bar”.
About 70,000 years ago, during the most
recent (last?) glaciation, a huge glacial
ice sheet up to 3,000 feet thick,
originating in upper central British
Columbia, expanded southward scouring out
Puget Sound like a giant bulldozer. This
Vashon lobe of the main glacier, scooped
out the area between the Cascades and
Olympics and “grew” as far south
as Olympia. In vegetated areas near this
glaciation, roamed mastodons and their
near relative, the woolly mammoth. Beach
explorers have found a few bones of these
animals. Near Scatchet Head a tusk and
some large bones were found along the
cliff sediments south of Maxwelton Beach.
No Ice Age archaeological sites have been
found, however, near Coupeville a nearly
complete “Clovis” spear point,
typical of those used widely in the
western United States some 10-15,000 years
ago, was found. 14,400 years ago, world
temperatures began reversing and for the
fourth time in this Quaternary Ice Age,
warming weather caused the glaciers to
retreat northwards. Melting ice water
flooded the soon to be Puget Sound basin,
until in conjunction with rising sea
levels, the waters breached the gap and
connected the Pacific Ocean to “Puget
Sound”. These straits of Juan de Fuca
were formed about 12,000 years ago and
Whidbey Island is the natural fragment
left by meltwater following the glacial
retreat.
Shortly
thereafter, as grasses and primitive
plants aided in the development of soils
capable of supporting the next ecological
succession vegetation - the softwood
conifers, especially Western Red Cedar
(Thuja plicata), the reddish evergreen
with “feathery” bark; and the
false-fir, the Douglas fir (Pseudosuga
menziises), that along with later hemlock,
make up the major softwood forests of the
island. Still later successions developed,
in deeper less acidic soils. During those
few thousand years a generous marine
ecology of diverse plants and animals
developed on the foreshore, intertidal,
beach and upland areas. We can speculate
that very shortly thereafter some groups
of the people then hunting around the
edges of the glaciers found their way onto
the island. Unfortunately, archaeological
evidence of early hunters is rarely
preserved in concentrations significant
enough to be
“re-discovered”.
As long ago as
2,000 B.C., permanent encampments of
natives were established on the more
protected coves. Salmon, clams, mussels
and other shellfish, as well as berries
and roots appear to have been included in
local diets. Anyone discovering what they
believe to be ancient sites or burials
should contact the Island County Planning
Department at (206) 321-5111, or the state
Office of Archaeology and Historic
Preservation. Have fun looking for these
interesting clues to the past, but
remember, archaeological sites are
protected by Washington state
law.
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COLONIZATION.
European interest in Puget Sound developed
from the exploits of Joseph Whidbey,
Master of HMS Discovery, who under the
overall command of James Vancouver,
discovered Deception Pass in March 1792.
With this discovery, the island, thought
to be part of the mainland by earlier
Spanish explorers, became Whidbey Island.
The first documented contact between the
island’s indians and Whidbey’s
party occurred during a meeting on Penn
Cove. No especial interest in the island
developed for fifty years, until 1848 when
Thomas Glascow claimed farm lands on what
is now Ebey’s Prairie. Glascow
planted crops but soon Skagit Indians
threatened his safety and he left the
island. Two years later, Issac Ebey
re-claimed the lands Glascow had abandoned
and thus began the colonization of
Whidbey. By 1856 several families had
settled and seven blockhouse
“forts” had been built against
threats from the slave-gathering Haida
tribes of northern Puget Sound. Three of
these “forts” still exist; one
on First Casey Road at Crockett Farm Road
is still on its original site, one was
moved to downtown Coupeville on Alexander
Street as part of the Historical
Society’s exhibits, and one is in the
old pioneer cemetery, off Sherman
Road.
Issac Ebey was
a prominent man in early Washington
Territory and became the natural leader of
the colonists. In 1852, Thomas Coupe, a
Boston sea captain, filed for land on Penn
Cove at the present site of the town of
his name. Coupeville is the second-oldest
town in Washington, after Walla-Walla.
During various native wars, a Haida chief
near Port Gamble was killed.
Because Ebey
was recognized leader, a Haida war party
caught him alone and beheaded him in 1857.
From 1900 on, the Town of Langley became
the center of south island activity as a
major supplier of cord wood for the
hundreds of steam vessels that provided
transportation in a time when few roads
existed. Timber became the leading
activity, but as land was cleared farming
came into its own. Fruit orchards and
dairying dominated the economy until World
War I when the island emerged as a major
turkey-producing area with more than 300
such farms by 1925. The “seamy”
side of Whidbey’s history lies in the
fact that during Prohibition, this large,
remote but close-in island, with very low
populations was handily located for
smuggling whiskey between Canada and the
U. S.; a local source for “cash
money”. Economically poor, but
self-sustaining yet with remarkably mild
weather and very low rainfall because of
the “rainshadow” effect, Whidbey
was finally “discovered” by the
U. S. Navy to become important to U. S.
war efforts. In 1942 a naval airbase was
constructed north of Oak Harbor, that with
a large seaplane training base on Crescent
Harbor, an “outlying” field near
Coupeville, a bombing range,
torpedo-ranging station, and radio
installations on Smith Island, brought
Whidbey, reluctantly, into the
twentieth-century. Since the mid-60's, the
pattern of Whidbey as a huge forest dotted
with rural, dispersed homesites, has been
established. More recently the proportion
of new residents who are retirees, grows
annually. Both north and south have become
enclaves of rural "sanity" for those
wishing to escape the frenzy of urban
life.
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