Fox Island is an
island
An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...
and
census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
(CDP) in
Pierce County,
Washington
Washington most commonly refers to:
* George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States
* Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A ...
, United States, in
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...
. It is located approximately 5 miles (8 km) from
Gig Harbor
Gig Harbor () is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington. The population was 12,029 at the 2020 census.
Gig Harbor bills itself as "the Maritime City" and maintains a strong connection to its ...
. The island was named Fox by
Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and List of explorers, explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842).
During the American Civil War between 1861 and 1865 ...
during the
United States Exploring Expedition
The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...
, to honor J.L. Fox, an assistant surgeon on the expedition. The population was 3,921 at the
2020 census, up from 3,633 at the
2010 census.
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the census-designated place has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (18.31%) is water.
Fox Island is separated from the mainland by
Hale Passage to the north. The Fox Island Bridge crosses that passage to connect the road network to the mainland at
Artondale. A small inhabited island named
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is a music venue and Music festival, festival in the towns of Lenox, Massachusetts, Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony ...
lies just off Fox Island along the Hale Passage; it was included as part of the Fox Island
CDP for the
2010 Census. To the southwest,
Carr Inlet
Carr Inlet, in southern Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington, is an arm of water between Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor Peninsula. Its southern end is connected to the southern basin of Puget Sound. Northward, it separates McNeil Island and ...
separates Fox Island from
McNeil Island
McNeil Island is an island in the Northwestern United States, in south Puget Sound southwest of Tacoma, Washington. With a land area of , it lies in an area of many inhabited small islands, including Anderson Island (Washington), Anderson Island ...
.
History
The island was part of the territory of the
Steilacoom people, a
Coast Salish
The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak on ...
tribe.
In 1792, during the
Vancouver Expedition
The Vancouver Expedition (1791–1795) was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver of the Royal Navy. The British expedition circumnavigated the globe and made contact with five continen ...
,
Peter Puget
Peter Puget (1765 – 31 October 1822) was an officer in the Royal Navy, best known for his exploration of Puget Sound, which is named for him.
Midshipman Puget
Puget's ancestors had fled France for Britain during Louis XIV's persecution of the ...
led an exploration party through southern Puget Sound. After an encounter with local Native tribes ended with Puget ordering a musket fired as warning, the exploration party retreated to Fox Island, where they made camp for the night.
In 1856, during the
Puget Sound War
The Puget Sound War was an armed conflict that took place in the Puget Sound area of the state of Washington in 1855–56, between the United States military, local militias and members of the Native American tribes of the Nisqually, Muck ...
, most of the
Puyallup
Puyallup may refer to:
* Puyallup people, a Coast Salish people
* Puyallup Tribe of Indians, a federally-recognized tribe
* Puyallup, Washington, a city
** Puyallup High School
** Puyallup School District
** Puyallup station, a Sounder commuter ...
and "non-hostile"
Nisqually
Nisqually, Niskwalli, or Nisqualli may refer to:
People
* Nisqually people, a Coast Salish ethnic group
* Nisqually Indian Tribe of the Nisqually Reservation, federally recognized tribe
** Nisqually Indian Reservation, the tribe's reservation in ...
Indians, totaling about 500 people, were removed from their homelands and displaced to Fox Island. John Swan was assigned to supervise the internment camp and distribute food rations provided by the government (territorial government). On January 5, 1856,
Chief Leschi
Chief Leschi (; ; c. 1808 – February 19, 1858) was a chief of the Nisqually Indian Tribe of southern Puget Sound, Washington, primarily in the area of the Nisqually River.
Following outbreaks of violence and the Yakima Wars (1855–1858), ...
and other "hostile" Indians arrived at Fox Island with a flotilla of canoes. Trusting Swan, they had come to talk about the war and how to resolve it. While the hostile Indians were on Fox Island, Captain Maurice Maloney took the steamship ''Beaver'' to the island, hoping to rescue Swan, but forgot to bring landing craft and was unable to send men ashore. Before Maloney could figure out what to do, Swan came to the shore and paddled a canoe to the ''Beaver''. He told Maloney that there had been no violence, urged him to not come ashore, and said he had promised to return to the island, which he did. Maloney returned to Steilacoom and, along with other military officers, took another steamship, the ''USS Active'' from
Steilacoom to
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
to get a howitzer (which they failed to acquire), then back to Fox Island, hoping to capture Chief Leschi. But by the time the ''Active'' returned, more than 30 hours after Leschi had arrived on Fox Island, the hostile Indians had left.
By August 1856 the war was essentially over. Governor
Isaac Stevens
Isaac Ingalls Stevens (March 25, 1818 – September 1, 1862) was an American military officer and politician who served as governor of the Territory of Washington from 1853 to 1857, and later as its delegate to the United States House of Represe ...
went to the Indian encampment on Fox Island to renegotiate the 1854
Treaty of Medicine Creek
The Treaty of Medicine Creek was an 1854 treaty between the United States, and nine tribes and bands of Indians, occupying the lands lying around the head of Puget Sound, Washington, and the adjacent inlets. The tribes listed on the Treaty of Medic ...
, which had been a major factor in the outbreak of war. Stevens agreed to new, larger reservations for both the Puyallup and Nisqually tribes.
The first non-Indians settled on Fox island in 1856, just after the war ended. One of the first real estate transactions was in 1881 when 56.5 acres (22.6 hectares) were sold for $118. By 1908 there were about 60 homes scattered across the island.
The most important change to this community happened in 1954 when the Fox Island Bridge was completed, connecting Fox Island to the mainland. This allowed easy access to businesses, schools, and medical facilities outside the island. During the construction a historical Indian canoe was found preserved in the mud, which can be visited in the Fox Island history museum. In 1956 the population of the island was 120, by 2000 it had grown to more than 2,800.
Cartoonist
Gary Larson
Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist who created ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years. The series ended on January 1, 1995, ...
visited Fox Island frequently as a child. He has called Fox Island a "wondrous place" and credits the island's swamps and wildlife with inspiring his interest in nature.

On April 29, 1988, at 6 PM local time, a nuclear-powered US Navy submarine, the
USS Sam Houston (SSBN-609), ran aground on Fox Island while operating in nearby
Carr Inlet
Carr Inlet, in southern Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington, is an arm of water between Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor Peninsula. Its southern end is connected to the southern basin of Puget Sound. Northward, it separates McNeil Island and ...
. The ship remained aground for approximately 10 hours until high tide returned and tugboats were brought in to unstick the ship. No damage was done to the island, and the ship entered a drydock at the Bangor Naval Submarine Base for minor repairs to its hull.
In recent years, Fox Island has become a wealthy
exurb
An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburbs, suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density,
and rela ...
of
Tacoma
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...
, largely because of the amount of waterfront property on the island and because of the island's location between the Olympic Mountains and Mount Rainier; a large number of the island's residential properties have views. Based on
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Fox Island ranks 29th of the 522 ranked areas in the state of Washington.
Demographics
As of the
census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 2,803 people, 1,048 households, and 847 families residing in the CDP. The
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was 536.3 people per square mile (206.9/km
2). There were 1,150 housing units at an average density of 220.0/sq mi (84.9/km
2). The racial makeup of the CDP was 94.08%
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
, 0.64%
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
, 0.75%
Native American, 1.64%
Asian, 0.14%
Pacific Islander
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 0.39% from
other races, and 2.35% from two or more races.
Hispanic
The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or
Latino of any race were 1.86% of the population.
There were 1,048 households, out of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 72.4% were
married couples
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, 6.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.1% were non-families. 15.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.67 and the average family size was 2.97.
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 27.3% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 31.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $69,135, and the median income for a family was $72,284. Males had a median income of $61,208 versus $39,821 for females. The
per capita income
Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year.
In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the CDP was $32,533. About 1.7% of families and 3.2% of the population were below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 5.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
See also
*
List of islands of Washington (state)
This is a list of selected islands that are part of Washington state.
See also
* '
* '
References
{{Authority control
*
Washington State by Population and Area
Islands of Washington State by population and area
Washington State
...
References
External links
*
FICRA.org - Fox Island Community and Recreation Association (FICRA) WebsiteFoxIslandwa.net - Fox Island, WA News & Community Website
{{authority control
Census-designated places in Pierce County, Washington
Census-designated places in Washington (state)
Islands of Washington (state)
Populated places on Puget Sound
Islands of Pierce County, Washington
Islands of Puget Sound