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McNeil Island
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McNeil Island
McNeil Island is an island in the Northwestern United States, in south Puget Sound southwest of Tacoma, Washington. With a land area of 6.63 square miles (17.2 km2), it lies in an area of many inhabited small islands, including Anderson Island to the south across Balch Passage, and Fox Island to the north across Carr Inlet. To the west, McNeil Island is separated from Key Peninsula by Pitt Passage. The Washington mainland lies to the east, across the south basin of Puget Sound.
The island has been owned and administered by the government of the state of Washington since early 1840s when it was seized from the aboriginal Steilacoom people; it was the location of a federal penitentiary for over a century, from 1875 to 1981. It was turned over to the Washington State Department of Corrections and became the McNeil Island Corrections Center, until it closed in 2011. It was the last remaining island prison in the country to be accessible only by air and sea.
In November 2010, the state announced closure plans for 2011, saving $14 million. A detention center for violent sexual offenders remains on the island.
The McNeil Island Historical Society was chartered in 2010 shortly after the closing of the prison for the purpose of educating the public about, and preserving, the rich history of McNeil Island.
The island was part of the territory of the Steilacoom people, a Coast Salish tribe.
It was named in 1841 by Charles Wilkes in honor of Captain William Henry McNeill of the Hudson's Bay Company, who greeted Wilkes upon the arrival of the United States Exploring Expedition at Fort Nisqually in southern Puget Sound. Wilkes’ misspelling was never corrected.
The Robert A. Inskip expedition of 1846 named the island Duntze, after Captain John A. Duntze of the Royal Navy. In 1847, during the British map reorganization project, Henry Kellett restored the earlier name McNeil.
The U.S. government bought land on McNeil Island in 1870 and opened a federal penitentiary there in 1875. The federal government accumulated parcels of land adjacent to the penitentiary, and by 1937, it had purchased all the land on the island and compelled its last residents to leave.
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McNeil Island
McNeil Island is an island in the Northwestern United States, in south Puget Sound southwest of Tacoma, Washington. With a land area of 6.63 square miles (17.2 km2), it lies in an area of many inhabited small islands, including Anderson Island to the south across Balch Passage, and Fox Island to the north across Carr Inlet. To the west, McNeil Island is separated from Key Peninsula by Pitt Passage. The Washington mainland lies to the east, across the south basin of Puget Sound.
The island has been owned and administered by the government of the state of Washington since early 1840s when it was seized from the aboriginal Steilacoom people; it was the location of a federal penitentiary for over a century, from 1875 to 1981. It was turned over to the Washington State Department of Corrections and became the McNeil Island Corrections Center, until it closed in 2011. It was the last remaining island prison in the country to be accessible only by air and sea.
In November 2010, the state announced closure plans for 2011, saving $14 million. A detention center for violent sexual offenders remains on the island.
The McNeil Island Historical Society was chartered in 2010 shortly after the closing of the prison for the purpose of educating the public about, and preserving, the rich history of McNeil Island.
The island was part of the territory of the Steilacoom people, a Coast Salish tribe.
It was named in 1841 by Charles Wilkes in honor of Captain William Henry McNeill of the Hudson's Bay Company, who greeted Wilkes upon the arrival of the United States Exploring Expedition at Fort Nisqually in southern Puget Sound. Wilkes’ misspelling was never corrected.
The Robert A. Inskip expedition of 1846 named the island Duntze, after Captain John A. Duntze of the Royal Navy. In 1847, during the British map reorganization project, Henry Kellett restored the earlier name McNeil.
The U.S. government bought land on McNeil Island in 1870 and opened a federal penitentiary there in 1875. The federal government accumulated parcels of land adjacent to the penitentiary, and by 1937, it had purchased all the land on the island and compelled its last residents to leave.
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