It connects Skagit Bay, part of Puget Sound, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

[4] A group of sailors led by Joseph Whidbey, part of the Vancouver Expedition, found and mapped Deception Pass on June 7, 1792.

[5] George Vancouver gave it the name "Deception" because it had misled him into thinking Whidbey Island was a peninsula.

Whidbey reached the northern end of Saratoga Passage and explored eastward into Skagit Bay, which is shallow and difficult to navigate.

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".

The island became infamous for its activity of 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.

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.

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.

Thrill-seeking kayakers go there during large tide changes to surf the standing waves and brave the class 2 and 3 rapid conditions.

However, because of the large tidal exchange, Deception Pass hosts some of the most spectacular colors and life in the Pacific Northwest.

Several miles of the Pacific Northwest Trail are within the park, most notably including the section that crosses Deception Pass on the Highway 20 bridge.

The island is not open to the public except for a small rentable cabin available via the state park, which is only accessible by rowboat.

Seattle grunge band Mudhoney named a song on their 1993 EP Five Dollar Bob's Mock Cooter Stew "Deception Pass."