Editing Deception Pass (section)

==History==
[[Image:Deception Island.JPG|left|thumb|Deception Island]]
The Deception Pass area has been home to various [[Coast Salish]] tribes for thousands of years. The first [[Europe]]ans to see Deception Pass were members of the 1790 expedition of [[Manuel Quimper]] on the ''[[Princess Royal (1778 sloop)|Princesa Real]]''. The Spanish gave it the name ''Boca de Flon''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hayes |first=Derek |title=Historical Atlas of the Pacific Northwest: Maps of Exploration and Discovery |year=1999 |publisher=Sasquatch Books |isbn=1-57061-215-3 |page=72}}</ref>

A group of sailors led by [[Joseph Whidbey]], part of the [[Vancouver Expedition]], found and mapped Deception Pass on June 7, 1792.<ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=John E. |title=A Discovery Journal: George Vancouver's First Survey Season – 1792 |publisher=Trafford |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4120-7097-3 |page=87}}</ref> [[George Vancouver]] gave it the name "Deception" because it had misled him into thinking Whidbey Island was a peninsula.<ref name=wasp>{{cite web |url=http://parks.state.wa.us/497/Deception-Pass |title=Deception Pass State Park |publisher=Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission |access-date=March 23, 2016}}</ref> The "deception" was heightened due to Whidbey's failure to find the strait at first. In May 1792, Vancouver was anchored near the southern end of Whidbey Island. He sent Joseph Whidbey to explore the waters east of Whidbey Island, now known as [[Saratoga Passage]], using small boats. Whidbey reached the northern end of Saratoga Passage and explored eastward into Skagit Bay, which is shallow and difficult to navigate. He returned south to rejoin Vancouver without having found Deception Pass. It appeared that Skagit Bay was a dead-end and that Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island were a long peninsula attached to the mainland. In June, the expedition sailed north along the west coast of Whidbey Island. Vancouver sent Joseph Whidbey to explore inlets leading to the east. The first inlet turned out to be a "very narrow and intricate channel, which...abounded with rocks above and beneath the surface of the water".<ref name=historylink/> This channel led to Skagit Bay, thus separating Whidbey Island from the mainland. Vancouver apparently felt he and Joseph Whidbey had been deceived by the tricky strait. Vancouver wrote of Whidbey's efforts: "This determined [the shore they had been exploring] to be an island, which, in consequence of Mr. Whidbey’s circumnavigation, I distinguished by the name of Whidbey’s Island: and this northern pass, leading into [Skagit Bay], Deception Passage".<ref name=historylink>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=5060 |title=Joseph Whidbey circumnavigates Whidbey Island in June 1792 |publisher=[[HistoryLink]] |encyclopedia=The Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History |first=Kit |last=Oldham |date=August 2, 2006 |access-date=January 17, 2003}}</ref>

In the waters of Deception Pass, just east of the present-day Deception Pass Bridge, is a small island known as Ben Ure Island. The island became infamous for its activity of [[Human trafficking|human smuggling]] of migrant Chinese people for local labor. Ben Ure and his partner Lawrence "Pirate" Kelly were quite profitable at their human smuggling business and played hide-and-seek with the United States Customs Department for years. Ure's own operation at Deception Pass in the late 1880s consisted of Ure and his Native-American wife. Local tradition has it that his wife would camp on the nearby [[Strawberry Island (Deception Pass, Washington)|Strawberry Island]] (which was visible from the open sea) and signal him with a fire on the island's summit to alert him to whether or not it was safe to attempt to bring the human cargo he illegally transported ashore. For transport, Ure would tie the people up in burlap bags so that if customs agents approached he could toss the bagged people overboard. The tidal currents carried the entrapped drowned migrants' bodies to [[San Juan Island]] to the north and west of the pass; many ended up in Dead Man's Bay.
[[File:Deception Pass pano 02.jpg|left|thumb|600px|View looking south from Pass Island. From left to right, are visible Strawberry Island, part of Ben Ure Island, the bulk of Whidbey Island and the south span of the Deception Pass Bridge.]]
[[File:DeceptionPassPlaque2010809.jpg|thumb|Plaque explaining the history of Deception Pass: "Deception Pass - Named By Captain George Vancouver 10 June 1792.  Feeling That He Had Been 'Deceived' As To The Nature Of The Inner Waterway, Port Gardner (Now Saratoga Passage) he Wrote On His Chart 'Deception Pass.'"]]
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Between 1910 and 1914, a prison rock quarry was operated on the Fidalgo Island side of the pass.<ref name=anacortes>{{cite web |url=https://anacortes.catalogaccess.com/photos/6589 |title=Deception Pass Rock Quarry |work=Photo Record |publisher=Anacortes Museum & Maritime Heritage Center |access-date=April 14, 2025}}</ref><ref name="foundation-prison">{{cite web |last1=Slotemaker |first1=Terry |title=The Fidalgo Rock Quarry and Convict Camp, Deception Pas |url=https://deceptionpassfoundation.org/news/rock-quarry-and-convict-camp/ |publisher=Deception Pass Park Foundation |access-date=2025-05-20}}</ref> Nearby barracks housed some 40 prisoners (at least 25 in 1909, 48 in 1911, only 6 by 1913<ref name="foundation-prison" />), members of an honors program out of Walla Walla State Penitentiary and the prison population was made up of several types of prisoners, including those convicted of murder. Guards stood watch at the quarry as prisoners cut the rock into gravel and loaded it onto barges at the base of the cliff atop the pass's waters. The quarried rock was then barged to the Seattle waterfront. <!-- the preceding could use solid citation. --> The camp was dismantled in 1924 and although abandoned as a quarry, the remains of the camp can still be seen. The location is hazardous; over the years there have been several fatal accidents when visitors have ventured onto the steep cliffs. In 2006, the tunnel was sealed off due to these fatalities.<ref name="foundation-prison" />

A ferry was established by 1916 to connect Whidbey and [[Fidalgo Island|Fidalgo]] Islands. It was discontinued after July 31, 1935, when the {{convert|976|ft|m|adj=on}} [[Deception Pass Bridge]] opened, connecting Whidbey Island to the tiny Pass Island, and Pass Island to Fidalgo.