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.

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.