Rosario Strait

---

title: "Rosario Strait" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bodies-of-water-of-island-county,-washington", "straits-of-san-juan-county,-washington", "bodies-of-water-of-skagit-county,-washington", "straits-of-washington-(state)", "bodies-of-water-of-whatcom-county,-washington", "pig-war-(1859)", "salish-sea"] description: "Waterway connecting the straits of Juan de Fuca and Georgia in northwest Washington, USA" topic_path: "history/military" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosario_Strait" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Waterway connecting the straits of Juan de Fuca and Georgia in northwest Washington, USA ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Locmap-RosarioStrait_with_border.png" caption="USGS]] definition of the strait. Major islands are named."] ::

Rosario Strait is a strait in northern Washington state, separating San Juan County and Skagit and Whatcom Counties. It extends from the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 23 km north to the Strait of Georgia. The USGS defines its southern boundary as a line extending from Point Colville on Lopez Island to Rosario Head on Fidalgo Island, and its northern boundary as a line from Point Migley on Lummi Island to the east tip of Puffin Island (just east of Matia Island) and then to Point Thompson on Orcas Island. Rosario Strait runs north-south between Lopez, Decatur, Blakely, and Orcas Islands on the west, and Fidalgo, Cypress, Sinclair, and Lummi Islands on the east.

Rosario Strait is a major shipping channel. More than 500 oil tankers pass through the strait each year, to and from the Cherry Point Refinery and refineries near Anacortes. The strait is in constant use by vessels bound for Cherry Point, Bellingham, Anacortes, and the San Juan Islands. Vessels bound for British Columbia or Alaska also frequently use it in preference to the passages farther west, when greater advantage can be taken of the tidal currents.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Justin_4642.JPG" caption="isbn= 0-295-95158-3}}"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/View_from_Washington_Park,_Anacortes,_WA.jpg" caption="Rosario Strait seen from Washington Park, Anacortes, WA"] ::

Following the Oregon Treaty it was assumed by the British to be the route of the deepest channel to the open sea from the 49th Parallel boundary's terminus in the middle of the Georgia Strait, and is in fact the shortest shipping route. Haro Strait, west of the San Juan Islands, which is wider though somewhat longer, was the American preference for the boundary and its eventual location following the arbitration of the dispute over the San Juan Islands, known as the Pig War.

References

References

1. {{gnis. 1507915. Rosario Strait
2. Scherer, Migael. (2004). "A Cruising Guide to Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands: Olympia to Port Angeles". McGraw-Hill Professional.
3. [http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/nsd/xml2html.php?xml=coastpilot/files/cp7/12.xml Strait of Juan De Fuca and Georgia, Washington; Chapter 12 - Coast Pilot 7 - Edition 43, 2011], [[NOAA]]
4. McDowell, Jim. (1998). "José Narváez: The Forgotten Explorer". The Arthur H. Clark Company.
5. Gannett, Henry. (1905). "The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States". Govt. Print. Off..
6. Phillips, James W.. (1971). "Washington State Place Names". University of Washington Press.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::