Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve is a unit of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

Whidbey Island Whidbey Island (historical spellings Whidby, Whitbey, or Whitby) is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington State. (The other large island is Camano Island, ...

in the Puget Sound, near Coupeville in

Island County, Washington Island County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 86,857. Its county seat is Coupeville, while its largest city is Oak Harbor. The county's name reflects the fact that it is compose ...

, United States.

Description

The Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve is a rural historic district that preserves and protects the historical record of

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 ...

exploration and settlement from the 19th century to the present. Historic farms, still under cultivation in the prairies of

, reveal land use patterns unchanged since settlers claimed the land in the 1850s under the

Donation Land Claim Act The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Pre ...

. The nearby seaport community of Coupeville, one of the oldest towns in Washington, is included in the reserve. Also included are both

Fort Casey State Park Fort Casey State Park is located on Whidbey Island, in Island County, Washington state. It is a Washington state park and a historic district within the U.S. Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve. Admiralty Inlet was considered so strategi ...

and Fort Ebey State Park, as well as a section of the

Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail The Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT) is a 1200-mile hiking trail running from the Continental Divide in Montana to the Pacific Ocean on Washington's Olympic Coast. Along the way, the PNT crosses three national parks, seven national forests, and tw ...

. The Central Whidbey Island Historic District, with the Sergeant Clark House and the Coupeville grain wharf, is part of the National Historical Reserve and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. . Other protected lands within the reserve include the Admiralty Inlet Natural Area Preserve.

History

The Reserve at Ebey's Landing provides a vivid historical record of

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

history, including the first exploration of Puget Sound by Captain George Vancouver in 1792; early settlement by Colonel Isaac Ebey, who filed a claim under the

in 1850; growth and settlement resulting from the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail in the United States that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of what is now the state of Kans ...

and the Westward migration; the Donation Land Laws (1850–1855); and the continued growth and settlement of the town of Coupeville.

Jurisdictions

Unlike many National Park Service units, the Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve encompasses a mixture of federal, state, county, and private property. Authorized November 10, 1978, the reserve is a partnership managed by a local trust board. Limited federal facilities exist in the reserve, and only 209.06 acres (0.846 km²) of the reserve are federally owned.

References

Sources

* * ''The National Parks: Index 2001–2003''. Washington:

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the man ...

External links