Since there is no bridge to the island, Vinalhaven is primarily accessible from Rockland via an approximately 75-minute state ferry ride across West Penobscot Bay, or by air taxi from Knox County Regional Airport.

Europeans visited in the 16th century, and English Captain Martin Pring named the archipelago Fox Islands in 1603.

Vinalhaven's first Anglo families are considered to be Arey, Calderwood, Carver, Coombs, Dyer, Ginn, Greem, Hopkins, Lane, Leadbetter, Norton, Philbrook, Pierce, Roberts, Smith, Warren, and Vinal.

[4] Vinal was not an island resident, but the agent who petitioned the Maine General Court to incorporate the new township; nonetheless the name stuck.

High-quality granite was discovered in 1826, and Vinalhaven became one of Maine's largest quarrying centers for the next century.

Today the island is dotted with abandoned quarries, many of which have since filled with groundwater and are popular swimming holes for residents and visitors.

[7] Granite was shipped for customs houses and post offices in New York; St. Louis; Kansas City; Buffalo, etc.

; the railroad station and Board of Trade in Chicago; the Washington Monument and federal office buildings in the Capital; the Pennsylvania Railroad Station and the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia; as well as private mansions, monuments, bridges, dams, and thousands of tons of paving blocks for the streets of Portland; Boston; New York; Newark; Philadelphia; and other cities.

They began to organize in the winter of 2012–13 after frustration with low lobster prices and disagreements with the Maine Lobstermen's Associations leadership.

[8][11] Vinalhaven made news in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic after a group of island residents cut down a tree and dragged it into the road in an attempt to forcibly quarantine three roommates with out-of-state license plates they believed could have the virus.

Approved by a vote of 383–5 on July 29, 2008, by members of the Fox Islands Electric Cooperative, the project was expected to significantly reduce rates on the island residents, who previously imported their power from the mainland via a submarine power cable.

[17][18] Three 1.5 MW wind turbine towers, which went online in late 2009, are capable of producing a comparable amount of energy to what the island uses.

Near the end of 2009, an Island Energy Task Force was established to "facilitate a transition to affordable, reliable, domestically produced energy, and on the consumer end, to energy-smart products, with special emphasis on serving the Vinalhaven community."

The charging takes place when the project's three turbines are generating more power than the islands need, which is common in the winter.