Another of Our Public Beaches

I think this beach on the north side of the island has a particularly interesting history. In the late 19th & early 20th Centuries the island was heavily logged. In fact, even though today the island is covered predominantly with Douglas Fir trees it's extremely difficult to find any over the age of 50-75 years old. The magnificent tall & straight trunks were logged primarily for ship masts of the day & sent all over the world.

Until the logs were ready to be shipped to various places, including Europe & Asia, they were "stored" in a bay that overlooks the mainland & one of the snow covered mountains of the Cascade Range. One could walk from log to log clear across the bay, but such an exercise was dangerous. The lumber company eventually decided to build a bridge clear across the bay.

In the mid-1940s the lumber company closed the business and today all that's left are a few poles that supported the bridge across the bay, which can be seen in the top two photos. The bottom photo is part of a walkway installed by the county, making a portion of the beach wheelchair accessible. Across the bay one of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains can be seen in the bottom photo.