Cutts Island is a state park located about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) off the eastern shore of Carr Inlet in South Puget Sound, approximately 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Tacoma and 5 miles (8 km) west of Gig Harbor, Washington. The island is roughly 300 feet (91 m) wide and 600 feet (183 m) long, with a distinctive sand spit extending 2,000 feet (610 m) north, nearly reaching Raft Island. The island is a vegetated butte eroded by locally generated wind waves, forming a teardrop-shaped beach at low tide. Composed of Vashon till—a gray to tan mixture of unsorted clay, silt, sand, and gravel deposited directly by glacial ice during the last advance of the Fraser Glaciation about 16,950 to 16,850 years ago—the island has a rich geological history. Cutts Island was also known as “Crow Island” after the crows found in abundance there in 1792 by Lieutenant Peter Puget, who served on Captain George Vancouver‘s explorations of the Pacific Northwest. In 1841, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of the U.S. Exploring Expedition named the island “Scotts Island” after Quartermaster Thomas Scott, while Carr Inlet was named for Lieutenant Overton Carr. Locally, the island has been known as “Deadman’s Island,” reputedly because it once served as a Native American burial ground. Early European explorers to the Northwest Coast noted that the Coast Salish placed their dead in a canoe or on a platform in a tree, often on islands. Once the body had decomposed, the bones were wrapped in blankets and buried. In 1977, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names officially designated the island as “Cutts Island,” though no further explanation was provided.

In 1854, the Treaty of Medicine Creek was signed between the Washington Territory of the United States and nine Native American tribes and bands occupying the lands and waters of South Puget Sound. The tribes listed in the treaty are the Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squawskin (Squaxin Island), S’Homamish, Stehchass, T’Peeksin, Squi-aitl, and Sa-heh-wamish. The treaty was signed by the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of these tribes, along with Governor Isaac I. Stevens, who also served as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the territory. The agreement ceded 2,240,000 acres (906,496 ha) of land to the United States in exchange for the establishment of three reservations, cash payments over twenty years, and the recognition of traditional fishing and hunting rights. The exact nature of these rights was disputed until the Boldt Decision in 1974, which clarified that the tribes named in the treaty had a recognized right to half of the fish caught on their traditional lands. The Squaxin Island Tribe descends from the Coast Salish people who lived along the shores of the southernmost seven inlets of Puget Sound. Each embayment was home to a different ancestral clan, with the S’Hotl-Ma-Mish clan principally inhabiting Carr Inlet. These clans subsisted on the abundant resources of South Puget Sound, including marine mammals, shellfish, herring, and Chinook, coho, chum, and sockeye salmon. They employed fish traps, weirs, gillnets, and spears for fishing.

Harbor seals in South Puget Sound haul out on various substrates, including intertidal beaches, reefs, sandbars, log booms, and floats. Five main haulout areas consistently support populations of over 100 seals: the mouth of the Nisqually River, Cutts Island, Gertrude Island, Eagle Island, and Woodard Bay. Periodic aerial and boat surveys confirm these numbers. Cutts Island and Eagle Island are regularly used by harbor seals but face high disturbance levels due to human access and recreational boat traffic. Cutts Island State Park is part of a marine protected area covering 351 acres (142 ha). Washington state has 127 marine protected areas managed by eleven federal, state, and local agencies. These sites are located in Puget Sound and along the outer coast, covering approximately 644,000 acres (260,618 ha) of shoreline. Though camping is not permitted on or around Cutts Island, mooring buoys are available for boats. During seal pupping season, pups rest on the beach at low tide. The beach on Cutts Island is popular for collecting butter clams. Native littleneck clams and horse clams can also be found in pockets of sand and gravel throughout the beach. Read more here and here. Explore more of Cutts Island and Carr Inlet here: