Fox Island

History

The island was part of the territory of the Steilacoom people, a Coast Salish tribe. In 1792, during the Vancouver Expedition, Peter Puget led an exploration party through southern Puget Sound. After an encounter with local Native tribes ended with Puget ordering a musket fired as warning, the exploration party retreated to Fox Island, where they made camp for the night. In 1856, during the Puget Sound War, most of the Puyallup and "non-hostile" Nisqually Indians, totaling about 500 people, were removed from their homelands and displaced to Fox Island. John Swan was assigned to supervise the internment camp and distribute food rations provided by the government (territorial government). On January 5, 1856, Chief Leschi and other "hostile" Indians arrived at Fox Island with a flotilla of canoes. Trusting Swan, they had come to talk about the war and how to resolve it. While the hostile Indians were on Fox Island, Captain Maurice Maloney took the steamship Beaver to the island, hoping to rescue Swan, but forgot to bring landing craft and was unable to send men ashore. Before Maloney could figure out what to do, Swan came to the shore and paddled a canoe to the Beaver. He told Maloney that there had been no violence, urged him to not come ashore, and said he had promised to return to the island, which he did. Maloney returned to Steilacoom and, along with other military officers, took another steamship, the USS Active from Steilacoom to Seattle to get a howitzer (which they failed to acquire), then back to Fox Island, hoping to capture Chief Leschi. But by the time the Active returned, more than 30 hours after Leschi had arrived on Fox Island, the hostile Indians had left. On April 29, 1988, at 6 PM local time, a nuclear-powered US Navy submarine, the USS Sam Houston…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the census-designated place has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it (18.31%) is water. Fox Island is separated from the mainland by Hale Passage to the north. The Fox Island Bridge crosses that passage to connect the road network to the mainland at Artondale. A small inhabited island named Tanglewood lies just off Fox Island along the Hale Passage; it was included as part of the Fox Island CDP for the 2010 Census. To the southwest, Carr Inlet separates Fox Island from McNeil Island.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  28,750
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  26,864
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  25,424
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  23,929
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  21,210
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  20,892
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  18,668
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  18,485

Most recent

• M 2.51 — 2026-08-09
  11 km SSW of River Road, Washington
• M 2.5 — 2026-06-26
  11 km E of Carnation, Washington
• M 2.84 — 2026-05-27
  4 km W of Wauna, Washington
• M 2.52 — 2026-03-17
  7 km SE of Mineral, Washington
• M 2.86 — 2026-03-11
  2 km W of Home, Washington
• M 3.02 — 2026-02-24
  4 km ESE of Cathcart, Washington