Oak Harbor

Town in Island County, northwestern Washington, USA, near the northern end of Whidbey Island, on a bay off Saratoga Passage in Puget Sound; population (1990) 17,200. Oak Harbor's windmills, flowering bulb cultivation, and annual Holland Happenings reflect the town's Dutch heritage. The Ebey's Landing National Historic Reserve, site of an 1852 pioneer community, one of the oldest in the state, lies 10 km/6 mi to the south. Deception Pass State Park is 11 km/7 mi to the north, on land sighted by George Vancouver in 1792, and Whidbey Island Naval Air Station is situated 5 km/3 mi to the northwest.

Oak Harbor was settled in the 19th century by sea captains, and expanded with the arrival of Irish and Dutch immigrants around the turn of the century. Numerous 19th-century sea captains' dwellings survive in the town of Coupeville, which lies entirely within the Ebey's Landing reserve.