Anderson Island and the Puget Memorial Project

I received an exciting email from Dave Jacobson on Anderson Island. He is a Park Commissioner on the island and he ran across our Memorial blog. The Park Commissioners invited me over yesterday to see their new project, Jacobs Point Park, and  to talk about their newly discovered information of Peter Puget's encampment on Anderson Island - 22 May 1792 and how that might impact their project.

Arriving Anderson Island on the
MV Christine Anderson, a Pierce County Ferry
17 May 2013

Anderson Island has always been known for their well documented history through several authors over the centuries of in-habitation since the mid 1800's. Dave is also the President of the Historical Society and his parents owned property on the island long ago. As he mentioned to a friend, we are just now discovering our island people date back to 1792 with the Puget Exploration Party. The 5 Commissioners are very excited to have discovered this information at this particular time. TheCommissioners are Dave Jacobson, Bill Spears, Rick Anderson, Chuck Hinds and Carol Pascal. They are well into developing an 85 acre park with 2.5 miles of trails and picnic/viewing sites(5) on the Jacobs Peninsula which extends into Oro Bay. Oro Bay is where the Puget party took refuge from a SE storm and were forced to spend the night. Indians came in 3 canoes and brought them salmon, berries and traded bear skins with the explorers.

click to enlarge

We hiked the newly created trail to Jacobs Point and looked out over Oro Bay to the bay's southern shoreline and land spit where we believe the explorers camped based on the Journals of Peter Puget and Archibald Menzies which were edited by Richard Blumenthal.(With Vancouver in Inland Washington Waters) Afterwards Dave and his wife, Lynn took me to their home and we had a wonderful lunch.

An Amazing Group of Commissioners
& Supporters.

Oro Bay from Jacobs Point

I am really excited about Jacobs Point Park and the Commissioner's plan to add the "Puget" component to their signage as well as, to their island history. This is a perfect example of my dream. Share the information of the Puget Exploration of the Sound and let each Puget Sounder bring him to life in their own life and the life of their community/organization/or project. Let us all Honor, Memorialize, and Celebrate Peter Puget and his Exploration Party. Thank you Anderson Island for stepping up to the plate, becoming a friend of ours so, we all can make our projects memorable and project them into the lives of the next generation. We don't want to loose Peter Puget again, now that we have re-discovered him. It is interesting that King George III named the 1791-1795 voyage, the Voyage of Discovery. 221 years later, we are still discovering these explorers again and finding new and wonderful  places and ways to honor them.  Anderson Island could have an annual party/ picnic to honor the Puget Party on 22 May of each year. What a magical process!