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Bay View State Park is perched above the waves of Padilla Bay at the western edge of the Skagit Valley. The scenic spot lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Samish Indian Nation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, Suquamish Tribe and Lummi Nation. For thousands of years the rich estuary and its extensive eelgrass beds have provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures.

Pacific Beach State Park has a long history as a place for travelers to rest as they journey along Washington’s Pacific Ocean coastline.

Indigenous Lands

The park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Quinault Indian Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.

Ethnographers reported that the mouth of Joe Creek in today’s Pacific Beach State Park served as a “rest stop” for Indigenous people traveling along the coast between trading centers. 

Illahee State Park takes its name from the Chinook jargon word for “homeland.” The park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Suquamish Tribe. Indigenous historian Vi Hilbert noted that today’s park occupies a site known as Xitca’sEb, meaning “to feel a tremor.” Geologists have mapped two main faults of the Seattle Fault Zone running north and south of the park area. The fault zone was the site of a major earthquake 1,100 years ago.