A store and post office serve the community, represented by a row of attractive houses along the shore of White Beach Bay, an indentation of West Sound.
West Sound is an inlet on the southwest side of Orcas Island. It was named Guerriere Bay by Cmdr. Charles Wilkes, for a British ship captured by U.S.S. Constitution during the War of 1812. In 1858, that name was replaced when the present name was charted by Capt. Henry Richards, British Admiralty surveyor. The name is in relation to East Sound, on Orcas Island, which is several miles east. The Lummi name for the inlet was Al-lay-ling. The community of West Sound is on the eastern shore of the sound.