❖ Washington State Board on Geographic Names ❖

 

The San Juan Archipelago.
The county of San Juan is  
the smallest in
Washington State by land area.
Click image to enlarge.

    

SAN JUAN ISLANDS

"This name, long accepted in popular usage, has finally appeared on NOAA chart 18400 (ex-6300) written vertically through Orcas and Lopez Islands. The Washington State Board on Geographic Names, at its meeting of March 14, 1979, confirmed "San Juan Islands" as the name for the area, and rejected both "Quimper Sound" and "Washington Sound" as names identifying the whole body of water in which the islands lie.

      Subsequently, an issue arose before the Board as to the proper application of the term "San Juan Islands," in the form of a request that "the Board reviews its decision to confine the "San Juan Islands" to those islands within San Juan County." Minutes of the Board, March 14, 1979. At the meeting of the Board on June 22, 1979, the Acting Chairman, Robert Hitchman, commented that the critical feature in any such decision would be the "usage" of the term by persons in the area of the islands. the Board accepted the present author's offer to attempt to determine such usage, and a report was written and distributed in advance of the Board's September meeting.

      Specifically, the aim of the request was to include in "San Juan Islands" those islands, or some of them, that lie to the east of Rosario Strait, principally Guemes, Cypress, and Sinclair islands, although Lummi, Vendovi, Fidalgo, Allen, and Burrows islands might also be included.

      The report, entitled "Usage of the Term 'The San Juan Islands,'" found that, in the view of historical societies in the islands, and in the opinions of real estate dealers and newspaper figures, there was near unanimity that no change should be made in the current designation that limited the San Juan Islands to those west of Rosario Strait. The Board, at its September 1979 meeting, approved the report and decided against any change in the coverage of "San Juan Islands" on the charts."

Text by small craft mariner Bryce Wood.
Formerly of San Juan Island.

Coastal Place Names and Cartographic Nomenclature

1980. Published for the Washington State Historical Society.