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 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.