Vashon History

Vashon Island Archaeology: a View from Burton Acres Shell Midden, edited by Julie Stein and Laura Phillips, Burke Museum of Natural History, 2003. This book describes the 1996 shell midden excavation at Jensen Point, a collaborative project of the Burke Museum archaeologists with other organizations, including the Puyallup Tribe, Vashon Park District, and McMurray Middle School.

The Puyallup-Nisqually, by Marian Smith, Columbia University Press, 1940. Anthropologist Marian W. Smith’s wrote a detailed study of the culture and history of the Puyallup and Nisqually Tribes, including references to Vashon Island.

People of Cascadia: Pacific Northwest Native American History, by Heidi Bohan, 2009. In this book, Bohan describes the culture and lifeways of the Native People in several different regions of the Pacific Northwest, including the Puget Sound area.

A History of Vashon-Maury Island by O. S. Van Olinda, 1935; new edition annotated by Roland Carey, Alderbrook Publishing, 1985. Vashon-Maury Island’s first published book about Vashon’s history. Van Olinda’s text is chronological, covering land purchases from the mid-1850s through homesteading to historical information up to its publication in 1935. Roland Carey’s additions expand on Van Olinda’s brief entries.

Past Remembered I, edited by Marj Watkins and Garland Norin, Vashon Island Public Schools, 1978, out-of-print.

This indexed volume was a grant-funded oral history project, with interviews of Island elders recorded by high school students.

Past Remembered II, edited by Garland Norin, Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association, 1991, out-of-print. Volume II was also grant-funded and was a true community project. Interviews and essays add many stories to Vashon’s historical record.

Past Remembered III, edited by Mary Jo McCormick and Barbara Steen, Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association, 2008. Using unpublished material collected and written for Past Remembered II, this volume profiles key individuals and relates stories of communities, schools, businesses, and more.

Isle of the Sea Breezes, by Roland Carey, Alderbrook Publishing, 1976. Roland Carey was a longtime Islander, and his writings provide depictions of many facets of Island life, from Vashon geology (somewhat dated) to early ways of making a living. He writes extensively about the Mosquito Fleet boats and their crews, communities, schools, and the Islanders who played a big part in Vashon’s history.

Historical…Sometimes Hysterical…Rhymes of Vashon-Maury Island, Marjorie Stanley, Beachcomber Press, 1984. Marjorie Stanley was a public librarian and historian. Over her long life, she wrote hundreds of poems about incidents and people on the Island, depicting historical events as well as humorous stories.

Mosquito Fleet of South Puget Sound, by Jean Cammon Findlay and Robin Paterson,Arcadia Publishing, 2008.
Another in the Arcadia Images of America series that relates history through the use of archival photographs, this book gives a detailed account of the Mosquito Fleet steamers that moved passengers and freight around South Puget Sound in the early days before roads and car ferries.

Vashon-Maury Island, by Bruce Haulman and Jean Cammon Findlay, Arcadia Publishing, 2011.

This book is part of the Images of America series which tells the stories of neighborhoods, towns, and cities across America through archival photographs. The Vashon authors have selected more than 200 photographs and written accompanying captions to tell the Island story.

A Brief History of Vashon Island, by Bruce Haulman, The History Press, 2015.

An interpretive history of Vashon Island, this book looks at the patterns that form the story of the Island and identifies the events and the people who helped shape its history. Beginning with the geologic formation of the Island, the text moves to the story of the sx̌ʷəbabš, the Native People of the Island, through the years of Euro-American settlement and into the modern era.

Town of Vashon, 1890-1960, by Brian Brenno. Vashon-Maury is unique among Puget Sound islands, and islands in general, in that most islands have a seaside town or port as their commercial center, while Vashon has a landlocked main town. Why did the island’s business center develop in a central inland location? The book covers the forces that created the town, along with the buildings, people, and businesses in it.

4th of July Hydros: Circling Vashon since 1955, by Brian Brenno. Brian Brenno’s family moved into the Quartermaster Drive neighborhood in 1962, where neighbors Roger Stanley and Warren Bibbins’ 4th of July hydroplane runs around Vashon-Maury Island began. In this book he follows events leading up to this unique tradition, compiles all records, Beachcomber reports, participants, and over 130 photographs.

It’s Always Uphill from the Dock, by Ann Irish, Northwest Corner Books, 2023. Irish provides a view of Puget Sound islands throughout history—the San Juan Islands, Whidbey Island, Bainbridge, Vashon Island, and many others.