Island County Historical Museum

Help us to preserve 120,000 YEARS OF LOCAL HISTORY

For families looking for an affordable day out, for seniors wanting community engagement, for scholars looking for records of the past-- Island County Historical Society (ICHS) Museum is the repository for Island County history on Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve.  We need your help to keep our archives and collections safe for future generations and to keep our museum free for all visitors. 

We're open all year round, 7 days a week, and strive to be a place that tourists can enjoy while traveling and that local people can return to again and again. People can enjoy the Museum Scavenger Hunt for all ages, try one of our interactives, and use our tour app to enjoy songs, videos, animal sounds, and more as they learn about the history of this unique place. Researchers and family tree seekers are able to use our archives and research library for free. 

The museum is accessible for all: Admission is free, there is wheelchair and walker access, an elevator, and a tour app that allows you to learn by listening. We want to continue being able to offer these kinds of services to all visitors. 

We want to continue being able to tell the stories of the people who lived here for thousands of years.  ICHS’s permanent exhibits include Native People – Native Places celebrating the history of the local Coast Salish indigenous peoples spanning some 10,000 years and featuring a 28-foot Nootka style cedar dugout canoe made by the Lower Skagit people right here. Learn about Lushootseed—the language of the Coast Salish Peoples— and listen to it too. 

As the only museum in Island County to educate about prehistory and local ecosystems, we want to be able to help future generations understand how important nature is. Our Outdoor Native plants garden project and natural history exhibits, including 10,000-12,000-year-old Columbian Mammoth remains and an Ice Age fir tree, flattened by the immense Vashon Glacier, 120,000 years ago help us to tell this story. The Native Species exhibit showcases the ecosystems of Island County, and the plants and animals that the Lower Skagit and Snohomish peoples relied on for food, clothing, and shelter.

As we tell the stories of the past, people can see how we got to where we are now. We need your help to tell these stories. ICHS has the How the Sea Shaped Island County Maritime exhibit that is a fun and interactive way to learn about the lives of Sea Captains and sailors on board the ships that came here to explore, trade, and bring provisions. Our Pioneers exhibit shows the tough journeys by sail or the Oregon Trail that brought people from the East, and the lives of pioneers once they arrived. 

Special seasonal exhibits and monthly Pop-ups  make sure that there is always something new each time you come, wrapping up each year with a holiday-themed exhibit.

In the summer, visit us on Wednesday afternoons at 2 PM on the museum porch for Porch Stories: one-hour presentations with storytelling and history.

Together, we can keep on providing education, outreach, school tours, archival storage of documents, and a fun place for everyone to learn about history. Help us continue to make a difference-for generations to come.