Scenic Beach State Park History

Beach with a view

Scenic Beach State Park is rooted in the era of automobile tourist camps that sprung up around Washington’s inland waterways in the 1920s as car ownership became widespread. Its location on the eastern shore of Hood Canal, with views across the water to the soaring peaks of the Olympic Mountains is highlighted in the spring and early summer with blooming native rhododendrons.

Rhododendron Refuge

The pink-blossomed rhododendrons in the park (Rhododendron macrophyllum—Washington’s official State Flower since 1959) are a curious remnant of a very different geologic environment. Rhododendrons likely grew throughout the area of today’s Washington State before being fragmented by geologic changes. First, the uplift of the Cascade Mountains caused all of the area east of the mountains to become too dry, and the western slopes of the mountains too wet for the species to thrive. Second, the great glaciers of the ice ages covered most of the Puget Sound lowlands with ice thousands of feet thick, leaving well-drained gravelly deposits when they melted. Rhododendrons survived in ice-free refugia on the eastern slopes of the Olympic Mountains and eventually repopulated a small range in the rainshadow of the mountains on the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas.

Botanists at the University of Washington sampled DNA from isolated populations of rhododendrons with the help of students from West Seattle High School in 2003-2004 and found that rhododendrons of the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas appeared to have a common genetic ancestry distinct from those found in other parts of the region.

Indigenous Lands

Scenic Beach State Park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Skokomish Indian Tribe, Suquamish Tribe, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe and Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. For thousands of years the waters of Hood Canal and its tributaries have provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Point No Point in 1855, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the waters of Hood Canal. Government land surveys were completed in 1860, but land in today’s Scenic Beach State Park did not pass into private ownership from the federal government until John Lantz received a Cash Entry patent, a type of land sale of public domain lands, in 1882. Land making up the southern part of today’s park was granted to the State of Washington in 1890, part of millions of acres granted to the state at statehood to be held in trust “for all the people” to support institutions such as public schools, universities and prisons.

Scenic Beach Resort

The Lantz property was purchased by Charles R. Hall, a traveling artist who specialized in tavern murals, around 1903, and a small house was built, along with a dam to impound a small creek for a domestic water supply. The property was purchased by Joseph Emel, Sr. in about 1910. Emel remodeled the house in 1923, adding an interior toilet. Emel also followed an emerging trend by developing the property as an auto tourist camp called the “Scenic Beach Resort,” one of a dozen such businesses in Kitsap County in 1934, catering to newly mobile visitors from nearby cities eager to enjoy inexpensive outdoor accommodations.

The resort was closed when Emel died in 1959, and local supporters urged the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) to acquire the property.

Making a Park

The WSPRC secured an option to purchase 31 acres from the estate of Joseph Emel on August 8, 1962, and completed the purchase on July 24, 1963. The WSPRC requested that the adjoining 40 acres of state trust lands be leased for an addition to the park. On April 26, 1963, Commissioner of Public Lands Bert Cole reserved the lands for park purposes.

In 1971 the Washington Legislature decided that continued lease of trust lands for park purposes was not in the best interest of the state. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) negotiated a sale of the leased lands, including the 40 acres in Scenic Beach State Park. The timber was initially excluded from the sale, but in 1980, the legislature authorized the sale of bonds to cover the cost of the timber. The timber was deeded to the WSPRC on October 7, 1992, securing its protection.

The historic Emel House in the park was developed as a rental and has become a popular venue for weddings and other celebrations. Scenic Beach State Park was dedicated on June 22, 1975.