X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Strait of Juan de Fuca


Japanese submarine I-26

After searching unsuccessfully for the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2) following the attack on Pearl Harbor, I-26 patrolled off the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Leo Calland

Calland was born in Ohio, and moved with his family as a child to the Seattle, Washington area, where he attended school in a log cabin on Lopez Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca; all of the other students were Native Americans.

Strait of Juan de Fuca

In March 2008, the Chemainus First Nation proposed renaming the strait the "Salish Sea", an idea that reportedly met with approval by British Columbia's Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong, who pledged to put it before the B.C. cabinet for discussion.

Some scenes from the movie The Hunt for Red October were filmed in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in 1989.

In October 2009, the Washington state Board of Geographic Names approved the Salish Sea toponym, not to replace the names of the Strait of Georgia, Puget Sound, and Strait of Juan de Fuca, but instead as a collective term for all three.


Carmanah Point Light Station

Carmanah Point Light Station is a lighthouse on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island at the entrance from the Pacific Ocean to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Deception Pass Bridge

In the spring of 1792, Joseph Whidbey, master of HMS Discovery and Captain Vancouver's chief navigator proved that it was not really a small bay as charted by the Spaniards (hence the name "Deception"), but a deep and turbulent channel that connects the Strait of Juan de Fuca with the Saratoga Passage, which separates the mainland from what they believed was a peninsula (actually Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island).

Dungeness, Washington

Dungeness crab is named after the town of Dungeness, which is located on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Gulf Islands

The term Salish Sea was adopted in 2010 to refer to the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and all connecting and adjoining waters.

Nootka Convention

Both sides took up positions regarding the border, with Britain desiring it set just north of San Francisco and Spain at the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council

Similarly the closely related Ditidaht of the Ditidaht First Nation and the Makah of the other side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca are not members of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council.

Sappho, Washington

Traveling by steamer from Seattle, they landed at an Indian settlement called Pysht on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and hiked inland 20 miles through the rainforest to their claim.

Skagit City, Washington

Today, the city of Cedardale, Washington, is the closest city to the former townsite, and the name "Skagit City" has become simply a placename on the northeastern tip of Fir Island at where two distributaries diverge and carry Skagit River water into Skagit Bay, which branches off the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Wakashan languages

Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


see also

Port Discovery

Port Discovery, Washington – George Vancouver's landing point on the Strait of Juan de Fuca