Fidalgo Island is tucked up against the shores of northwestern Skagit County, Washington
State, and is separated from the same by the Swinomish Channel, which is as narrow
as 100 metres across in some places. In fact, in 1792,
Vancouver did not observe that Fidalgo’s northern shore was part of an island at all: this
would be discovered by the
Wilkes expedition of 1841, which shows Fidalgo as “Perrys Island”, in honour of Oliver Hazard
Perry of the US Navy.
1 However, in 1847,
Kellett restored its name to Fidalgo, which was a shift of sorts again, as, in 1791, Spanish
explorer Eliza had marked present-day
Rosario Strait as Canal de Fidalgo.
2