Blake Island Marine State Park History

An Island In the Salish Sea

Blake Island Marine State Park, located in the heart of Puget Sound, has long been a desired getaway spot, now surrounded by the homes of millions of people.

Indigenous Lands

Blake Island Marine State Park lies within the traditional territory of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Suquamish Tribe and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe. It has long been purported that today’s Blake Island was the birthplace of Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe in the 1780s. For thousands of years, Indigenous people harvested ling cod and crab off the west coast of the island and dug clams on several parts of the island’s beaches. Lushootseed linguist Vi Hilbert recorded the Indigenous name Ta’tcu for the island, a reference to bullhead (sculpin) that are found in the waters around the island.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government under duress in the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the islands and waters surrounding Blake Island.

Government land surveys were completed in 1858, and most of the land in today’s Blake Island Marine State Park was eventually conveyed to the State of Washington. The grant was a portion of the millions of acres of public domain lands given to the state to manage as a trust “for all the people” in support of public institutions. Blake Island’s southern 1/3 was surveyed as a “school section” (Section 36 of the township, for support of K-12 public schools), while the northern 2/3 of the island was designated for the support of the University of Washington.

Three acres at the island’s northeastern point (identified as Point Tatugh in the survey) were withdrawn as a federal Lighthouse Reserve on March 26, 1869, but no lighthouse was ever built on the property.

Vancouver Expedition

Competition between Spain and England for maritime and territorial control of the North Pacific coast of North America came to a head in the summer of 1789 when the commander of the Spanish outpost at Nootka Sound on today’s Vancouver Island seized British commercial ships engaging in fur trading with the Indigenous people of the area. War was nearly declared between Spain and Britain, until Spain backed down, realizing it could not count on an alliance with France, then preoccupied with the French Revolution. Spain and Britain negotiated joint claims of the area with the Nootka Convention in 1790.

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver was directed by the British Government to sail to Nootka Sound to meet Spanish commander Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, implement the terms of the Nootka Convention, and complete a detailed survey of the Northwest Coast.

Though previous Spanish expeditions had made maps and charts of parts of today’s Salish Sea, Vancouver and his officers completed a much more rigorous survey. On May 20, 1792, the ships of the Vancouver Expedition anchored in sight of today’s Blake Island off the southeast point of today’s Bainbridge Island. Vancouver named the point “Restoration Point” on May 29 in recognition of the restoration of the monarchy by England’s King Charles II on that date in 1660. Vancouver assigned Lieutenant Peter Puget, Sailing Master Joseph Whidbey and a crew of 20 sailors the task of exploring and charting the saltwater passages to the south of that point. After having explored the maze of waterways and determining that no “Northwest Passage” through the continent existed, they returned to the ships at Restoration Point at 2 A.M. on the morning of May 27, 1792. In recognition of the thorough survey, Vancouver named the area “Puget’s Sound.”

May 27 was declared a day of recreation for the crews of the ships, and Naturalist Archibald Menzies recorded in his journal that “a party of Officers and Men from both Vessels” landed on today’s Blake Island (which Vancouver did not apply a name to) “to try their luck & enjoy the sport of the Chace.” They saw two or three deer but didn’t shoot any which was probably for the best, as Menzies noted that “the party had spread out through the woods in different directions [and] they ran no little danger of shooting one another among the Bushes.”

Wilkes Expedition

The present-day name for Blake Island was coined by the American explorer and naval officer, Commander Charles Wilkes, during the United States Exploring Expedition’s visit to Puget Sound in 1841. The island was named for George Smith Blake, with whom Wilkes had served in the US Coast Survey, the United States’ first scientific agency and the predecessor of today’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—NOAA. Blake would also serve as Superintendent of the US Naval Academy from 1860-1865.

George A. Meigs

George Meigs came from San Francisco to Washington Territory in 1854 to develop a sawmill and ship building business at Port Madison on Bainbridge Island. With the success of his operation, Meigs and his partner William Sayward purchased the northern 2/3 of Blake Island in 1861, with the $525 purchase price supporting the construction of the Territorial University of Washington which opened in Seattle on November 4th of that year.

After the timber on the property was harvested, Meigs sold his share to Sayward, and financial problems led to foreclosure by a Seattle bank. Title to the land was complicated by creditors’ claims for many years, and it was rumored that the undeveloped island was used by smugglers attempting to hide their cargo from customs inspections.

The Trimbles

William Pitt Trimble moved to Seattle to practice law and invest in real estate in the 1890s, and with his wife Cassandra (Cannie) Ford Trimble, selected Blake Island to build a spacious summer home. Trimble drew on his legal skills to eventually clear title to the land and purchased the northern 2/3 of the island in 1903. The Trimbles planned their home to blend in with the island’s regrown forestlands. Their 12-room, two-story lodge was framed with massive Douglas fir beams and included five fireplaces, upstairs sleeping porches for guests and a wide front verandah.

Cannie loved their island retreat, anticipating the season by preparing their 47-foot launch, the Athena, towing a barge filled with food, steamer trunks, and livestock penned in stalls made of hay bales. Cannie stayed on the island with the children all summer, while William commuted to work in Seattle on the Athena. The Trimbles hosted guests at many parties and dances, with many dignitaries including Secretary of War (later President) William Howard Taft.

Cannie also curated a collection of Pacific Northwest historical memorabilia and books, including a rare set of the journals of Captain Vancouver’s 1792 voyage to Puget Sound. Her landscape design for the property included climbing roses, wisteria and many imported non-native species. A note found in William Trimble’s papers describing their estate stated: “To Cannie and me it was the most beautiful place on earth. We were the first people who ever built a house and lived there. For more than thirty years we and the children loved it and called it home!”

Tragically, Cannie Trimble drowned on December 7, 1929, when the Trimble’s car rolled off of a Seattle waterfront pier into Elliot Bay. William and the two children in the car escaped, but Cannie could not be rescued. Devastated, William Trimble never again set foot on the island. The house and grounds fell into disrepair, and the land was sold to cover financial losses Trimble sustained in the Great Depression.

On a stormy afternoon in 1949, two teenagers beached the plywood boat they had crafted in their high school wood shop class on Blake Island to warm up. They ducked inside the remains of the Trimble house, gathered some wood and lit a fire in one of the stone fireplaces. As they paddled back to the Kitsap Peninsula in gathering darkness, they saw a glow in the sky above the island as the building burned to the ground.

Making a Park

In August 1957, the Washington Board of Natural Resources considered a proposal to reacquire the formerly state-owned property on Blake Island for public access. The current owner offered the property for $250,000. At the same time, “group of substantial business people experienced in land development” announced plans to develop the island with a convention facility, golf course, yacht basin, luxury resort hotel and development of “high class view homesites” if the state was unable to exercise its option to purchase the island, as no appropriation for purchase of the land had been authorized by the legislature.

At the Board’s meeting on November 4, 1957, the decision was made to acquire the property by means of a three-way transaction with the Simpson Logging Company. Simpson purchased the Blake Island property, then traded it for a parcel of state-owned timberland near Shelton appraised at $249,437.

On October 11, 1960, Commissioner of Public Lands Bert Cole ordered the withdrawal of the reacquired lands and the remaining school trust lands on Blake Island for park purposes. The land was leased to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) for development as a state park, and the annual rental was subsequently set at $4,600.

The small lighthouse reservation at Tatugh Point remained the only part of the island not under the control of the WSPRC, a situation addressed by the approval of a lease from the federal Bureau of Land Management issued on February 1, 1964.

In 1971 the Washington State Legislature decided that continued lease of trust lands for park purposes was not in the best interest of the state and directed the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the WSPRC to negotiate a sale of the leased lands. The two agencies entered into a contract for the purchase of 15,083 acres in 24 parks, including 472 acres in Blake Island Marine State Park, at a total purchase price of $11.4 million. However, the timber on the lands was excluded from the contract, as there was no source of funding. The timber in Blake Island Marine State Park alone was appraised to be more than 4 million board feet valued at $742,000. In 1980, the legislature authorized the sale of bonds to cover the cost of the timber; on September 28, 1981, it was deeded to the WSPRC, securing its permanent protection. 

The dedication of the jetty-protected marina at Blake Island Marine State Park on July 13, 1975, included a telling of the land’s history by Webb Ware Trimble, a son of William and Cannie Trimble. Trimble thanked the WSPRC for protecting “this little paradise for all of us, for ever and ever.”

Tillicum Village

On March 1, 1961, the WSPRC entered into a Concession Lease Agreement with William S. Hewitt, doing business as Hewitt’s Catering Service, to construct and operate a unique restaurant within Blake Island Marine State Park.

Hewitt had watched Milo Moore, the Director of the Washington State Department of Fisheries, prepare baked salmon over an open alder wood fire at an event he had catered in 1958. He accepted Moore’s offer to teach him the technique, and subsequently featured baked salmon in other events, adding dance performances suggested by art historian Bill Holm and woodcarving demonstrations by artist Dudley Carter. Though Holm and Carter were not themselves Indigenous artists, they were both acknowledged for their deep expertise, sincerity and respect for Indigenous art and traditions.

Hewitt’s salmon bake events became very popular as Seattle prepared for the Century 21 World’s Fair to be held in the city in 1962. The Fair itself featured an exhibit of Northwest Coast Indian Art, curated by Dr. Erna Gunther, the director of the Washington State Museum (now the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture). The exhibit presented Northwest Coast Indigenous art on an equal footing with other great artistic traditions of the world, supporting a resurgence of Indigenous culture in the region that would further expand after treaty fishing rights, long infringed by enforcement actions of the Department of Fisheries, were upheld by court decisions in the 1970s.

William Hewitt sought to capitalize on the growing interest in Indigenous cultures of the Northwest Coast by developing a thematic restaurant. Hearing press coverage of the state’s acquisition of Blake Island for park purposes, he approached the WSPRC with a proposal to build a facility for his restaurant, called Tillicum Village, on park lands. The development would be deeded to the WSPRC, then leased to Hewitt under a concession agreement.

Design features of Tillicum Village’s buildings and grounds were drawn from a wide array of Northwest Coast Indigenous cultures, including some not associated with the Salish Sea in Washington, including the Kwakwaka’wakw and Haida of the British Columbia Coast and the Tlingit of Southeast Alaska. The main “longhouse” building was designed by John Rohrer, a non-Indigenous professor in the Department of Architecture (now the College of Built Environments) at the University of Washington.

Hewitt engaged Story Pole Master Carver Joseph (Joe) R. Hillaire (Lummi) to create story poles on the campus of Tillicum Village. Hillaire had become renowned for the story poles he created for the Century 21 World’s Fair, and his association with Tillicum Village also included instruction in Indigenous art, dance and storytelling, inspiring a new generation of carvers. Hillaire authorized Hewitt to present performances of the “Terrible Beast” dance, a traditional Lummi story.

Hyacinth Joseph David (Nuu-chah-nulth) and his wife Winnefred David (Nuu-chah-nulth) also worked with Hewitt, producing story poles, canoes and other contributions to the dance and story presentations and preparation of food at Tillicum Village. Their children, George and Joe David, grew up working with their parents at Tillicum Village, and became honored carvers in their own right.

Although financial problems and delays precluded the planned opening of the facility to coincide with the beginning of the World’s Fair, the restaurant officially opened on July 28, 1962. With water transportation to the island provided by Seattle Harbor Tours (which became Argosy Cruises in 1994), Tillicum Village became a beloved Seattle area tourist destination and frequent school field trip stop, registering over 100,000 visitors in 1978.

In 1991, Hewitt contacted musical theater and event producer Greg Thompson to develop an enhanced dance presentation for Tillicum Village guests. The result, “Dance on the Wind,” incorporated traditional dances and stories into a choreographed theatrical presentation, which ran for more than 18 years, with more than 1,000 performances.

On November 20, 1993, the eyes of the world, represented by six hundred media representatives, tuned in to Tillicum Village as it was selected by President Bill Clinton to host 14 leaders attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meeting. At its conclusion, the ministers and their delegations expressed their deep appreciation for the warm and generous hospitality extended to them and the “excellent facilities and arrangements made available for the meeting.”

On August 4,1998, Joe and George David raised a story pole they had carved at Tillicum Village in honor of their parents. The event was witnessed by 200 canoe “pullers” participating in the Tribal Canoe Journey to Puyallup, one of an ongoing series of annual voyages hosted by a different Indigenous nation each year.

In 2009, amid declining attendance, the concession lease for Tillicum Village was transferred to Argosy Cruises. The new operators sought to increase attendance by updating cultural elements of the experience at Tillicum Village. John Shuler, of the Seattle design firm EXCLAIM, sought guidance from academic and Indigenous community leaders including Roger Fernandes (Lower Elwha Klallam) and developed a new program focused on local Indigenous relationships with the land and sea and an allegorical story about tribal strength in unity.

On December 13, 2021, Argosy Cruises COO Molly Schlobohm announced the termination of the concession at Tillicum Village, stating: “Unfortunately, COVID-19 and the loss of revenue needed to continue operating on the island has forced us to scale back…”

Blake Island Marine State Park remains open to visitors arriving by private boat, offering campsites and wooded trails for quiet contemplation at the heart of Puget Sound’s history.