Go figure: A woman from Chicago didn’t like the weather on Puget Sound and headed home.

A house once stood on the scenic property adjacent to the Colby Cemetery, near the intersection of Mile Hill and Alaska Drives, and its story speaks volumes about the hardships of turn-of-the-century living here and the practical aspects of social life.

It was built by the effective “founding father” of the now-vanished town of Colby Village, Joseph Squire Grant, probably around 1901. The community was constructed in the 1880’s and 1890’s due East and downhill from your property at the water’s edge and, in its heyday, included three stores, hotel, blacksmith shop, livery stable, large lumber mill, one-room-schoolhouse, boarding houses, and a Good Templars Meeting Hall. (See the related articles about the town and the Grant Family on this site)

 

Grant, who was born in England, moved to Colby in 1884 and became postmaster and proprietor of Grant & Sons Store at the base of the pier. His wife died during the birth of his third child, so he took on the challenge of raising three children in the wilds of Western Puget Sound at a time before schools and roads existed, and somehow was a successful businessman as well. He lived in a very small hip-roofed house on the slight hill above the main store, and also built larger homes for his two sons, Thomas and Joseph, Jr, and his daughter, Annie.

 

By the time he reached his 52^ndbirthday in 1901, his adult children were well established with families of their own. Colby was prospering, as were Grant’s business enterprises. He helped build a school and funded a steamship pier, and permanent roads were constructed to Sidney (Port Orchard) and Bremerton. Grant sought female companionship and made a dedicated effort to re-marry. It was quite common for single, wealthy men to “advertise” for a wife, especially with so few women living in the region. Family accounts and anecdotes passed along to us by locals lead us to believe that he contacted a spinster from Chicago, exchanging letters and photographs. Eventually, Grant proposed that she come meet him and see Colby for herself.

 

Since the house above the store was extremely small, it was at this time that he had the house constructed specifically to accommodate a larger family and allow for social entertaining. The property was on the high ground and contained a small pond fed by an active creek. This, he thought, would offer his potential bride added incentive to live in the semi-wilderness, isolated from city life. (It should be noted that the house’s design was almost exactly the same as the one he built for his second son, a structure that still stands on Yukon Harbor Drive today.) It eventually became known by the Grant Family as The Ranch House, ostensibly because it had a pasture, corrals and outbuildings for livestock.

 

The story goes that the woman traveled across the country by train and arrived in Colby by steamship, stayed at the Nieblock Hotel near the pier, and met the townspeople. As a successful businessman and known by everyone in the region, Grant was a powerful and wealthy man. She apparently did not find the weather, the rural life, nor Joseph Grant appealing, and returned to Chicago a few days later. Now, while the weather in Western Puget Sound is, indeed, often cold and wet, but from what we know conditions in Chicago aren’t much better. You have to wonder why she turned down his offer. 

 

 

Grant never remarried and probably never lived there, eventually deeding the house to his son, Thomas. At some point the parcel included the Colby Cemetery, as well. The 1906 County Platt shows both belonging to Thomas Grant. Victor Cairnes purchased the house and property decades later, and built a new house before tearing the Grant Ranch House down in the 1960’s. He lives there today. –RN

Blake Island: Still an place is mystery and intrigue after hundreds of years!

 

The main house of the Trimble Estate on Blake Island featured a large veranda, lush gardens, and a rustic feel. It was built about 1918 and burned -- mysterously -- in the late 1940's. Photo from the Washington State Parks Collection.

By Russell Neyman.

The cause of the fire that destroyed Blake Island’s most prominent structure has been a mystery for nearly six decades, but a Manchester man has come forward to take responsibility for the blaze. Don Winslow, now 76, built a 16-foot boat in wood shop class at South Kitsap High School in the 1940’s, and mounted a used five-horsepower outboard motor on it. The temperamental engine was the indirect cause of the Trimble Mansion fire. 

Teenage Misadventure at Blake.

About 1948, on one of the inaugural voyages, Winslow and his friend, Keith Williams, decided to motor over to Blake Island to explore.

“It was a very, very cold and windy day, but we finally neared the shore,” Winslow recalls. “At some point, a wave surge soaked us and our engine, and we couldn’t get it started again. We were tired and cold, so  Keith and I decided to go into the abandoned Trimble Mansion to get warm. It was wide open. There were lots of old shake shingles and other wood, so we put some of it in the large fireplace and built a fire. We stayed there several hours.”

 The sprawling mansion, at that point, had been deteriorating and vandalized over the course of decades of neglect. Many of the doors and windows were broken or gone, and it was quite common for campers and squatters to take shelter there. Winslow noted that the stairs were rotting and there was plenty of debris around the place.

 ”After getting warm, we decided to head back to the mainland. The motor still wouldn’t work, so we got a couple of boards and used them as oars and headed over toward South Colby, since it was the nearest point of land. About the time we reached shore, we looked back toward the island and saw a glow and smoke over where the Trimble Mansion was.  ‘Holy heck,’ we said. ‘Did we do that?’ We were scared and worried, figuring that an ember from our fire started the blaze.

 ”The next day,” Winslow recalls, “the newspapers told all about the ‘mystery’ fire, hinting that it might have been arson. Through the years, we occasionally heard other stories about the mansion and the fire, and I always thought back to that cold day and what happened. Neither Keith nor I said a word to anybody.”

The South Kitsap High School graduate went on to a successful career, first working in the BremertonShip Yard, then as owner-operator of gasoline service stations. He also served on the Manchester Water District. Today, he is retired. Keith Williams died in an automobile accident about ten years ago, according to people who knew him.

In subsequent years, all sorts of theories about who started the fire and why it was burned were offered, ranging from squatters to a deliberate effort by the United States Navy to render the island uninhabitable. There was also talk that the building was destroyed to discourage developers or by Native Americans who wanted the Whites to leave.

An Island with a Varied Past.

Originally called High Island by the Native Americans and, later, Smugglers Island by homesteaders, the 574-acre island is situated between Manchester and Southworth. The island has very little clean drinking water, so it has never proven to be a suitable place for permanent homes. It was a traditional camping ground for the Suquamish Tribe and folklore has it that it was the birthplace of Chef Sealth, for whom Seattle took its name.

It was first observed by British explorer George Vancouver in 1792 but was not given its current name until the United States Exploring Expedition visited again in 1841. It was logged completely by the 1880’s, making the property virtually worthless for about a decade. However, as the timber regenerated, Seattle millionaire William Pitt Trimble took note of the isolated but picturesque property, purchasing it just after the turn of the century. In an effort to put his own name on the property, he established an “technical” post office,  naming it “Trimble Island.” Of course, this did not change the name of the island itself, though Trimble hope that would be the case. He and his wife, Cassandra, built a magnificent estate – complete with the expansive mansion, huge dock, horse stables, orchards, warehouse structure, and beautiful manicured gardens – that they occupied from 1917 through 1929.

Not many photographs or documents relating to the Trimble Estate or early Blake Island have survived. The Yukon Harbor Historical Society welcomes contributions relating to this subject – photographs, anecdotes, old newspaper clippings – that might help tell the complete story of Blake Island. Contact information is noted in the right-hand column.

The Trimble “mansion” was a rambling two-story house of 12 rooms, with five fireplaces on the main floor.  The huge living room was 35 by 40 feet, with large Douglas fir ceiling beams. Winslow described the windows, doors, and millwork as “impressive” even in it’s deteriorated state when he and Williams were there. 

Across the front of the house was a broad verandah that overlooked the large front lawn and extensive formal gardens sloping gently toward the water.  The estate also had a vegetable garden, a large pasture for horses,  a cement tennis court, and a wooden swimming pool.  Three caretakers maintained Trimble Island all year-round. Mrs. Trimble forbid firearms of any kind on the island, so deer and other wildlife flourished. Visitors marveled and the beautiful estate and the natural setting. Designing the house and grounds became a passion with her, and Cassie’s name became synonymous with the island.

The glory years for the island came to a tumbling end in 1929 for Trimble, first with the infamous stock market crash and then with the tragic death of Cassandra in a freak automobile accident. Trimble was devastated and heartbroken. He abandoned the place and went into seclusion, eventually selling it to an investment company in 1936. It came to be known, once again, as Blake Island.

During World War II, the United States Army garrisoned a coastal artillery unit there, and portions of it were reportedly used to store munitions, since that would isolate them from the nearby Bremerton Ship Yard and Manchester Ship Fueling Facilities in event of air attack. The Army’s intentions for the island have always been viewed with suspicion.

The Island Becomes a State Park.

 

Blake Island, seen from the shoreline around Colby, with downtown Seattle seen in the distance, left.

After the war and for decades to follow, the island’s future was in doubt, with several developers and public officials debating varied uses but none came to fruition. There was even talk of rebuilding the mansion, but those plans ended with the now-solved mystery blaze.  Eventually, Blake Island was designated as a state park and Native American historical site, with camping, hiking, and boating facilities. Today, 100,000 visitors use the State Park for outdoor recreation each year.  There are 12 miles of hiking trails on the island, mostly old service roads.  The longest trail, 4.5 miles, circumnavigates the island on the bluffs above the beach.  Located on a trail behind Tillicum Village, the foundations of the Trimble family home, and a few other remnants of the estate, can still be seen.  

While it is primarily a tourist attraction, it is also a favorite haunt for local residents. Generations of Puget Sounders from Port Orchard, Harper, Colby and the mainland have come to the island on weekends in small boats – including teenagers Don Winslow and his friend, Keith Williams – to enjoy the natural scenery, camp, and fish.  Tales of youngsters swimming and canoeing over and exploring are commonplace. For those who grew up around Yukon Harbor, the subject of Blake Island triggers plenty of memories.

“We caused that blaze and burned the house down, no doubt,” Winslow says. “I think the statute of limitations has long since past, but I might still see a fire department investigator show up on my doorstep one day.”

Copyright Russell Neyman, Yukon Harbor Historical Society - July, 2008 and January 2009.)

 

A modified satellite view of Yukon Harbor, showing the position of Blake Island. Click to enlarge.

(See the related essay, “Strolling Through Colby, Summer 1942″ by JoAnn Grant Lorden in the right-hand column. It contains additional anecdotes about Blake Island.)

____________________________________________________

Update (January 15, 2009)– We have received additional emails and input about the Trimble Mansion and fire in recent weeks, including an email from Cassandra Trimble, granddaughter of William and Cassandra Trimble. The third-generation Trimble woman disagrees with the accounts of a deteriorated estate, but with respect to her family’s insights and family stories, we have had confirming stories to that effect. Jay Blackburn, who lived in South Colby in the 1940’s and 50’s, says he frequented the estate immediately following the war (and just before the place burned down) and says the fireplaces had collapsed, the stairs were completely fallen, and the doors and windows were missing. Blackburn recalls the news of the fire, but never heard any stories as to the cause.

We have requested that the younger Cassandra Trimble forward any photos and other accounts for our files, and are hopeful she will be able to assist us in piecing together the island’s history.

This article has created quite a stir since it was first posted on July 19th, 2008. The SEATTLE TIMES called our society and interviewed us, and published a front page feature piece. A few days later, the Associated Press picked it up, and accounts have been published in newspapers throughout Puget Sound, Olympia, and Portland. Needless to say, we’ve had literally thousands of visitors to our site since then.

We continue to search for more information regarding Blake Island, and feel that someone must have more detailed photographs of the Trimble Estate in its heyday or, perhaps, just good stories about visiting the island. Remember, not only has it been a vacation spot as well as a home to the Trimbles, but there were military personnel stationed there during the Second World War. 

Please contact us through the information listed in the righthand column if you have anything to share.  –RN.

Fourth of July Potluck Picnic.

Fourth of July Celebrations have been a major event on the West Shore of Puget Sound for more than 100 years. In 1906, for example, more than 2000 people from Seattle and other towns, participated in a giant gathering on the sandy shore near Curley Creek, in the middle of Yukon Harbor.

This past Fourth, the Yukon Harbor Historical Society brought that tradition back, hosting a more modest event near the old townsite of Colby. In addition to the locals and members of YHHS, third and fourth-generation decendents of the original pioneers of this area came, bringing historical photos and documents with them.

In addition to conversation, good food, and a few whimsical games, visitors toured several of the historic houses that remain from the 1880’s as well as the cemetery where those long gone generations are buried. Plans for the eventual Old Colby Bell monument were discussed, too.

(For more information on the monument project and the history of the well-traveled bell, see the article, below.)

This photo, provided by Shirlee Toman, shows the Colby Picnic in it’s heyday, about 1905. Typically, thousands of people came from all around Puget Sound to eat, play baseball, and have conversation on the sandy stretch of beach between the Colby Lumber Mill and Curley Creek.

Rare photos of Early Colby, 1880 to 1910.

The photo above was sent to us recently and is probably the earliest known photo of Colby and never published before. It was taken by Joseph Squire Grant Jr, and shows the town before the pier was installed, sometime between 1885 and 1890. The building directly in the center of the image is the Blalock Hotel, with the white IOGH Hall (Independent Order of Good Templars) just down the hill next to the water. Later, this building would become a store on the lower level. On the left, nearest the beach is the log-built store owned and operated by William Morgan. In the distance, upper right, is the original school house. This photo was provided by Doug and Ann (Levenseller) Northcutt. The original was extremely faded (see thumbnail) but was digitally corrected by Sam Bahloul.

This detail photo (below) of the town includes some features that can be seen today. The dockside Grant Warehouse, where goods could be loaded through the water-side large door,  has been recreated with a residential “cabana” today. The familiar Grant & Sons Store sits beyond, with a Model T parked in front. On the hill above the store are various homes built by John Anspaugh for the Grant families, all still sound and occupied today.

  

The next photo, below, shows the same area a few years later, provided by the Kitsap Historical Society. It shows the huge Colby Lumber mill, with smokestacks for the steam engines and barges moored along the waterfront. Curley Creek is off in the distance. This area is completely residential today. The mill was removed sometime after 1945. 

A separate feature, titled “Strolling Through Colby, Summer 1942,” written by Jo Ann, is featured in the posting section in the right-hand column. Also read the “Grant & Sons Store” feature.

The location of the photo, left, which may show virtually the entire population of one of the local towns, is uncertain. It was probably taken in August of 1889, just about the exact date of the Great Seattle Fire. The building is a mystery, but it could be original William Morgan Store in Colby or it’s sucessor, Grant & Sons, or perhaps the original store/post office in Olalla, where the Grants first settled before moving to Colby.  Note the log steps. The young woman wearing the long white apron on the left has been identified as Annie Grant Hamilton, and the two boys near the end of the step are Squire Grant (straw hat and dark britches on on the step) and his older brother, Tom Grant (tall slender hatless boy). This photo was provided by Jo Ann Grant’s cousin, Shirlee Toman.

First Street (Cole Loop) looking South, about 1908

This photo, taken about 1908, shows the primary street of Colby looking South from where Cole Loop wraps down from Yukon Harbor Drive. The foursquare house with enclosed porch, center, remains essentially unchanged, as do the three houses in the distance, left. The house at right and the falsefront store/office building, past the foursquare, have been replaced.  The two-story foursquare building is currently the headquarters of the Yukon Harbor Historical Society and a private residence occupied by the Russell Neyman family. Note that the mud-and-gravel street is at least 10-15 feet further inland than the current street plan.

The photo of the third-generation Grant sons (Joe, Fred, et al) fishing off the Colby Pier, below, is telling. Note the distinctive point of land in the background (South Colby along the water’s edge to the right, and the first signs of Harper at the point, left) and the fact that the trees are sparse. This 20 to 25-foot boat is set up for hauling nets over the rounded stern.

Below is a photo of “downtown” Colby taken from the lumber mill looking to the North, with a “Mosquito Fleet” steamer moored at the t-shaped pier. Only small fragments of these structures, including two posts from the pier and a portion of the shed shown in the foreground, survive.  Just below that photograph is one of the steamer Grace, which frequented the Colby, Harper routes. The photo is highly damaged, but seems to show the heavily timbered coastline where Colchester and, further north, Manchester exist today.

This perspective, taken from the lumber mill located on the shoreline about half a mile north of Curley Creek, shows the Colby Steamship pier and essentially the entire business center, probably about 1900. The white building in the distant left is Grant & Sons Merchantile, and the darker building in the left foreground is probably the house owned by William Morgan, the town’s original postmaster. In the foreground, center, is a structure built on pilings that exists in a highly-evolved form in 2008 on the same site. To understand this photograph and the town’s layout more completely, compare it to JB Hall’s view in the “historical photographs” section in the right-hand column. (Photo courtesy of Jo Ann Grant Lorden.)

Yukon Harbor Drive about 1900

The photo of the wooded roadway depicts what is now Yukon Harbor Drive, near to Curley Creek looking back toward the sandy shoreline South of the Lumber Mill. Note the wooden walkway, built mostly to facilitate children trying to walk to the stores and school in poor weather. Note the deep wagon ruts on the dirt road. The boardwalk was built in 1909.

 

The Grace was a typical early-era Mosquito Fleet steamer, modestly built to carry passengers and limited freight. The steamer  served all of the lumber and farming communities along the Western Shore of Puget Sound and was a common sight on the Bremerton-Colby-Harper-Vashon Island run. (Photo provided by Jo Ann Grant Lorden.)

The next two photographs show the people who lived in Colby, including the students from the second Colby School (now converted to a private residence) on Garfield Avenue directly uphill from the old pier, and a photograph of Jo Ann Lorden’s grandfather, Thomas Grant, Joseph Grant Senior’s son. Tom and his brothers followed in his father’s footsteps as a local merchant and a civic leader.

Front Row left to right– George Harris, Tom Colman, Llewellyn Waterman, Raymond Bulman, Antoinette Inglebretsen, Esther Neff, Ruby Foss, Emolita Welch, Marion Rust, Stella Hamilton, Joe Grant, Fred Grant;  Second Row left to right– Thomas Wood, Leonard Bulmon, John Hamilton, Paul Kuhn, Percy Waterman, Bennett Johnson, Dudley Williamson, Clarence Foss; Third Row left to right– Jeff Rust, Miss Humbert (teacher), Rose Rau, Iris Harris, Pearl Callanan, Hazel Whetstone, Alice Callanan, Alice McMillan. Photo provided courtesy of Jo Ann Grant Lorden.

A hotel was built by John N Anspaugh about 1889 and named the Niblock Inn. It was located a few hundred feet uphill from the Colby landing, and was operated by the Weed family. The structure burned down in the 1920’s. Below is a photo of the overall building (with an additional to the rear) in 1908 and a detail of the hotel taken earlier, probably in 1890.

The Colby Bell has returned to Yukon Harbor; Plans for a permanent town monument are in the works.

The much-traveled iron bell that hung over the Grant & Sons Mercantile in the 1880’s has come home again. A trio of distant cousins — all great-grandchildren of Joseph Squire Grant, Sr, who originally rang it from his store in Colby —  joined forces to ship the school house-type apparatus to the Yukon Harbor Historical Society.

Doug Grant, Jo Ann Grant Lorden, and Shirlee Toman pooled their resources to make this happen. The bell was owned by Doug Grant but, with encouragement and support from his two cousins, he placed it in the custody of Russell Neyman, a local historian. The bell arrived the first week of May.

The weathered device, which is a “Number 3 Farm Bell,” is at least 125 years old. It is 18 inches in diameter and about 12 inches tall, weighing about 75 pounds, including the metal mount and heavy iron clapper. Undoubtedly manufactured in an Eastern foundry, it has traveled to the West Coast, back to Kansas, and back again to Washington again. It is doubtful that many bells of its type have journeyed so far.

“It’s really a beautiful artifact in so many ways,” said Neyman, who received the yoke-mounted bell this Friday. “Sure, it’s rusty and weather beaten, but it has a wonderful sound and certainly has a mystique to it. It has character, to say the least. We’re considering several options for displaying it.” Neyman says it is likely that it will be placed on a monument commemorating the town of Colby, just north of Curley Creek on Southworth Drive in Eastern Port Orchard. The town has almost completely vanished through the passage of time and there is not even a road sign to indicate its former location. Only four of five of the original residences remain, but the commercial buildings and piers are gone.

PLANS FOR A MONUMENT FEATURING THE BELL (An sketch of the plan is shown here) WILL BE UNVEILED AT THE OLD COLBY FOURTH OF JULY POTLUCK PICNIC ON THE WATERFRONT ROAD.

Devices of this type were used in rural communities in an age when it was not easy to communicate across even short distances. Traveling to nearby Manchester or, even, South Colby was a half-day trip, since roads were primitive and there were no telephones. These bells were installed in churches, schoolhouses, fire stations, and farms for signaling, of course, but the Grant businesses took that a step further. There were no telephones and even the simplest trip down the shoreline or up the creek to carry a message was an ordeal, so the store’s bell proved useful as a messaging system.  Besides the obvious role as a fire alarm — townspeople would come running if they heard a rapid, constant ring — it proved handy for everyday communication and could be heard for several miles and across the bay. A specified number of bell strikes might signify that the mail had arrived or that it was time to unload a steamer full of provisions. Or, as noted by a Grant Family member, it was not uncommon for the senior Grant to call his sons home from their day in the surrounding forest.

The senior Grant donated a similar bell to the Colby Methodist Church in the 1880’s. That one is currently displayed in front of the main church building in South Colby, just a mile South of the Colby town site.

“It has ample character, to say the least,” says Neyman with a chuckle.

Joseph Grant purchased the Colby Bell when he moved to Washington Territory in 1883 and placed it high above his store in Colby, Washington. There is some indication that he brought it with him when he journeyed to Puget Sound from Kansas, where he operated a store before moving West. It might have been used at the store he owned for several years in Olalla, as well. The bell is seen in photographs of Colby, the location of his Grant & Sons Mercantile, as early as 1887, and hung there through 1967, when the store was demolished. Doug Grant, feeling a bit nostalgic, climbed up to the store’s roof and removed it a few hours before the salvers arrived, taking it back to Kansas with him. He kept it in his Wichita home since rescuing it.

Recently, with the tremendous upsurge of interest in Yukon Harbor History, he was contacted by the Yukon Harbor Historical Society, who wondered what his plans for the bell were. He and his cousin, Jo Ann Grant Lorden, transferred the bell to Neyman, who is a founding member of the Society. It has been place at a temporary site on rented property at 1726 Cole Loop SE in Port Orchard, a hundred yards from its original location, until a permanent monument can be developed.

YHHS is seeking donations and suggestions for its use.  At least one property owner has offered a space for a monument, and other options are being considered. There is also some discussion that it might be placed in the Kitsap County Museum in Bremerton, but it most likely that it will stay near the townsite. Plans will be finalized and announced at the Historical Society’s Annual Pot Luck Picnic, slated for July 4th along the beachfront near the Colby town site.

Interested individuals can contact the society through this website.

The Earliest History of the Yukon Harbor Region.

The Northwest portion of what is now the United States of America was one of the last territories to be explored and settled. The influence of trappers, settlers and other white cultures took many years to gain a foothold, especially in the far reaches of the inland waters around what would eventually become Seattle.

To say that Englishman George Vancouver “discovered” the Puget Sound area in the late 1700’s is an absurd claim, because in fact there were dozens of Native American tribes inhabiting the region. Those histories are only faintly recorded, and we leave the accounts of pre-European presence in the waters, islands, and natural harbors of Puget Sound for another website and another time. The Yukon Harbor Historical Society, for now at least, will concentrate its efforts on European and American cultures in the region.

Yukon Harbor today is situated between Richie Point (top center) and Southworth ( just outside of the image, lower right) with Curley Creek feeding Puget Sound with freshwater (lower left). Colby, now a faint memory, was located half a mile north of the creek’s mouth, and South Colby is in the foreground center. Bainbridge Island is shown in the upper right corner of this veiw.

Captain Vancouver, commanding HMS Discovery, first entered the expansive channels and waterways he would eventually play a part in naming in 1792. He anchored near the Southeastern point of what is now Bainbridge Island, then spent the next few months charting Sinclair Inlet and the nearby coastlines. He and his crew met and traded with several of the native tribes, who welcomed the Englishmen.

Of course, the West Coast of the North American continent was completely untouched by whites, and the fledgling United States of America consisted of barely more than the original thirteen states and a few “territories” surrounding the Mississippi River. It wasn’t until 1841, when the United States Exploring Expedition (aka, The Wilkes Expedition) returned to the region, that any significant exploration took place. At the time, the entire region was known as Oregon Territory, and it was nothing more than a raw wilderness rich with natural resources. The Wilkes party followed Vancouver’s charts to navigate and survey the resources of the region. They labeled what is today known as Yukon Harbor “Barron’s Bay” and Blakes Island.

This, essentially, marked the start of the Oregon Territory era, when the whole of the farthest reaches of the Louisiana Purchase were one territory. That ended when local businessmen and politicians petitioned the United States government to create a separate Washington Territory in 1853. The movement toward statehood began just a few years later, but the path proved long and tumultuous. Oregon was admitted to the union in 1859, but Washington remained largely a wilderness until 1889. The result of all this is that the Western Side of Puget Sound had only scattered, informal communities and infrastructures.

Just a few years after the Wilkes Expedition surveyed the area, the gold rush boom in Northern California made the tremendous forests and ore deposits of Puget Sound an extremely valuable commodity, so local economies boomed on the coattails of the lumber industry. Dozens of mill towns — typically, reached solely by sailing ship or steamer — popped up all along the many natural harbors. These included Colby, South Colby, and Sidney.

These towns were generally fluid, following the resources while they lasted. As the thick forests were cleared, the mills — and the supporting general merchandise stores, blacksmiths, and steamship companies that supported them — moved on. The economy of these communities was tied to the natural resources, and in may cases that tie was tenuous, at best.

The Native American Tribes, meanwhile, were overtaken and overwhelmed by the Westerners. They were no match for the huge influx of homesteaders and the military presence that came with them.

From the very outset it became clear that the Puget Sound region carried more than just abundant natural resources; it had strategic military value, as well. There were many protected anchorages — hundreds, in fact — and yet the huge land masses to the West prevented any antagonist from bombarding from the open sea. Placement of a handful of forts in the main channels would make it virtually impossible to attack from the sea because any attacking force would have to “run a gauntlet” through the long narrow passages.

By 1880, efforts were underway to secure at least one major naval base here.  After several failed attempts, construction of a shipbuilding facility and Navy Yard began in 1891 at Turner Point (Bremerton). It became known as the Puget Sound Naval Station. The presence of the Navy and the shipbuilding industry gave the region a permanent economic base. Beyond the small mills, mines, and fishing communities, now full-fledged cities began to develop. Port Orchard (Sidney), Manchester (Brooklyn) became established towns, taking over what Colby, South Colby and Harper had begun. Western civilization was here to stay in the Washington Territory, with statehood soon to follow.

–RN.

The Town of Colby, About 1908.

If you stand at the Southern entrance to the street currently known as “Cole Loop” and Yukon Harbor Drive, you can see a pair of pilings jutting up from the bay that are remnants of the original Mosquito Fleet pier that served Colby well into the 20th Century. JB Hall took a photograph provided by the Kitsap Historical Society and added known details, documenting the layout of the town and identifying the businesses and houses.

It takes only a slight bit of imagination to understand this fascinating photograph. It was undoubtedly taken from the bridge or upper deck of a “Mosquito Fleet” steamer, facing west. The tide is obviously quite low (note the rocky beach), and the foundation for a new building is being erected in the center foreground. JB Hall currently lives in the house identified as “Jos. Squire Grant, Jr” to the upper left. Note the abandoned wheel on the beach immediately below the store below Jos S Grant and son General Merchandise Store; That wheel still can be found at low tide today. Two other of the buildings shown here still stand today, as well.

Yukon Harbor Drive and, beyond, Southworth Road currently pass behind these houses, although the frontage road no longer exists.

To view the graphic image in greater detail, click the image.

The Harper Brick Factory and Bridge.

The Harper Brick and Tile Factory pictured above was a huge boon to industry in the local area. Below, is a tired but historical building once used as a “hotel and boarding house” for local workers, mostly those who worked in the factory. In later years it served as a brush plant, where decorative trees and flowers were processed and packaged for florists. Photos provided by AK Kuppler.

Allen “AK” Kuppler, whose family has visited and lived in the Harper area virtually all of his life, brought us a wealth of new documents relating to the Port Orchard Brick and Tile Factory and drawbridge that once existed along the shoreline between South Colby and Southworth. He has even found what he believes are the original central pulleys for the drawbridge mechanism.

We will add more details to all of this later, but for the time being we will share just a few of the dramatic historical documents he has provided.

Above are photos of the work crews about 1920  and 1935-ish.

AK (who has a gift for artistic expression) has given us this enhanced view of the current landscape around his house and the nearby estuary, including Harper Hill Road, Southworth Road, the Boat Ramp, and the surrounding neighborhood at the point. The main current road is along the bottom of the photograph, with dotted lines showing the location of the drawbridge. The Port Orchard Tile and Brick Factory was located in the lower righthand corner, where a baseball field is located today.

The second rendering (below) shows the region as it would have appeared about 1930, showing both the bridge and the roadway. Note the apparently active road along the beachfront, left, and the more extensive salt and freshwater marshes. Originally, AK reports, the only north-south route was across the drawbridge, as the road south from Colby was dedicated to the Brick Factory, lower right. A “hotel and boarding house” was also located along the present Southworth Road, at the bottom of  this picture. Also, AK has noted the location of portions of a barge that has been found near the northern entrance to the drawbridge structure.

These renderings were provided and created by Allen Kuppler, using local historical sources and his own surveys of the Harper Bridge site adjacent to the property on which he currently resides.

A Brief History of Yukon Harbor and it’s ties to the Mosquito Fleet of Puget Sound.

Colby, Harper, and South Colby were settled on the Western side of Puget Sound, on the East shore of the Kitsap Peninsula in the area known as Yukon Harbor, in the early 1880’s, almost simultaneously with the creation of nearby Port Orchard and Bremerton. Colby, in particular, lived — and died — with the Mosquito Fleet and the need to mill lumber.

The first Post Office in that portion of Yukon Harbor was officially established on November 13th, 1884 — even before post offices were placed in Port Orchard (Sidney) and Bremerton – and the small town’s economy was centered around the lumber mill located right at the water’s edge, with a smattering of farms and ranches lending to the effort. There was also a shingle mill further inland as well as a few fruit orchards. At the time, virtually all travel was by boat, so the Puget Sound “Mosquito Fleet” was an essential component of the livelihood of Colby and the surrounding small towns.

The original settlement of Colby occupied the area south and east of the present intersection of Yukon Harbor Road and Cole Street. Three houses originally belonging to members of the Grant family survive, as well as the former office and bunkhouse of the Colby Mill Company, converted to a residence. A few hundred feet offshore a pair of pilings are the last vestige of the former Mosquito Fleet pier.

Images relating to the original Colby township are included in the Blogroll section of this site, located in the right-hand column, and in other site articles.

In its prime, Colby was home to as many as three grocers, a lumber mill, hotel, blacksmith shop, livery stable, ice cream parlor, barber shop and a one-room school. It served a population of farmers and loggers living and working as far away as Long Lake. In addition, a sandy beach and grassy picnic ground between Colby and the mouth of Curley Creek was a popular recreation are that attracted large crowds of picnickers from Seattle on the 4th of July.

The so-call Mosquito Fleet was an unofficial title given to the huge array of steamers that served the hundreds of harbors and landings throughout the region, and it was the lifeblood of all commerce from the middle of the 19th century through to the 1920’s. Early Mosquito Fleet service was provided by such boats as Alta, Swiftsure and Grace, landing passengers and cargo either on the beach or on a float made of cedar logs from which they were rowed to the beach. Grace ran from Chico to Sidney, Colby and Seattle. Sentinel, Hattie Hansen and Advance — larger ships that could carry more freight –served Colby after a pier was constructed in about 1900 on a route from Poulsbo to Brownsville, Manchester, Colby, South Colby, Harper and Seattle. Reliance held down the Colby run from 1901 to 1925, and made special cargo runs delivering direct to the Grant & Son warehouse on high tides after the scheduled runs. Colby was also served from time to time by Suquamish, Donacella, Athlon and Inland Flyer.

 

  

Meanwhile, a second township began to blossom. The South Colb  y area was also settled in the late 1880s and was connected to Colby first by a rope-hauled raft across the mouth of Curley Creek and soon thereafter by a plank and log bridge. A steamship pier was constructed in 1911, and the South Colby Post Office was established on August 27, 1913. South Colby had the White Ranch Pure Food Products fruit cannery, a sawmill, the Curley Creek Grange, and served the Harper Brick & Tile brickyard at nearby Harper.

Colby’s Mosquito Fleet service ended in 1925, with the expansion of the auto and truck road network. The final blow came with the opening of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge; ferry operators who could no longer compete in that region moved their auto-carrying ships to Puget Sound in search of new markets, and only towns with piers capable of handling that traffic could survive. With people no longer passing through the pier, the Colby’s businesses whithered away. The mill and stores were taken down and hauled away, and much of the timbered lots were cleared for more modern houses. The Post Office was dis-established on Dec 31, 1954.

Only traces of the surrounding communities of South Colby and Harper remain.

Colby History Timeline–

• 1884 – The first store was built by William H Morgan, who also becomes Postmaster.
• 1885 – Joseph Squire Grant, Sr., Morgan’s brother-in-law, establishes Grant & Sons General Merchandise, taking over the log store from Morgan. Grant previously had built a similar store/post office in Olalla.
• 1888 – John N. Anspaugh, who had lived in the area for four years, builds a hotel and a store, becomes the postmaster, and builds a structure that becomes Grant & Son Groceries.
• 1880 to 1900 – Steamboat service by Alta, Swiftsure and Grace is offered via a float landing at Colby. A formal, permanent pier is built at Colby in 1902, and another is constructed at Harper and South Colby in 1911.
• 1900 to 1926 – Steamboat service by larger ships, including Sentinel, Advance, Reliance and Kitsap, is provided at a Colby pier.
• 1954 – Grant & Son general store and adjacent post office is closed.
• 1967 – Grant & Son general store and Squire Grant confectionary store is demolished.
• 1977 – Georgina Harding Grant, dies at age 101. She was married to Tom Grant, Joseph S Grant’s oldest sons. She is one of the last connections to the original founding family living in Yukon Harbor. 
• 2006 – Brick store building, long since empty and beyond saving, is torn down to make room for a beachfront home.

The primary source for this article are docments provided by The Kitsap County Historical Society, including Kitsap County History: A Story of Kitsap County and Its Pioneers, Book V- South Kitsap, published by the Kitsap Historical Society, Seattle, 1977. Sectional Editors of that volume were Virginia Stott (South Kitsap), Evelyn Bowen (Bremerton), Fredi Perry (Central Kitsap), Rangvald Kvelstad (North Kitsap) and Elnore Parfitt (Bainbridge Island). Also used were articles in The Bremerton Sunand private letters and notes provided by the Grant Family. This article was researched and written by JB Hall and edited for this site by Russell Neyman.