Oak Harbor

Oak Harbor is a city on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.

aerial view of Oak Harbor

Understand

Oak Harbor's history goes back to the early 1850s, when two settlers staked claims where the city now stands—Zakarias Martin Taftezon, a shoemaker from Norway; C.W. Sumner from New England Houses and businesses sprouted up along the shores of Oak Harbor as the pioneers relied entirely on water transportation until the 1900s. For the next thirty years, steamers and freighters carried passengers and freight from the Island to the mainland and back as well as Fidalgo Island to the north.

The Irish came in the late 1850s, making Oak Harbor grow and prosper as they fished and farmed the area, and the city's Dutch heritage arrived in the 1890s. Churches, schools, and more businesses followed the arrival of the Dutch. A high school was built in 1906. Oak Harbor flourished as a small country town until Deception Pass Bridge and the U.S. Navy Base connected the city to the rest of the region and the world.

Get in

By boat

  • 🌍 Oak Harbor City Marina, 1401 SE Catalina Dr, ☏ +1 360 279-4575. The marina has 420 slips and ample guest moorage with limited side-tie moorage. They offer showers, restrooms, laundry room, ice machine, picnic tables in park and on guest dock, a playground and waste oil bins. The facility is located about one mile from most retail services, including motels and restaurants in Oak Harbor. (updated Jun 2023)

By shuttle

Get around

By public transit

By taxi

See

Do

Buy

Eat

There are many restaurants in Oak Harbor. Below are the most popular ones.

Drink

Sleep

Go next

Deception Pass Bridge
  • Deception Pass State Park, at the north end of Whidbey Island, is the fast-flowing waterway between Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands, with over 4,100 acres (1,700 hectares) of forest, beaches, campsites, trails, and scenic vistas. During low tides, the swift current can lead to standing waves, large whirlpools, and roiling eddies underneath the historic Deception Pass Bridge.
Routes through Oak Harbor
Port Townsend ← Coupeville ←  S  N  → Anacortes → Burlington


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