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Saddlebag Island Marine State Park

state park in Skagit County, Washington State, United States

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ20712611 ↗
Source-derived summary

Saddlebag Island Marine State Park is a public recreation area made up of 24-acre (9.7 ha) Saddlebag Island, part of the San Juan Islands, in Skagit County, Washington. The island sits in Padilla Bay four miles (6.4 km) northeast of Anacortes, Washington. Dot Island and Huckleberry Island lie nearby. Saddlebag Island was held in private ownership until 1974, when the state purchased it for $192,000 for use as a state park.

Activities and amenities

Park activities include hiking, boating, crabbing, diving, saltwater fishing, swimming, water skiing, bird watching, and wildlife viewing. The island has five primitive campsites, one of which is reserved for human- or wind-powered visitors on the Cascadia Marine Trail. The island has no mooring buoys or docks.

Editorial summary

“Saddlebag Island Marine State Park” enters the record as state park in Skagit County, Washington State, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Saddlebag, Island and Marine can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1974—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1974-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Saddlebag, Island and Marine.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Saddlebag Island Marine State Park” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Saddlebag, Island and Marine provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20712611. Authority coordinates are 48.536, -122.556. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Saddlebag Island Marine State Park”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Saddlebag Island Marine State Park primary sources, Saddlebag Island Marine State Park archive and Saddlebag research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Saddlebag Island Marine State Park”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Saddlebag Island Marine State Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.