Oak Harbor

Oak Harbor is a city on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.

aerial view of Oak Harbor

Understand

Oak Harbor's history goes back to the early 1850s, when two settlers staked claims where the city now stands—Zakarias Martin Taftezon, a shoemaker from Norway; C.W. Sumner from New England Houses and businesses sprouted up along the shores of Oak Harbor as the pioneers relied entirely on water transportation until the 1900s. For the next thirty years, steamers and freighters carried passengers and freight from the Island to the mainland and back as well as Fidalgo Island to the north.

The Irish came in the late 1850s, making Oak Harbor grow and prosper as they fished and farmed the area, and the city's Dutch heritage arrived in the 1890s. Churches, schools, and more businesses followed the arrival of the Dutch. A high school was built in 1906. Oak Harbor flourished as a small country town until Deception Pass Bridge and the U.S. Navy Base connected the city to the rest of the region and the world.

Get in

By boat

• Oak Harbor City Marina, 1401 SE Catalina Dr, ☎ [phone]. conveniently located between Seattle and the San Juan Islands. The marina has 420 slips and ample guest moorage with limited side-tie moorage. They offer showers, restrooms, laundry room, ice machine, picnic tables in park and on guest dock, a playground and waste oil bins. The facility is located about one mile from most retail services, including motels and restaurants in Oak Harbor. 

By bus

• Island Transit, ☎ [phone]. A free, scheduled bus services the island, from Mukilteo north with connections to Mt. Vernon on the mainland, with Island Transit. The bus operates daily except Sundays, with reduced trips on Saturdays. 

By shuttle

• Whidbey SeaTac Shuttle, toll-free: [phone]. provides transportation service between communities on Whidbey and Sea-Tac Airport. 

Get around

See

Deception Pass Bridge

Deception Pass Bridge, a National Historic Monument since 1982, is actually two spans that link Whidbey Island near Oak Harbor to Fidalgo Island over Canoe Pass and Deception Pass. The bridge, one of the scenic wonders and destinations of the Pacific Northwest, was a Public Works Administration project built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Deception Pass State Park, has over 4,100 acres (17 km2) of forest, campsites, trails, and scenic vistas of the San Juan Islands, Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), Mount Baker, and Fidalgo Island.

Do

Buy

Eat

Drink

Sleep

• Best Western Harbor Plaza, 33175 State Route 20, ☎ [phone], toll-free: [phone], fax: [phone]. 

Go next

Routes through Oak Harbor

Port Townsend ← Coupeville ←

S  N

→ Anacortes → Burlington