Fidalgo Island

Fidalgo Iceland is an inhabited, forested and hilly island in the U.S. state of Washington, which belongs to the San Juan Islands. It is 106.7 km ². Fidalgo Iceland is located in Skagit County and belongs to the most western island group of the state. The largest town on the island with 14,557 inhabitants Anacortes, a total of 20,700 people live on Fidalgo Iceland. (As of U.S. Census 2000)

In the east, the island is separated from the mainland by the Swinomish Channel. In the south of the Deception Pass Bridge, which spans the Deception Pass, connects the island with Whidbey Iceland.

Fidalgo Iceland was originally inhabited by indigenous people of the Samish and Swinomish.

The island is named after the Spanish navigator, cartographer and explorer Salvador Fidalgo who explored the area in 1790 with the fleet Francisco de Eliza. Charles Wilkes then discovered that this is not acted to mainland but an island, to which he gave the name Perry Iceland. Oliver Hazard Perry was the leader of the Americans at the Battle of Lake Erie during the British - American War of 1812. When Henry Kellett reorganized in 1847, the maps of the British Admiralty, he stroked the name Perry and awarded the name Fidalgo. The highest point of the island retained the name assigned by Wilkes Mount Erie.

The biggest boost in the colonization took place in the 1850s by the Fraser River gold rush, and was, as speculated in 1890 that also the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad could be built. Today, fisheries and logging companies are located.

The south to Seattle is accessible by road in two hours. There is ferry service to Victoria (Canada) and at different places in the San Juan Islands.