Colonial Despatches

Cypress Island is part of the San Juan Islands. It lies between Blakey Island to the west, and Guemes Island to the east. Cypress's sinuous western coastline looks out to Rosario Strait and is home to Strawberry Bay. In 1792, Vancouver named it Cypress, in reference to the abundance of what were, in fact, juniper trees.1 Despite this botanical misidentification, the name Cypress stuck. Its earlier Spanish name was Isla de Saint Vincente.2

• 1. Lynn Middleton, Placenames of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Victoria: Elldee Publishing Company, 1969), 56.
• 2. Ibid.