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Our beautiful Camano Island has a rich history and has been given many names over the years. "Kal-lut-chin", Macdonough Island, Caamaño, Perry, Crow Island and then Camano.Today, Camano island with two State Parks, roads, much development and thousands of residents is still a beautiful place to visit or to call home.

A bit of history:

The earliest inhabitants of Camano Island were the Kikalos and Snohomish Indians, who used the island for a summer dwelling while gathering seafood and berries. They called it "Kal-lut-chin," which in the language of the indigenous Snohomish tribe means "land jutting into a bay." They used the island as a base during the fishing and shellfish gathering expeditions.

In 1790, The Spanish expedition led by Manuel Quimper Benítez del Pino, a Spanish Peruvian explorer, cartographer, naval officer, and colonial official born in Lima, brought the first Europeans to map the area. It was Quimper's pilot, Juan Carrasco, who sighted the current Admiralty inlet on the west coast of Whidbey Island and thinking it was a bay he named it Ensenada de Caamaño, after the Spanish naval officer Jacinto Caamaño, Captain of the Aranzazu, (Nuestra Senora de Aranzazu) of the Spanish Navy, who explored western waters working out of Spain’s naval base in San Blas, Mexico during the 1700’s, and was the leader of the last great Spanish exploration of Alaska and the Coast of British Columbia but had not come into what was later known as Puget Sound. This was the first time the Caamaño's name had been used to name any o the local geographical points. Two years later, George Vancouver renamed it Admiralty Inlet, after his ultimate Naval commanders, the Board of Admiralty.

In 1838, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy was given command of a United States exploration to chart western waters, including Puget Sound and the Oregon country. This United States Exploring Expedition marks America's first formal entry into Puget Sound water. It was also to name the areas not previously titled. Lieutenant Wilkes’ selection for this small island, nestled between Whidbey Island to the west and the mainland to the east, was to name it name it Macdonough Island – to honor Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough, captain of the Saratoga during the War of 1812 and his victory of the battle of Lake Champlain. Following that theme, Wilkes named the waters between Macdonough and Whidbey Island, Saratoga Passage after Macdonough’s flagship the “Saratoga”.

In 1847, British navy Captain Kellett of the surveying vessel Herald, reorganized the official British Admiralty charts and dropped the name Macdonough for the island in his effort to restore Spanish names to the area. He renamed the island giving it its present name of Camano Island to honor Lieutenant Don Jacinto Caamaño. who had started his expedition in San Blas, Mexico and explored much of the Pacific Northwest going as far north as what is now Alaska for the Spanish. 

As a note of interest, the Caamaño Sound and Caamaño passage in British Columbia were also named in honor of Don Jacinto Caamaño and still maintain the name. 

In 1855, in the treaty with local Indians, the first Governor of the Washington Territory, Governor Isaac Stevens, referred to the island as Perry Island. The first Euro-American settlers on the island arrived at the time of the signing of the treaty and began extensive logging operations. Farmers came later and developed the area agriculturally. During the logging era the island was called Crow Island, a name that is sometimes still used by local residents.

Sources:
Camano Chamber of Commerce
British Columbia HISTORICAL NEWS -Journal of the British Columbia Historical Federation
US government resources.https://www.biografiasyvidas.comwww.simply-san-juan.comhttps://wikivisually.com
Other: https://www.historylink.org/file/7523  and Individual research

Camano Island

"I guess since all my cronies are throwing in the towel and taking retirement on schedule, it’s only reasonable I’ve been getting calls from the Mabana Financial Services asking if I’d like to come on down to their lavish offices overlooking the Port of Mabana and discuss fiscal strategies for my upcoming Golden Years. Ho ho, would I ever? Course, like I tell Ben, the head honcho down at MFS, it’s a little like saddling up the horse that ske-daddled when I left the barn door open back in my earning years. Earning years. Old Ben loves expressions like that". More at The Skeeter Daddle Diaries ➜

Whidbey Island, WA
www.calobphotography.com

Gee, I don’t know. Imagine calling Donald Trump and his gang of goofballs weird. What, them? Elon Musk and his X platform of misinformation? C’mon, we all know he’s as normal as you and me and the potted plant in the room with us. So what if he plans to colonize Mars in our lifetime, probably not a bad plan at all, maybe start with Don and JD? Matt Goetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene? How about Lauren Boebert? Rudy, America’s mayor? Nothing strange about those nice people, right?..... More at The Skeeter Daddle Diaries ➜

"I went to apply for my State Park Annual Permit yesterday, what used to be free to us citizens, but now costs us taxpayers because the State doesn’t have enough tax dollars for what it used to have enough for so the budget needs to be balanced. Now the poor can pay what the guy launching his 25 foot Bayliner pays for a permit, same way he does at the gas station for the gas tax, same as he does at the drug store, same as he does just about everywhere he buys something. This is what we call Recessive Taxation. No breaks for the indigent. You know, folks we now refer to as Takers...... More at The Skeeter Daddle Diaries ➜

"Here’s some good news for you beleaguered gun right advocates: now you can buy your ammo from a vending machine. No need to haul down to your local gun dealer for bullets, just wheel up to the conveniently placed dispenser in your local chain grocery store. Course, at this time the only states where they’re located is Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama but you can rest assure American Rounds, the distributor, will expand exponentially until it reaches your very own Safeway". ...More at The Skeeter Daddle Diaries ➜

Photo shared by Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American

Saratoga Passage, WA

"A study from the University of Washington, published last week in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, reports the noise from the Boeing EA-18G Growlers and their training drills present a “substantial risk” to two-thirds of Island County residents" More at The Seattle Times ➜
(U.S. Navy Photo)