OLYMPIA – They are the islands that government forgot.
Kurt Batdorf / Herald photo
Two isles, Strawberry and Baby, appear on maps of Island County, but as a Coupeville man discovered, they are not listed in the state’s legal description of the region.
“I’d been suspicious for years,” Roger Sherman said. “Now I can tell my friends I was right after all.”
Friends of the 70-year-old Coupeville resident insisted Island County is made up of five islands. He’s always contended the number was seven.
They cite 152 years of government records; he countered that the annals were wrong because they omitted the two uninhabited splotches of land.
Last spring, the maritime history buff pored over state laws and found the proof.
| Strawberry Island Size: 4 acres. Location: East of Deception Pass bridge. Owner: State of Washington, since 1965. Bought from the federal Bureau of Land Management. Named for: Wild strawberries that grow there. Baby Island (aka Hackney Island) Size: 1 acre. Location: In Holmes Harbor off Whidbey Island. Owner: Tulalip Tribes, since 1993. Purchase price: $127,400, plus $2,500 for the tidelands and shorelands. |
He also found Ben Ure Island mislabeled as “Ure’s.”
“It’s all trivia that’s been fun to figure out,” he said.
When Sherman revealed his discovery to state Rep. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, she responded with legislation to correct the mislabeling and add the names of the islands to the state’s legal description of the county.
“Essentially, Strawberry has been a lost island, and as far as we can tell, it has never been designated in any Washington law for inclusion in any county,” Bailey said.
She added, jokingly, “We will be increasing the size of the state and the county.”
Strawberry Island, named for the wild strawberries that grow there, is 4 acres – about four football fields – in size. It is part of Deception Pass State Park and is just east of the scenic bridge. The state has owned the island since 1965.
The rock-rimmed island is about a half-mile offshore and is visited mostly by birds, including bald eagles, state parks officials said.
Baby Island is a small outcropping visible from Holmes Harbor in Freeland. “It is really tiny now and eroding away,” Sherman said. “It might be gone in 50 years.”
When the Oregon Territorial Legislature penned the first legal description of Island County in 1853, it omitted the two islands. The error was perpetuated when the Washington Territorial Legislature formed county boundaries in 1867.
The state law was modified four times, the last in 1891, without the error being discovered.
As it is now written, the law describes Island County as containing the islands of Whidbey, Camano, Deception, Smith and Ben Ure.
“We’ve found Strawberry Island after all these years, and we’re giving it the recognition it deserves,” Bailey said in a statement issued with the introduction of her bill.
HB 2908 is scheduled for a hearing on Thursday.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360- 352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
