Colonial Despatches

Deception Pass is part of the Salish Sea, in eastern Juan de Fuca Strait, north of Puget Sound.

The indomitable rowing machine, otherwise know as Joseph Whidbey, had surveyed recently the surrounding region. Whidbey, who had spent days likely dodging rocks and braving currents, was deceived by what he surmised was a cove: this turned out to be a narrow passage that Vancouver would call, appropriately, Deception Pass.1 In homage to Whidbey's toil and endurance, Vancouver named this newly-proved island Whidbey.2

• 1. Robert Hitchman, Place Names of Washington (Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1985), 67.
• 2. Lynn Middleton, Place Names of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Victoria: Elldee Publishing, 1969), 223.