Privately-owned Islands  

There are many privately owned islands including: Armitage, Barnes, Bell, Big Double, Cactus, Canoe, Charles, Cliff, Coon, Dinner, Fawn, Little Double, Long, McConnel, O'Neil, Picnic, Ram, Reef, Satellite, South Finger, Spieden, Trump and Whale Rock.

Canoe Island is a 45-acre forested enclave on the southeast side of Shaw Island. It is the home of Canoe Island French Camp, a unique summer camp for teenagers with the focus of learning things French such as language, cooking, fencing, music and folk dancing. It also has other activities like swimming, sailing, tennis and archery.

Satellite Island is off the north-eastern shore of Stuart Island and is owned by the YMCA for use as a summer camp. The tidelands below mean high water are owned by the Department of Natural Resources allowing public access to them during low tides.

Most of the information in this Island section was derived from three books: The San Juan Islands, Afoot & Afloat by Marge & Ted Mueller, San Juan Islands by Don Pitcher and Pig War Islands by David Richardson. At Home Magazine contributed material about San Juan, Lopez, Orcas and Shaw Islands.

Photos courtesy of Washington State Dept. of Ecology