A resort district on a small bight of the same name. Along the western cliffs of the shady green cove are feldspar deposits which reach 60 feet in thickness and 300 in depth. Feldspar is used in glazing pottery and manufacturing glass, but the demand has not justified development at this point.

The town was named for the bay on which it is located. A post office was established at Deer Harbor on January 14, 1893. In 1858, the name was placed on British admiralty charts by Capt Henry Richards, of the Royal Navy, for excellent deer hunting found around the bay in the 1850s by Louis Cayou, hunter for Hudson’s Bay Company. Lummi tribal members, who lived in a village consisting of three long houses on the bay, called it Tel-ki-each.