The western area of the island forms part of the Alberto de Agostini National Park.

False Cape Horn (Spanish: Falso Cabo de Hornos) is located at the southern tip of this peninsula.

As of 1894 the Stirling House, a prefab house built on behalf of the South American Mission Society, was reinstalled in Tekenika Bay, on the southeast coast of Hoste Island in order to avoid the abuses and crimes caused by the recent arrival of miners and diseases in Ushuaia.

(Eventually the house was declared a National Monument and was moved to the lands of the Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum in Puerto Williams).

In December 1978, the island served as a station for Chilean warships during Operation Soberania.