Discreet Biohazard Cleanup Near Clearidge Anacortes, WA

Anacortes is a city in Skagit County on the northern tip of Fidalgo Island, surrounded by Puget Sound, Rosario Strait, and the San Juan Islands.

The city's name is an adaptation of Anne Curtis Bowman, the wife of Amos Bowman, the railroad surveyor who moved his family to Fidalgo Island in 1877 and founded the town in the hope it would become the western terminus of a transcontinental railroad.

First known as Ship Harbor, the settlement received its name and a post office in 1879, boomed on railroad speculation in the late 1880s, and was officially incorporated on May 19, 1891, shortly after the railroad bubble burst.

After the bust, Anacortes reinvented itself around a thriving fishing tradition, salmon canneries, and timber mills.

In the 1950s two major oil refineries were built near the city — the Marathon Anacortes Refinery, opened in 1955, and the Puget Sound Refinery, opened in 1957 — two of only five refineries in Washington, and refining remains the area's largest industry.

The 2020 census counted 17,637 people in 7,826 households in Anacortes, and the median resident was 50.7 years old, with nearly a third of the population aged 65 or older.

Anacortes lies in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, and Fidalgo Island receives only about 21 inches of rain a year — roughly half of Seattle's rainfall.

The Washington State Ferries terminal in Anacortes is the mainland gateway to Lopez, Shaw, Orcas, and San Juan islands, and a Skagit County ferry also links the city to residential Guemes Island across the Guemes Channel.

The city maintains Washington Park, a 220-acre park on the island's northwestern end with a campground, boat launch, and views across to Cypress Island and the San Juan Islands.

Within the city limits, the Anacortes Community Forest Lands protect about 2,800 acres of forest, lakes, and wetlands laced with roughly 50 miles of hiking and mountain-biking trails.