Tall ships in Port Townsend Bay

This 1891 view of Port Townsend Bay is enchanting for so many reasons - the bay loaded with tall ships (and one hybrid steamer), the impressively crafted buildings and docks, and the streetcar in the near frame, and the sand roadways:

1891 view of Port Townsend and Port Townsend Bay.  Image credit:  Bert Kellogg collection.

I had a harder time than I expected trying to find the photographer's location, and I'm not sure I've got it right...but the modern view shot from about here next to Port Townsend's Fire Bell Tower seems to make sense, as its not difficult to imagine a photographer setting up (at what would have been a newly built tower site) there ~130 years ago:

9 July 2021 photo

Vegetation obscures much of the historic view, but the scale and size of the tall ships in the historic bay give a sense for the types of changes the waterfront of Port Townsend has scene in the last 130 years.

From Craven Peninsula to Port Townsend Canal

 In 1841 explorer Charles Wilkes named the small stretch of gravel connecting Port Hadlock with Indian Island Craven Peninsula after a member of his crew, Lt Charles Craven.

The peninsula was submerged at high tides. Natives and later settlers portaged over the peninsula at high tides.  

As early as the mid 1800's, there was interest in dredging the peninsula to make the channel a channel for shipping.  

Finally in 1915, the peninsula was dredged and a canal was created.  Local residents were promised a bridge that didn't come until 1952.  Prior, residents and later the Navy on Indian Island used a variety of boats and later ferries to cross the channel.  

Read more about the story of Craven Peninsula, the dredging, ferries and the bridge on this link:

Peninsula Daily News

Restoration and change on the Elwha River delta

 Another perspective on short-term change on the shoreline associated in part with restoration (like this post from June), again on the Elwha River delta (like this post from 2020).  This particular location is on the east side of the Elwha River delta, and was eroding rapidly between 2011 and 2015.  Here is what the site looked like in 2011:

May 2011 photo of the beach on the Elwha River delta, looking up the beach from the low tide line.  

By late 2013 the beach was heavily eroded, revealing large boulders on the beach, part of a failed defensive rip-rap structure built at some point in the past:

September 2013 photo

By Summer of 2016 sand associated with the removal of two dams on the Elwha River was moving through this area, but not in quantities adequate to re-bury those big rip rap boulders, or rebuild the beach to its 2011 position:

July 2016 photo

Later in the summer of 2016, though, those rip-rap boulders were removed as part of a restoration project, and the sediment from the dam removal kept pumping along the beach, so by 2018 the beach looked very different at this location:

July 2018 photo

Mistaken Identity - #2 - Seattle's Alki Point or Orcas Island?

 At least one historical hard cover Seattle photo history book and a HistoryLink post on Alki Point have presented this image as 'A Outing near Alki Point', 1889.  (Alki Point is in Seattle)

When I saw both publications, the image didn't quite feel like Alki or anything near Seattle.  

The large hill or mountain in the background seemed too tall and too close to be in Seattle.  

Often telephoto lenses can squeeze elements together and bring mountains closer to the foreground, but I assume the photographer didn't have a 600mm lens in 1889, even on a view camera.  

So I posted the image on the Facebook group "Puget Sound and Surrounds."  Everyone who responded agreed it's definitely not Seattle.  Maybe Chuckanut Drive, Hood Canal or.. the San Juans? 

It was decided through similar photos and Google Earth that it was Orcas Island!  

Here's the results! 

Post by Emily Wilmot - 

Washingt

on Rural Heritage

Eastsound docks from hill, Orcas Island, Washington, April 1915 - Orcas Island Heritage - Washington Rural Heritage

Posted by:

Ivan Dennison

The rocks these people are sitting on are still there (as is the landing on the opposing shore) and visible just to the left of the icon for the Inn.

Mistaken Identity - Blake or Waadah Island?

 I follow the Facebook group History of Puget Sound and Arounds whose followers post common and sometimes less known PNW history photos.  

In November 2019, group admin shared a post from another FB group showing this postcard from the early 20th century showing 'Puget Sound Indians' on the beach after fishing. 

Group members felt the location was Blake Island, across from Seattle.

Right off, I knew it was Waadah Island, which borders Neah Bay.  I've surfed around Neah Bay for years so know the area well.  

When you enter Neah Bay, you can view Waadah Island as you just arrive in town.  The island was connected to the shoreline at some point thus protecting the bay and its fishing fleet from ocean swell.

Below is the postcard and post from the history group.  

Further below are images I found showing the island in different eras including (middle) the image from the book "The Sea is My Country."

Sekiu and the schooner Louise

 This 1909 photo of the schooner Louise S. on its side in Sekiu is featured in an interpretive display about shipwrecks at Clallam Bay State Park, and I've always found it arresting.  

The schooner Louise S. aground just offshore of Sekiu, WA in 1909.  Photo from the Bert Kellogg collection.  

The ship itself provides a glimpse into a time period on the Olympic Peninsula when boats like this would have been a common sight sailing from coastal town to coastal town.  But the other thing, of course, that this photo features is in the background...the shoreline of Sekiu.  And just as the ship speaks to changes in our modes of transport, the shoreline in this 1909 photo speaks to changes in the shoreline.  Here is the modern view from more or less the same spot:

8 August 2021 photo of the boat haven in Sekiu, Washington, taken about here.

The changes here made it hard to orient the photo, but I tried to focus on the iconic Three Sisters (here is a closer-up historical view of them), which are barely visible in the modern photo, sticking out of a parking lot behind the boats.  The shoreline here has been filled and, obviously, a breakwater built to create the modern boat haven.  I can't find much online about the history of the breakwater, fill or the marina in general, so if anybody knows more please reach out.

The Irondale Steel Mill

 This one happened by accident...I happened to be down at the beautiful Irondale County Beach Park with my kids and just decided to poke around the Bert Kellogg collection for photos from Irondale.  I had no idea that this was the site of one of the first major industrial endeavors in Western Washington, the Irondale Iron and Steel Plant built in 1881.  This photo from sometime around the turn of the 20th century gives a sense for the scale of the site:

Turn of the century photo of the Irondale Iron and Steel Mill, taken from about here.  Photo from the Bert Kellogg collection.

The modern view (or as close to it as I could figure out how to get):

5 July 2021 photo taken here.

At low tide various pilings and cement footings are still visible on the beach here, presumably that were associated with the buildings and wharfs of the mill.  And while I didn't explore more of the site, it looks as if there might be a lot of history still visible in the trees if you poke around.  In the distance in both the historic and modern photo is Kala Point, with an apparently nearly identical copse of trees visible in both photos, and then behind that the shoreline of Port Townsend.