The tour crosses the Skagit Flats just west of Avon, an area which in the 1940s produced a large share of the country’s supply of cabbage seed. The town’s name was chosen by W. H. Miller, founder of the settlement in 1882 for the Avon River in England, famous as the home of William Shakespeare. It was a port for a short time but did not have a rail connection...

Mile: 2

Located on Telegraph Slough near the south end of Padilla Bay. It was founded as Padilla by Rienzie E. Whitney in 1882. When the Great Northern Railway was built in 1890, the town was moved to the railway, and the name was changed to that of the town's founder.

Mile: 53

The tour once crossed both Telegraph and Swinomish Sloughs linking the mainland with Fidalgo Island, where the route continues. Telegraph Slough is now filled and reclaimed. Swinomish Slough is now known as Swinomish Channel. The island, separated from the mainland only by shallow sloughs, was named for Salvador Fidalgo, an explorer in one of the Spanish expeditions of 1790-1. A town called Fidalgo flourished briefly in this vicinity until the...

The largest of several small lakes on the island, lies at the base of a rounded knoll in a farming area. In the center of the lake is a small wooded island.

Mile: 46

The ghost of a former town at the east end of Deception Pass. First called Deception, then Fidalgo City, two adjacent townsites were platted in 1889, Gibraltar and Fidalgo. To secure land grants offered as a bonus for a railroad construction, trackage of the Anacortes and Fidalgo City Electric Railway was completed in 1891. Two train trips were made - enough to ensure title to the grants—and the tracks torn...

Mile: 44

The main highway continues southward along the center of the island, named for Master Joseph Whidbey who, on June 2, 1792, discovered the pass that proved it an island. Four days before finding the passage, Whidbey, a member of Vancouver’s expedition, landed here to make observations. Since Vancouver charted “Whidbey’s Island,” usage has often dropped the “e” from the name, though the original spelling is officially retained. Along the main...

Mile: 37

A little village on a hill overlooking Penn Cove, the site once had a pea cannery and a small sawmill. The farm of R. B. Holbrook, who settled here early in the 1850s, was purchased for a townsite, and San De Fuca (a contraction of San Juan and Juan de Fuca) boomed in the nineties as the east end of a proposed canal to bisect the island. The town was...

Mile: 26

Bordered by red-trunked madronas, Madrona Way reaches the head of Penn’s Cove and bears southeasterly. Cranes, standing motionless in the shallows of the sand flats or flapping overhead in ungainly flight, are a common sight. This commodious harbor was important in pioneer days, and the home of many retired seafaring men. It was named by Capt. George Vancouver in 1792 in honor of "a particular friend." The person honored was...

The Old Courthouse (Grennan and Crannery Store), built in 1855 as a store, is a well-preserved frame structure. The many-windowed front facing the road has two entrances, and the gabled roof bears two brick chimneys. A stately maple at one corner reputedly was planted by Captain Henry Roeder.

A wayside trading point once dominated by two large white two-story school buildings. This descriptive name became official through use over many years. Modern school buildings have replaced the old but the Tyee Restaurant and Prairie Center Grocery hark back to the historic importance of this crossroads. Whidbey Island’s first car, a Holsman built in 1902 in Chicago, was exhibited in the automobile dealership that once stood at the northeast...

Named for Joseph S. and Julia Ann Smith, who took a Donation Land Claim of 636 acres on the prairie south of Snatelum Point in 1853.

Mile: 19

The single store, marking the entrance to Holmes Harbor, was named by a settler for his boyhood home of Green Bank, Delaware. To the east, across Saratoga Passage, is Camano Island, midway between Whidbey Island and the mainland. Tiny Hackney Island also is in sight. The name was chosen in 1906 by Calvin Phillips of Seattle for his boyhood home in Delaware.

Mile: 25

South of Greenbank the highway follows the central ridge of the island overlooking Holmes Harbor, named for Silas Holmes, assistant surgeon of the Wilkes Expedition in 1841. Noted for its salmon, the harbor is a favorite trolling ground for saltwater fishermen. Holmes Harbor is a branch of Saratoga Passage extending south into Whidbey Island for six miles.

Mile: 20

Located near popular salmon-fishing grounds. The settlement was first named Equality by its Socialist founders, who started a co-operative sawmill but dispersed in 1904, after litigation had been started by creditors. In the 1940s, orchards and dairy farms surrounded the town, which consisted of a modern store, a half-dozen residences, and a small sawmill. Nichols Brothers Boat Yards moved onto the old sawmill site in 1964 and is still in...

A small trading center near a number of small lakes attractive to freshwater fishermen. Alongside the store is the Bayview Community Hall. At one time, this was an outfitting point for a number of Whidbey Island resorts, most of which were accessible from the town. The store was recently restored by the Goosefoot Foundation.

Mile: 15