McMicken Island Marine State Park History

McMicken Island Marine State Park is an off-the-beaten-path destination for boaters near Harstine Island that was homesteaded and used as a vacation home for many years.

Island on a Tether

McMicken Island Marine State Park was covered by glacial ice during the most recent ice age. The fingerlike waterways of South Puget Sound, including Case Inlet, were excavated by highly pressurized meltwater streams that developed as the thousands-of-feet-thick ice began to melt. Meltwaters flowed south and west through today’s Chehalis River Valley to the Pacific Ocean until the ice melted far enough to the north to allow passage to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The back-and-forth slosh of waves against the shore of nearby Harstine Island eventually built a sand bar tethering McMicken Island to the island, making a tombolo that becomes dry land at very low tides.

Indigenous Lands

McMicken Island Marine State Park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Squaxin Island Tribe. For thousands of years the waters around Harstine Island have provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their culture.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Medicine Creek in 1854, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the waters of Case Inlet around McMicken Island. A government land survey of Harstine Island was completed in 1857.

Survey, Homestead and Vacation Home

In the 1890s, Charles Lundquist, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, claimed the 11-acre island under terms of the Homestead Act. When he tried to register his claim, it was discovered that the island was not shown on the survey map. A supplementary survey was ordered and completed in May 1894. As an added bonus, Lundquist was hired as a chainman for the survey, providing a little extra income. Deputy Surveyor David B. Ogden wrote in the survey notes:

I find that by waiting until the tide is at its lowest ebb that I can meander across to the island on a narrow sandspit and thus check my triangulation.

The survey map shows that Lundquist, his wife Amanda and daughter Ellen had cleared 2 acres of the south end of the island, built a 14’ x 20’ cabin and started a well. He received the patent for his homestead on August 15, 1898. The Lundquists sold the island in 1901, moving to Tacoma. In 1914 the island was sold to Arthur R. Warren, a Tacoma attorney. The Warren family used the property as a vacation home.

What’s In a Name?

McMicken Island is named for General William McMicken, a Civil War veteran who was appointed Surveyor General for Washington by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873 and served until 1886, overseeing the original government surveys of many parts of Washington Territory.

The Surveyor General was appointed by the President of the United States, a government position understood to be a patronage appointment reserved for supporters of the president or their political party. McMicken was replaced in 1886 when Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, became president. When William McKinley (a Republican) became president in 1898, McMicken was reappointed as Surveyor General. He held the position until his death in 1899.

Making a Park

In 1974, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission purchased McMicken Island from Winifred Carson and her children, Arthur Warren’s descendants, as a boat moorage site with limited onshore facilities. In turn, their existing vacation residence was leased back to them for their lifetimes.