The Portage store and its 1.7 acre site are now for sale, along with the adjacent 1.4 acre parcel to the west.
Together, these two parcels comprise much of the salt marsh and the areas that were filled in to create the three roads that connect Vashon and Maury islands.
The complex includes the original 1903 store which was moved north when the ‘new’ 1906 two-story Portage store replaced it; the Van Olinda House which sits to the west and is connected to the store, several garages and outbuildings, a filled-in area along Quartermaster Drive, and much of the original salt marsh that defined Portage as a place to haul canoes between Tramp Harbor and Quartermaster Harbor.
The historic building and property have both cultural and environmental significance.
The portage has long been an important and vital part of Vashon-Maury Island, providing the link between the two islands. The sxəbabš or Swift Water People name for Portage is StE’xygw1L – “where the canoe is pushed”.
The sxəbabš, who first inhabited Vashon-Maury Island, used Portage as a major gathering and hunting ground and shared hunting rights to the site with the Nisqually tribe under a traditional agreement resource sharing.
The Portage bird net posts used to hunt waterfowl were still visible until 1905.
Portage was also the location of an important sxəbabš burial site. Canoe burials in the large madrone grove south of the road, connecting Tramp Harbor and Quartermaster Harbour, were still present in the 1910s. The madrone grove has now been largely removed, and nothing remains of the burials of canoes except the sacred spirit of the place.
Portage has been mapped twice, first by George Vancouver in 1792, who saw it as a connecting isthmus and named the entire island “Vashon’s Island” and half a century later by Charles Wilkes of the American Exploring Expedition, which saw it as a tidal flat and thus two islands, naming Maury as a separate island after Lt. William Maury, the expedition’s navigator.
Wilkes provided this description of Portage when he wrote in his diary: “At the east end of Vashon Island, and close by, is Maury Island. It is 4 miles long by 1 mile wide; northeast and southeast trends. Between her and Vashon Island is Quartermaster Harbor which is safe and of moderate depth. A small neck of land extends from the upper part of Vashon Island, where it forms a cozy cove. At extremely low water, the Maury and Vashon Islands are connected by a sandbar.
After the American settlement of Vashon, Portage became the center of a vibrant community with the Portage store, a Ford car dealership (the island’s first car dealership), a post office, a hotel, an Episcopal church and the first automobile ferry linking Vashon with Des Moines on the mainland – now the sight of Tramp Harbor wharf.
To make all this possible, a causeway was first built on the side of the quartermaster’s quarters, in 1896, by a crew sent by the Dockton Drydock Company to help create a water level road to Dockton. A causeway and bridge were built on the Tramp Harbor side before 1900.
In 1914, King County removed the bridge, filled in the marsh, built a bulkhead, and built a water-level road to Ellisport to prepare for the opening of the Portage-Des Moines ferry in 1916.
The dream of opening up Portage by cutting a channel was first announced in 1889 when the islanders “proposed to cut a steamboat channel between Vashon and Maury islands in order to shorten the route between Seattle and Tacoma”.
The idea was revived in 1911 with U.S. Senator Lile assuring that work was progressing on the plan at an estimated cost of $27,000, but no federal funding materialized and the idea died.
The Corps of Engineers recommended a canal in 1926, but again there was no funding.
In 1960, the final effort to dig a canal at Portage was supported by the Chamber of Commerce, but the Corps of Engineers could only fund the survey, not the estimated $400,000 construction cost.
The dream lives on for some Islanders who want to open the Portage Salt Marsh to help reduce pollution in Quartermaster Harbor and benefit owners of small boats traveling between Tacoma and Seattle.
In 1903, CF Van Olinda built the first store in Portage and later that year opened the Portage Post Office as the first postmaster. The store offered the first rural free delivery (RFD) on the island, beginning in 1905, and remained a post office until July 12, 1968, when it was decommissioned.
Van Olinda built the “new” two-story Portage store in 1906 and moved the original store north, where it still stands, but in a dilapidated state.
After Van Olinda sold the buildings, the store remained in business well into the early years of the 21st century. During the 1919s the store passed through several different owners, eventually becoming Lavender’s Store in the 1930s, then in the late 1960s Jim and Elspeth Smith operated the Portage store, until it closed in 2005.
A notable year for Portage and the Portage Store was 1976 when poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti stayed at the store and wrote his poem “Clamshell Alliance”.
Ferlinghetti was in Seattle to do a lecture at the University Friends Center in District U and stayed a few days with his friend Jakk Corsaw in Portage. Obviously, Ferlinghetti would have met and had long conversations with Jakk’s two great friends – Jim Smith, owner of the Portage Store, and Billy Sandiford, who founded and starred in the much-loved Billy Sandiford Day Parade.
“Clamshell Alliance” was first published in Ferlinghetti’s 1979 collection, “Landscapes of Living and Dying”, and later in his 1988 “Wild Dreams of a New Beginning”.
Earlier that year, Canadian rock band Rush stayed in the store’s original building and worked on finalizing their studio album, “All the Worlds a Stage.” In the album’s liner notes, Rush thanked “Peter Talbot and the Islanders of Vashon…We thank you for your friendship and support and wish you success in all your aspirations.”
There is a lot of interest in the building and adjacent parcel, which are listed at $850,000 for the store and $250,000 for the parcel.
There are also several site and building issues that a potential buyer will need to consider.
The buildings are over 100 years old, and although the two-story store and adjoining house appear stable, the original 1903 store that was moved north leans considerably out of plumb. Much of the parcel to the west was filled with debris deposited in the late 1950s and early 1960s when Vashon’s roads first began to be paved.
The salt marsh is an important habitat, and questions about how best to preserve it will need to be addressed.
There is also the significance of the site to the Sxəbabš indigenous people of Vashon and to the Puyallup tribe since the site was once a burial site and, according to native and settler accounts, also the site of a possible battle between natives of South Sound. and raiders from the northern tribes.
Local historian Brian Brenno wrote about the site and Helen Puz’s description of her father helping C. F. Van Olinda dig the basement of the “new” Portage Store, where Puz says human remains were unearthed.
In 1998, the King County Department of Natural Resources developed a comprehensive “Portage, Vashon Island Improvements Guidance Document” which considered nine options for Portage, ranging from improving the existing culvert to constructing bridges, through the restoration of the salt marsh, the development of a canal between Quartermaster Harbor and Tramp Harbor.
Any new owner of the site will need to consider all of these issues as they attempt to preserve and develop this important historic piece of Vashon’s history.
Both Portage and the Portage Store are important parts of Vashon’s past. Knowing the history of the area and the buildings helps us understand how much Vashon has changed.
Large salt marshes like Portage, Point Robinson and KVI Beach were once common on the island. Now only KVI remains the last remaining great salt mash in central Puget Sound.
Community stores, like the Portage Store, were the centers of the many waterfront communities that surrounded the island before roads, automobiles and consolidation unified the island into what it is today.
Now only the Burton store remains.
The future of Portage and the Portage Store is uncertain. Hopefully, no matter what, we will always remember the special place this place has in the history of Vashon-Maury Island.
Bruce Haulman is an Island historian. Terry Donnelly is an island photographer.
