James Island rises more than 160 feet (49 meters) above the mouth of the Quillayute River, about 32 miles (52 km) south of Neah Bay and 0.6 miles (1 km) west of La Push, Washington. It reputedly takes its name from Francis Wilcox James, a lighthouse keeper and friend of the Quileute, though some accounts credit Jimmie Howeshatta, a Quileute chief, instead. The Quileute call the island A-ka-lat, meaning “top of the rock.” Once a sea stack joined to the mainland by a sand spit, it became fully separated in 1974, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a revetment, or training wall, more than 3,000 feet (915 meters) long to reroute the Quillayute River and improve La Push’s harbor.

A fortified Quileute village stood on the island when Captain John Meares first described it in 1788; it remained occupied until the second half of the 19th century, after which mainlanders farmed it. The island holds deep spiritual significance for the Quileute, who traditionally placed the canoes of high-status individuals in its trees after death. Its height also made it a natural lookout, used to spot approaching whales and watch for hostile neighbors. During the second world war it formed part of the U.S. Navy’s Coastal Lookout System. Today the U.S. Coast Guard maintains an automated lighthouse and foghorn there to guide vessels into the harbor.