Sucia Island () is located north of

Orcas Island Orcas Island () is the largest of the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest, which are in the northwestern corner of San Juan County, Washington. History and naming of the island The name "Orcas" is a shortened form of ''Horcasitas,'' fro ...

in the

San Juan Islands The San Juan Islands are an archipelago in the Pacific Northwest of the United States between the U.S. state of Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The San Juan Islands are part of Washington state, and form the core of ...

San Juan County, Washington San Juan County is a county located in the Salish Sea in the far northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 17,788. The county seat and only incorporated city is Friday Harbor, located on Sa ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is the largest of an archipelago of ten islands including Sucia Island, Little Sucia, Ewing, Justice, Herndon, the Cluster Islands islets, and several smaller, unnamed islands. The group of islands is about in length and just short of a half mile wide. Sucia island is roughly the shape of a hand. The total land area of all islands is 2.74 km² (1.058 sq mi, or 677

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s). The main island of Sucia Island by itself is 2.259 km² (0.8722 sq mi, or 558.1 ac). There was a permanent population of four persons as of the 2000 census, all on Sucia Island. Sucia Island State Park is a Washington State Marine Park.

History

Sucia Island's name originated with the Spanish Captain

Francisco de Eliza Francisco de Eliza y Reventa (1759 – February 19, 1825) was a Spanish naval officer, navigator, and explorer. He is remembered mainly for his work in the Pacific Northwest. He was the commandant of the Spanish post in Nootka Sound on Vancouve ...

, on his map of 1791. He named it "Isla Sucia". Sucia in Spanish means "dirty" or in a nautical sense "foul". This word was chosen because the shore was deemed dangerous due to reefs and hidden rocks. These reefs and broken shorelines are from a geologic

folding Fold, folding or foldable may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Fold'' (album), the debut release by Australian rock band Epicure * Fold (poker), in the game of poker, to discard one's hand and forfeit interest in the current pot *Abov ...

of the Earth's crust, which brought many interesting marine

fossils A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in ...

to the surface. Some good examples can be found on the southeast arm of Sucia Island. The isolated coves and bays of Sucia Island once served the

Lummi The Lummi ( ; Lummi: ''Xwlemi'' ; also known as Lhaq'temish (), or ''People of the Sea''), governed by the Lummi Nation, are a Native American tribe of the Coast Salish ethnolinguistic group. They are based in the coastal area of the Pacific No ...

Indians in their

seal hunting Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in ten countries: United States (above the Arctic Circle in Alaska), Canada, Namibia, Denmark (in self-governing Greenland only), Ice ...

days. They later provided excellent hideouts in the 19th century for

smugglers Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

of illegal Chinese laborers, as well as for hiding illegally imported

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. As ...

and

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

. Still later, the islands played a large role in rum-running during liquor

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

of the 1920s and 1930s, and in recent years they have figured in

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

. The cluster of Sucia Islands was purchased in 1960 by the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

Interclub Association and later donated to the State of Washington for protection as a Marine State Park. In 2012, a femur bone from a

theropod dinosaur Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally ...

informally named "Suciasaurus" was discovered on the island.

Activities

*Camping *Birdwatching, Bird watching *Hiking *Climbing, Rock climbing *Kayaking *Fishing *Scuba diving *Crabbing These activities can be accessed from Sucia Island State Park and the Echo Bay Campground.

Anchorages

Shallow Bay

Shallow Bay on the island's west side is protected from all but westerly winds and waves. There are seven mooring buoys and room for 40-50 small pleasure craft in this anchorage. There are beaches on three sides including a sandy beach to the north. Pebble Beach in the center is the access point to the camping and moorage pay box, as well as a large group camping site with a covered eating area and environmentally friendly composting out-houses. True to its name, Shallow Bay averages deep. The anchor holding is good in sand but may be more rocky towards the center and mouth of the bay.

Echo Bay

Echo Bay is directly opposite the island's narrow isthmus from Shallow Bay and the largest of the anchorages, and the most exposed, particularly to southeast winds. There are a number of mooring buoys close to a pebble beach.

Fossil Bay

Fossil Bay is one of the most popular anchorages, particularly for small boats that prefer to tie up to one of two docks rather than anchor or pick up a mooring ring. Fossil Bay is an inlet that opens to the southeast.

Fox Cove

Fox Cove lies just west of and can be seen from Fossil Bay. Fox Cove is bordered by Ev Henry Finger point and Little Sucia island.

Ewing Cove

Ewing Cove is between the northeast end of Sucia island and Ewing Island. There is room for several boats at anchor or at a mooring buoy. The pebble beach at Ewing Cove is at the end of a trail to the center of the island.

References

Notes

General references

Sucia Island group: Blocks 2000 thru 2005, Census Tract 9601, San Juan County, Washington
United States Census Bureau *

External links

Sucia Island State Park , Washington State Parks and Recreation CommissionSucia - San Juan Islands, WA
boat trip video * * (archipelago) {{authority control San Juan Islands Parks in San Juan County, Washington State parks of Washington (state)