Whidbey Island was inhabited by members of the Lower Skagit, Swinomish, Suquamish, Snohomish and other Native American tribes.

[12] These were peaceful groups who lived off the sea and land, with fishing, harvesting nuts, berries and roots, which they preserved over the winter.

[13] The first known European sighting of Whidbey Island was during the 1790 Spanish expedition of Manuel Quimper and Gonzalo López de Haro on the Princesa Real.

[17] The first known overnight stay by a non-Native American was made on May 26, 1840, by a Catholic missionary, Father François Norbert Blanchet, during travel across Puget Sound.

[19][18] Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, commander of the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, sailed the USS Vincennes into Penn Cove in 1841.

By that time, the log church was already being built by the Native Americans beside a huge wooden cross (24 feet long) that they had erected.

He built a small cabin near Penn Cove, planted some crops and married a local lady, Julia Pat-Ke-Nim.

[12] Colonel Isaac N. Ebey arrived from Columbus, Ohio, in 1850 and became the first permanent white settler, claiming a square mile (2.6 km2) of prairie with a southern shoreline on Admiralty Inlet.

[21] In addition to farming potatoes and wheat, Ebey was also the postmaster for Port Townsend, Washington and rowed a boat daily across the inlet in order to work at the post office there.

Colonel Ebey also served as a representative in the Oregon Territory Legislative Assembly, as Island County's first Justice of the Peace, as a probate judge and as Collector of Customs for the Puget Sound District.

Some sources however, refer to his killers as "Russian Indians called Kakes or Kikans, [from] Kufrinoff Island, near the head of Prince Frederick's Sound.

Fort Ebey, named for the Colonel, was established in 1942 on the west side of the central part of the island, just northwest of Coupeville.

[23] In December 1984, the island was the site of a violent encounter between law enforcement and white nationalist and organized crime leader Robert Jay Mathews of the group The Order.

The economy of Whidbey Island south of Oak Harbor relies heavily on tourism, small-scale agriculture, and the arts.

On Whidbey, tourists find a wide range of amenities in the towns of Oak Harbor, Coupeville, Freeland and Langley.

This aquaculture facility, along with a number of small farms, reflects the rural agricultural nature of most of central Whidbey Island.

The ponds and bog fen complex have been designated as a "habitat of local importance" by the Whidbey Audubon Society and Island County Critical Areas program.

Whidbey Island lies partially in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountain Range to the west, and has a variety of climate zones.

Other under-story plants include the evergreen huckleberry, lower longleaf Oregon grape, elderberry, salal, oceanspray, and varieties of nettle.

[49] In the conifer classification, grand fir is found more in the northern part of Whidbey Island along with Sitka spruce and shore pine.

[51] Gray whales migrate between Whidbey and Camano Islands during March and April and can be seen from both ship and shore.

Penn Cove was used as an orca-hunting area in the 1960s and 1970s by aquarium owner Ted Griffin, who captured several young southern resident orcas for sale to marine parks and killed others in the process.

[55] According to the Whidbey Audubon Society, Approximately 230 bird species are reported to take advantage of the diverse habitats on the island.

South Whidbey School District serves the southern end of the island, including Freeland, Langley, and Clinton.

Kenmore Air Express ran a scheduled airline service to Whidbey Island serving the Oak Harbor airport from 2006 to 2009.

The largest is a two-runway airport located at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station north of Oak Harbor.

The Naval Air Station in Oak Harbor has a limited service hospital for military personnel, veteran retirees, and their dependents.