Hat Island

History

For thousands of years, Hat Island (known as in the Lushootseed language) was the site of a village of the Snohomish people. Their territory extended over the Snohomish River, as well as parts of Camano and Whidbey islands. The village was located on the north side of the island on a spit, near a spring. There were several longhouses. Hat Island was first mentioned in the historical record by naturalist Archibald Menzies of the Vancouver Expedition in 1792. In the 1820s, a large landslide at Camano Head created a tidal wave which crashed into Hat Island. The wave wiped out the village, save for a few survivors. From that point on, the island was only used by the Snohomish as a temporary camping ground when clamming, never as a permanent living site. People who returned occasionally found human remains or parts of the destroyed village. The island was named in English by Charles Wilkes in 1841; although other sources say it was for John B. Gedney or Jonathon Haight Gedney, Wilkes's memoirs say he named it for Lt Thomas R. Gedney. The name Hat is for the shape of a beach and treeless ledge, first used in 1870. Since 1980 the island would be called Gedney Island (Hat).

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 0.692 square miles (1.79 km), of which, 0.688 square miles (1.78 km) of it is land and 0.004 square miles (0.01 km) of it (0.58%) is water. Hat Island is also the name of an uninhabited island in Padilla Bay, Skagit County.

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  27,992
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  26,720
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  24,050
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  21,514
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21,076
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  18,893
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  17,749
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  17,703

Most recent

• M 2.51 — 2026-08-09
  11 km SSW of River Road, Washington
• M 3.8 — 2026-07-02
  2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.5 — 2026-06-26
  11 km E of Carnation, Washington
• M 2.87 — 2026-06-08
  2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.56 — 2026-05-29
  7 km ENE of Ferndale, Washington
• M 2.84 — 2026-05-27
  4 km W of Wauna, Washington