Prior to 1915, Indian Island (then known with Marrowstone Island as the Craven Peninsula) was linked to the mainland by a narrow band of land called the Chimakum Portage. A S'Klllam Village was documented there in an 1841 survey. A road was built along the Portage in 1900, though the primary mode of transportation was water.

A canal was cut in 1915 to facilitate shipping south from Port Townsend. Ferries served the area from 1920 until a bridge was built in 1952.


1841 chart     Georeferenced* chart


1856 NOAA chart     Georeferenced* chart


Current DEM


Current photo

We see that part of the Chimakum Portage remains south of the mud flats. It seems that dredging spoils (not necessarily from the initial canal building) blocked the drainage of the mud flats to the east. At some point between the date of that part of the DEM and the date of the photo, waters broke through more of the relict Chimakum Portage.

We shall soon use this information to alter the DEM on which our updated post-glacial simulation will be based.

*Harvey georeferenced the charts. Maybe you could do better.

Harvey Greenberg