Local History: Camano Island & the Great Slide

Camano Island (pronounced ke-mei-no) is named for the Spanish explorer Jacinto Caamaño. Charles Wilkes, during the Wilkes Expedition of 1838-1842, named it MacDonough Island in honor of Thomas MacDonough for his victory of the Battle of Lake Champlain during the War of 1812. Following this theme, Wilkes named the body of Water between Camano and Whidbey Island after MacDonough’s flagship the Saratoga. When Henry Kellett reorganized the official British Admiralty charts in 1847, he removed Wilkes’ name MacDonough and bestowed the name Camano, which the Spanish had originally given to Admiralty Inlet in 1790. Wilkes’ name Saratoga Passage was retained. When the daylight low tides returned each spring, the people would travel to the clam beds to gather the rich bounty uncovered with each cycle. Camano Head, at the south end of Camano Island and in sight of Tulalip Bay was a favorite, and very productive, clamming site. The village at the site, located at Camano Head, was called WHESH-ud which means “Splashing Water.”. Before 1840 this beach was overhung with a massive outcrop of soil and rock. The area underneath had been undercut by wind and waves. One unfortunate spring day in the 1830s this land gave way and slid into Possession Sound as over 100 people, mostly women and children, were gathering clams below. Not only were these people lost, but many more perished in the tsunami wave that hit nearby Hat Island (aka Gedney Island, located south of Camano, between Everett & Whidbey). This tragic event is known as “The Great Slide.” In 1994 the Tulalip Tribes purchased the Camano Head tidelands. Today this culturally important area is the site of tribal ceremonial and subsistence digs. Tulalip children are able to dig clams in the same place their ancestors did for thousands of years. The Tulalip Tribes shellfish program manages healthy populations of littlenecks, butter clams, horse clams, and cockles at this site.  – Sources: www.greenenergytalkdirectory.org,   www.tulalip.nsn.us,   and www.wikipedia.org.