Lloyd Reiman of Bremerton asks today, in a letter to the editor, why people call the area north of Port Washington Narrows "East Bremerton" when it is clearly north of Bremerton, according to his compass. "Was the Earth's magnetic field compromised?" he wonders.

Well, I contacted my new friend Russell Warren, who has been researching the history of Bremerton for years.

In the early 1900s, a ferry ran regularly from Bremerton to Manette, which is essentially east of downtown. In 1918, Manette was annexed into Bremerton. The Manette Bridge, opened in 1930, provides essentially an east-west route across Port Washington Narrows.

Warren says he suspects that the name East Bremerton caught on during World War II. The East Park housing project was on one side of town, with West Park on the other. When Bremerton High School was split in two during the 1950s, one school was called East High School and the other West High School.

Warren recalls some concern about the name "East" for a high school north of Bremerton, but the whole area on the north side of Port Washington Narrows continued to be called East Bremerton, so the name stuck. By the way, the school was never called East Bremerton High School, he noted.

The Warren Avenue Bridge was opened in 1958 on a route that is nearly north and south. Warren Avenue itself goes straight north and south, passing the old high school site. So, as Bremerton continues to grow northward, the entire area continues to be known as East Bremerton.

Does anybody remember the debate over the high school name? Does anybody have other information about the east-versus-west-versus-north debate? If so, please weigh in on this discussion.

January 1, 2007

1. What notable Suquamish warrior was Chief Seattle’s uncle?

A) Duwamish

B) Kitsap

C) Schweabe

D) Squamish

2. Why was Kitsap originally called Slaughter County?

A) To commemorate a mass murder at Erlands Point

B) To honor a soldier named Slaughter killed during the Indian Wars

C) To honor the first white settler named Slaughter

D) Kitsap was the site of the state’s first meat-packing plant

3. Who were the Twana?

A) Mythical dwarves who lived below ground near the Skokomish River

B) The language group of Hood Canal Native Americans now known as the Skokomish Tribe

C) A now extinct canine species whose fur was woven into blankets by early Native Americans

D) A tribe that settled in the Olympic Mountains

4. What Native American tribe was forced to relocate to make room for a sawmill?

A) S’Klallam

B) Suquamish

C) Skokomish

D) Duwamish

5. In Chinook jargon, Olalla means:

A) pregnant doe

B) burial ground

C) salmon berries

D) socks

6. How did Toe Jam Hill on Bainbridge Island get its name?

A) It’s named for an oldtimer who used to live there named Torjam.

B) A bartender at a local tavern gave cheap rotgut — toe jam — to immigrants who lived nearby and worked.

C) A bartender served the toe jam to Port Blakely Mill workers seeking a free drink.

D) All of the above (trick question — it’s all conjecture)

7. What is Welfare Avenue on Bainbridge Island named for?

A) The non-affluent area of Bainbridge

B) Albert Welfare, the first Bainbridge Island police chief

C) An esteemed, sea-going family

D) None of the above

8. What was the first name for Winslow, Bainbridge Island’s downtown core?

A) New Wenatchee

B) Madrone

C) Ordway

D) Madison

9. Which explorer came to Bainbridge Island first?

A) George Vancouver

B) Charles Wilkes

C) Norm Dicks

D) Ferdinand Magellan

10. Who was Fay Bainbridge?

A) A notable early island hippie-turned-attorney

B) Charles Wilkes’ first wife

C) What they called strawberries in the island’s early days

D) It’s actually two names; one for William Bainbridge (for which the island is named) and the other is an attorney-turned-farmer who gave the land to the state

11. What was the first substantial white settlement in Kitsap County?

A) Port Gamble

B) Kingston

C) Port Orchard

D) Seabeck

12. When did the mill in Port Gamble, believed to be the longest-running in the country, close?

A) 1990

B) 1995

C) Three weeks ago

D) 1975

13. What was the original name of Liberty Bay?

A) Duwamps Bay

B) Freedom Bay

C) Dogfish Bay

D) Bainbridge Bay

14. Why was Ivar Moe’s initial suggestion of "Paulsbo" not used?

A) The postmaster misread his handwriting as Poulsbo

B) No one ever listened to Ivar Moe

C) Unruly Swedes switched it at the last minute

D) A settlement in Mason County was also considering the name Paulsbo

15. The S’Klallam called Point No Point "Hahdskus." What does Hahdskus mean?

A) "Where am I?"

B) "Point No Point"

C) "Long Nose"

D) "Lost Land"

16. How did the area of Holly, located near Seabeck in Eastern Kitsap County, get its name?

A) Named for the plant, after it was planted by an early settler

B) Named for actress Holly Hunter, who owns a summer home there

C) The abundance of Holly in the area gave it the namesake

D) An early sawmill in the area was known as "Holly"

17. What was the original name given to Seabeck?

A) Slaughter City

B) Kitsap Village

C) Sawbeck

D) "L-ka-bak-hu" (named by the Skokomish Tribe)

18. Who built and owned the mills in Seabeck?

A) Robert Marshall, a well-to-do publisher based in Seattle

B) Thurgood Marshall

C) Marshall Blinn

D) Marshall Mathers

19. During its prime, the two mills of Seabeck set the world record at the time for most board feet passed through a mill. Which is the amount of board feet the Seabeck mills produced to set the record?

A) 80,000 board feet

B) Two million board feet

C) 50,000 board feet

D) One million board feet

20. In addition to working at the mills, what else could one do in Seabeck’s early days?

A) Go to the butcher shop

B) Go ice-skating

C) Go bowling

D) All of the above

21. What was the town platted next to Bremerton called in 1891?

A) Stinkville

B) Charleston

C) Port Orchard

D) Manette

22. Who is Burwell Street named for?

A) Rear Adm. William Burwell, the first commander of the Naval Station

B) The town of Burwell, Neb.

C) Adm. David Porter, who served in the Civil War

D) Bob Burwell of Sedro-Woolley

23. What was the dividing line between Bremerton and Charleston in the early 1900s?

A) The ferry dock

B) High Avenue

C) The fourth barstool at the Fuzzy Naval

D) Pacific Avenue

24. Where did the name Charleston come from?

A) King Charles XI of Sweden

B) The USS Charleston, the first modern Navy cruiser in Puget Sound

C) Charles Barkley

D) Charlestown, Mass., a former city that was incorporated into Boston

25. Why did the city take the name Bremerton after consolidation in 1927?

A) Bremerton received more votes in a ballot taken in both cities

B) The mayor of Bremerton pinned the mayor of Charleston in a wrestling match

C) Bremerton had a larger incorporated land area than Charleston

D) Bremerton had a larger population

26. The name Belfair was recommended by:

A) The governor, who had already named his sailboat "Belfair II"

B) The postmistress who had seen the name mentioned in a book she was reading

C) The most prominent pastor in town in honor of his cat

D) Nobody

27. Bethel translates to:

A) "Have you got a better town name in mind?"

B) "This town isn’t big enough for the both of us"

C) "Bothell was already taken"

D) "House of God"

28. What was one of Gorst’s original names?

A) Squirrel Run

B) Pleasant Valley

C) Waterton

D) Texaco

29. Orchard Point was named after:

A) A large apple orchard located just off the waterfront near Manchester

B) The townsfolk had had too many drinks at the local saloon

C) A delightful play on Broadway, "An Orchard for Simeron"

D) The clerk aboard Capt. George Vancouver’s ship, the H.M.S. Discovery

30. Tahuya is thought to be a Twana tribal phrase for:

A) "Ta da!"

B) "Canada’s that way"

C) "That done"

D) "This name will do for now"

• • •

ANSWERS | 1. B) Kitsap 2. B) To honor a soldier named Slaughter killed during the Indian Wars 3. B) The language group of Hood Canal Native Americans now known as the Skokomish Tribe 4. A) S’Klallam 5. C) salmon berries 6. D) All of the above (trick question — it’s all conjecture) 7. C) An esteemed, sea going family 8. B) Madrone 9. A) George Vancouver 10. D) It’s actually two names; one for William Bainbridge (for which the island is named) and the other is an attorney-turned-farmer who gave the land to the state 11. A) Port Gamble 12. B) 1995 13. C) Dogfish Bay 14. A) Postmaster misread it 15. C) "Long Nose" 16. A) Named for the plant, after it was planted by an early settler 17. D) "L-ka-bak-hu" (named by the Skokomish Tribe) 18. C) Marshall Blinn 19. D) One million board feet 20. D) All of the above 21. C) Port Orchard 22. A) William Burwell 23. B) High Avenue 24. B) The USS Charleston 25. D) Bremerton had the larger population 26. B) The postmistress who had seen the name mentioned in a book she was reading 27. D) "House of God" 28. B) Pleasant Valley 29. D) The clerk aboard Capt. George Vancouver’s ship, the H.M.S. Discovery 30. C) "That done"

• • •

Now, let us judge your results:

If you got 26 questions or more right: You are a "regular" in the diner we call Kitsap County, someone who would impress Charles Wilkes himself.

If you got 22 questions or more right: You are right around the corner from being a names whiz. Now get down to the library, brush up and come back.

If you got 18 questions or more right: You have the basic knowledge to traverse the county with all of your historian buddies ... but they’ll still beat you at Jeopardy! (Like always.)

If you got 14 questions or more right: Quick, hop a ferry to Seattle and impress some unassuming tourists with some good ol’ fashioned names trivia.

If you got 10 questions or more right: Head to the nearest information bureau. We need to talk about you moving to Kitsap.

By Chad Lewis, clewis@kitsapsun.com

Belfair

It’s tempting to think that all Kitsap communities were named after prominent explorers or noble Native American tribes.

But sometimes it came down to whatever book the local postal worker happened to be reading at the time.

Both North Mason and South Kitsap have colorful namesakes, linked to ship clerks, mispronunciations and obscure literary references.

The inspiration for Belfair’s name is particularly amusing. In 1925, theU.S. Post Office said the town of Clifton — located at the south bend of Hood Canal — had to be renamed. The Clifton Post Office had closed in 1913 because of slow business and because no one wanted to be postmaster.

Within a few years, residents decided they needed a new post office. But by then other towns in Washington had taken the name Clifton. The new local postmistress recommended "Belfair," a name she noticed in a book titled "St. Almo."

"The History of Belfair and the Tahuya Peninsula: 1880-1940," by Irene Davis, is considered the most comprehensive history of the region. Davis died in 2001, shortly after the book was published. She spent 20 years researching and writing the collection.

"I remember walking up the stairs, hearing her type away on an old manual typewriter," said Peggy VanBuskirk, one of her 10 children. "Some people wanted it to be more gossipy, but she just wanted to stick with facts."

The Twana tribe first inhabited the nearby drainage basin of Hood Canal. In 1855, the Duhlalip signed the Point No Point Treaty and were told to live on the reservation set aside for them at the mouth of Skokomish River.

While Captain George Vancouver was the first white explorer to enter and map Hood Canal, he missed the eastern arm of the canal. Lt. Augustus Case of the Wilkes Expedition in 1841 used Vancouver’s map and added to it.

Gorst, just south of Bremerton, was named after pioneer Samuel Gorst. The community’s most famous resident is Vern Centennial Gorst. Born in 1876 in Minnesota, Gorst’s middle name refers to the nation’s 100th birthday.

Gorst became known as "The Grandad of United Air Lines," for suggesting combining the four original Air Mail Lines, including Boeing Air Transport, to form United.

He spent his younger years exploring Alaska and the Yukon Territory in the late 1890s during the Big Stampede. "Gold is where you find it," Gorst said.

Port Orchard was named in 1792 by Vancouver in honor of H.M. Orchard, clerk of Vancouver’s ship, H.M.S. Discovery. Orchard was the one who discovered that a supposed cove actually was a passage, later named Rich Passage.

The town originally was platted as Sidney by developer Sidney Stephens. In 1903, at the request of residents, the state Legislature renamed it Port Orchard before declaring it the county seat.

West of Port Orchard is Colby, which actually is a butchered pronunciation of "Coal Bay" (try speaking like a grizzled prospector). In the mid-1880s, lumps of coal were discovered along a small stream there.

While naming communities after European cities was common on the East Coast, the practice fell out of fashion by the time pioneers settled the Northwest. One exception was Manchester, which was named after the waterfront city in England.

Established in 1883 as Brooklyn, this lumber- and shingle-mill town was renamed Manchester because early civic leaders envisioned it as another major seaport.

The series

The Tribes — Monday

Bainbridge —Tuesday

North Kitsap — Wednesday

Central Kitsap — Thursday

Bremerton — Friday

South Kitsap and North Mason — Today

Names Sidebar

Bethel: Located south of Port Orchard, this community was named by its first settlers, the Johnsons. They established a church in their home and gave it the Biblical name "Bethel," which means "House of God."

Fragaria: This South Kitsap village south of Harper was named in 1912 by Ferdinand Schmitz of Seattle for the tasty early strawberries that grew there. "Fragaria" is the genus name of strawberries.

Colchester: This South Kitsap community’s name is a combination of its two neighboring towns, Colby and Manchester.

Tahuya: The name of this Hood Canal creek and community derived from Twana Indian words "ta" and "ho-i," meaning "that done," in reference to some notable event that took place at the site.

Gorst: This settlement at the head of Sinclair Inlet was named Butler in 1887 in honor of the Butler family, who established the first post office. It also was called "Head of the Bay" and "Pleasant Valley." In the 1940s, it was officially named Gorst in honor of pioneer Samuel Gorst.

Olalla: This South Kitsap community located 7 miles north of Tacoma inherited the Chinook jargon name "Olallie," meaning "salmon berry." The spelling was changed when a post office was established.

By Christopher Dunagan, cdunagan@kitsapsun.com

Bremerton’s twin city, Charleston, officially ceased to exist in 1927. Except for a few twists of fate, Bremerton might be known today as Charleston, Burwell or maybe even Port Orchard.

Community leaders in Bremerton — including founder William Bremer — had a better sense of business, a more profound view of the future than leaders in neighboring Charleston, says local historian Russell Warren, who is writing a book about the "lost city."

"At one time, Bremerton was literally landlocked," noted Warren, who grew up in the area. "You couldn’t go anywhere without going through Charleston. One of the mysteries is, why did Charleston kind of disappear and go under, and why did Bremerton prosper?"

In 1891, the original town site of Charleston was platted alongside another plat called Port Orchard. Both were located west of the present site of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Within two years, the town of Port Orchard was up and running, with a mayor and town council in charge.

Bremerton also was platted in 1891, two years after a special Navy commission named Point Turner as the best site for a new Naval Station. For years, Lt. Abrose B. Wyckoff had promoted that location (the site of the present ferry terminal).

In 1891, he was given authority to purchase 190 acres for the Navy.

"Wyckoff was the big driving force for the whole deal," Warren noted. "In the first commission report, he said the water was not too deep nor too shallow, and it was in an area capable of being protected."

Port Orchard operated as a city next to the Navy Yard for eight years before Bremerton incorporated in 1901. Two years later, the Port Orchard Town Council changed the name to Charleston. The name was derived from the second USS Charleston, the first modern Navy cruiser that came into Puget Sound.

One of the mistakes Charleston officials made in the early days was giving up a beautiful recreational beach to build a road along Sinclair Inlet to what would become Gorst, Warren said. Later, the road became known as Navy Yard Highway.

"They did a lot of other dumb things," he added.

The town allowed an ugly fuel dock and tanks to be built on the town’s waterfront, he said. Local codes allowed a mishmash of houses, some built on stilts over the water.

"It was very junky down there," Warren said.

Bremerton maintained a professional fire department, while Charleston’s volunteers struggled to stay organized.

From the beginning, William Bremer was enthusiastic about his business prospects.

"Bremerton lies around the actual dry dock ... as to shut out every competitor," he said in the Sidney (later Port Orchard) Independent in 1892. "In other words, the farthest lot in Bremerton is nearer to the United States dry dock ... than the nearest lot in any other town or addition."

Bremerton and Charleston quickly grew up side-by-side. The dividing line between them was High Avenue, near the crest of the hill between Warren and Naval avenues.

Both Bremerton and Charleston had their own school districts, and school officials decided to work together to build a high school. In 1905, voters in both school districts agreed to create a special unified high school district, so Union High School moved off the drawing boards.

A site had been chosen between Fourth and Fifth streets, with High Avenue running right down the middle, so that half the school was in Bremerton and half was in Charleston.

"Originally, there was one building that was square," Warren said. "The thought was that people from Bremerton would walk up Fifth and go in one door, and people from Charleston would walk up Fourth and go in the other door."

The school was eventually expanded and later became Coontz Junior High. Today the school is gone, and the site is a city park.

While downtown Bremerton expanded its businesses near the shipyard’s main gate, Charleston built some fine old homes on the hill overlooking the shipyard. Charleston business areas grew along Callow and Naval avenues.

As the two cities grew, public works officials tried to join the streets of the original plats, which were numerous and had little relationship to each other.

"One plat would have alleys and one would not," Warren said. "One had alleys running north and south and another would have them running east and west. And there was no consideration for ravines."

The legacy remains in the streets overlooking the shipyard.

Later, Charleston officials decided to give up their numbering system west of the Navy Yard to conform better to Bremerton’s system, and Bremerton’s numbers were shifted over two blocks, because its original first street had been consumed by the shipyard. Thus, Charleston’s Sixth Street became Bremerton’s First, and Charleston’s First Street became Preble.

In the process, a whole bunch of streets got named for Navy heroes or local Navy officials: Preble, Porter, Farragut, Rodgers and Coontz. Historians are still trying to figure out how the name of Lt. Ambrose Wyckoff — dubbed the father of Puget Sound Naval Shipyard — became misspelled on city maps as Wycoff.

As early as 1906, there was talk about combining Bremerton and Charleston into a single city called Burwell, for Rear Adm. William Burwell, commander of the Naval Station from 1900 to 1902 and again from 1905 to 1908. Voters were offered the opportunity to merge the cities again and again through the years.

In 1927, voters in both Bremerton and Charleston finally approved the consolidation. By state law, the name went to the city with the most population, which was Bremerton.

A year later, Bremerton and Charleston school districts merged. At the time, Charleston School District stretched out to Phinney Bay, which was well beyond the city limits, Warren said.

About the time of the consolidation, there were two Washington Avenues, one in Bremerton and one in Charleston. The Charleston street was renamed Callow, after a longtime city clerk named William Callow.

After Bremerton officials changed Third Street to Burwell, the street in Charleston was changed to Hewitt.

"For a time, there was a Burwell Avenue in Charleston and a Burwell Street in Bremerton," Warren said. "You don’t really want people living on the corner of Burwell and Burwell, so they changed the street in Charleston."

Charleston may no longer be a city, but decisions connected to the town remain embedded in the landscape.

Note to Readers: This is the fifth installment of a six-day series chronicling the origins of Kitsap County place names. It will culminate Jan. 1, 2007, with a full spread of trivia based on the series (so do your homework this week). For more on names, log onto www.kitsapsun.com and go to "blogs" at the top of the screen. Scroll down to "How Kitsap Got its Names," for an interactive discussion and database of Kitsap’s place names.

The series:

The Tribes — Monday

Bainbridge —Tuesday

North Kitsap — Wednesday

Central Kitsap — Thursday

Bremerton — Today

South Kitsap and North Mason — Saturday

Street names

Wycoff Avenue: Named for Lt. Ambrose B. Wyckoff, essentially the founder of the Bremerton shipyard.

Burwell Street: Named for Rear Adm. William Burwell, the first commander of the Naval Station.

Gregory Way: Named for a public works officer in the shipyard, L.E. Gregory.

Rodgers Street: Named for Rear Adm. John Rodgers, commander of the Naval Station from 1908 to 1910.

Coontz Street: Named for Rear Adm. R.E. Coontz, commander from 1915 to 1918 who later became chief of naval operations.

Preble Street: Named for Adm. Edward Preble, who was known for his Revolutionary War exploits and commanded the USS Constitution against Barbary pirates in 1803.

Porter Street: Named for Adm. David D. Porter, who served in the Civil War.

Farragut Street: Named for Adm. David G. Farragut, who captured New Orleans in the famous Civil War battle and became the first U.S. Navy officer to earn the title of rear admiral.

By Brynn Grimley, bgrimley@kitsapsun.com

Seabeck

During the mid-1800s Jacob Hauptley, a native of Switzerland, was likely the most well-known man in Seabeck.

Now, more than a century later, no one has ever heard of him, let alone knows anything about how he kept the early community of Seabeck in order.

"He was the most remarkable man," said Fred Just, owner of the Camp Union Cookhouse. "When he showed up to Seabeck he didn’t have anything. The reason people don’t know about him is because his family suppressed his diaries."

As the former president of the Kitsap County Historical Society, Just had the chance to read Hauptley’s voluminous diary entries, which Hauptley’s descendents aren’t making available for public reading. It is through those writings that Just and other history buffs have been able to learn about the lives of the early settlers who came to Seabeck.

"It was a hard way of life because there wasn’t a lot of money," Just said about Seabeck’s early days. "Food was actually the hardest thing to obtain. Money was so tight they had to work constantly, even the women folk. It was strictly a pioneer way of life, so to speak."

As a Seabeck native with ancestral ties to the area that date back to the early 1900s, Just has dedicated thousands of hours to learning about Seabeck and Kitsap County’s history. The walls of his restaurant at Camp Union are filled with original photos of the early days of Seabeck, depicting the lives of many of the early settlers.

As in most of Western Washington, Native Americans once lived and hunted in the area now known as Seabeck. According to "Origin of Washington Geographic Names," a book by Edmond S. Meany, the Skokomish tribe named the area "L-ka-bak-hu."

The Native Americans would fish for salmon in the bay that is now the site of the soon-to-be rebuilt marina. The natives also used the land where the Miami Beach Resort was once built as their burial ground, according to Just.

Charles Wilkes first charted Seabeck in 1841 during his government-authorized expedition. Wilkes tried to spell a Native American name when charting Seabeck, calling the bay in front of the downtown area "Seabock Harbor." According to a British Admiralty chart from 1911, Capt. Henry Kellet changed the name of the bay in 1847 to "Hahamish Harbor." He kept Wilkes’ "Seabock" name for the land, however either because of poor handwriting, or some other unknown reason, Kellet charted it as Seabeck, as opposed to Seabock.

There is another theory for how Seabeck got its name. Marshall Blinn, the settler who established the sawmill in 1858, is said to have named the area after his hometown, Seabeck, Maine.

Regardless of how the name came to be, it was Blinn who helped the now quiet, tight-knight community become one of the fastest growing settlements on the shores of Hood Canal — then known as Hoods Canal — during the mid- to late-1800s.

In its prime, residents believed Seabeck would be a larger city than Seattle. There was also talk of Seabeck becoming the state’s capital.

It was during this time that Switzerland native Hauptley began keeping his extensive diary entries. As the justice of the peace, the owner of a butcher shop, the keeper of the cemetery, the owner of a large chicken farm in Quilcene and basically the most-trusted man in the area, Hauptley detailed the daily happenings of the growing mill town.

While most of the people living in Seabeck worked at one of Blinn’s two mills, there were other shops in town that employed people and offered entertainment.

"It was a different town in a lot of respects," Just said. "Yes, it was a mill town, but it had a lot of other stores, too."

They included shoe shops, an ice-skating rink and a bowling alley, which at the time was called 10-pin, Just said.

During the height of its success, Seabeck was a world-renowned port with a major shipyard famous for building the largest sailing ship on the West Coast. The mill also set the world record for getting the most feet of board through the mill in one day — 1 million board feet,Just said.

By the 1880s, Seabeck had established a logging camp with a permanent population of 600 to 1,000 people. But, in August 1886 a fire, sparked by the Retriever, a ship docked near the mill, destroyed most of the town and the two mills. By that time the need for ships was low and Just said people decided to move from Seabeck to Seattle and Port Hadlock where the mill was rebuilt.

The town was almost deserted until 1918 when the Coleman family bought 700 acres and began building a community again. By 1921, Camp Union was established as a logging camp, and people began to slowly move back into the area.

Note to Readers: This is the fourth installment of a six-day series chronicling the origins of Kitsap County place names. It will culminate Jan. 1, 2007, with a full spread of trivia based on the series (so do your homework this week). For more on names, log onto www.kitsapsun.com and go to "blogs" at the top of the screen. Scroll down to "How Kitsap Got its Names," for an interactive discussion and database of Kitsap’s place names.

The series:

The Tribes — Monday

Bainbridge —Tuesday

North Kitsap — Wednesday

Central Kitsap — Today

Bremerton — Friday

South Kitsap and North Mason — Saturday

Names Sidebar

Bangor: Referred to now as Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, the site was initially called Three Spits because of the sand spits jutting into Hood Canal. When officially platted in 1891, it was named Bangor, presumably after the city in Maine.

Silverdale: The original name for the area was Goldendale in 1889, but when it was learned there was a town by the same name in Eastern Washington, silver was substituted for gold.

Tracyton: Named in honor of Benjamin Franklin Tracy, secretary of the Navy under President Benjamin Harrison, 1889-93.

Dyes Inlet: The Indian name was Squh-buck. During his expedition Charles Wilkes named the inlet for John W. W. Dyes, assistant taxidermist on the USS Vincennes.

Holly: Named in 1895 by Robert Wyatt, who homesteaded in the area in 1890. In 1895, he planted the first holly tree in the Pacific Northwest near the post office and named the area after that tree. The species is not native but thrives in the area.

Crosby: Was named by a Mrs. Graham in 1891 either after a town in England, or for an estate where she worked before she came to America.

Hood Canal: Capt. George Vancouver named the 80-mile long tidal channel on Sunday, May 13, 1792 in honor of the Right Honorable Lord Samuel Hood. It was entered into his journal as Hood’s Channel, but on charts it was listed as Hood Canal.

Olympic View: When platted in 1910 was called Hood Canal City. The name was later changed to Belgrade because of a number of families with Serbian ancestry who lived in the region.

Illahee: A Chinook jargon word meaning "earth" or "country."

Christopher Road: A road in the Seabeck area, named after the early settling Christopher family. Vern Christopher and his family still live in the area.

One of the places they landed was in North Kitsap, where sawmills planted some of the first settlements in what today is Kitsap County.

By Derek Sheppard, DSHEPPARD@KITSAPSUN.COM

North Kitsap

In the early 1850s, San Francisco had burned five times, Seattle did not exist and entrepreneurs were in search of the day’s real gold — lumber.

One of the places they landed was in North Kitsap, where sawmills planted some of the first settlements in what today is Kitsap County.

The first substantial white settlement in the county was at Port Gamble.

Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years, but like the rest of the Puget Sound region, the influx of white settlers would rapidly change the complexion of the area.

In 1853, the Puget Sound region was barely inhabited by white settlers, with less than a half-dozen lumber mills scattered around. By the early 1900s there were more than 900.

That year, the same year Washington became a U.S. territory, J.J. Felt established the first sawmill in Kitsap County in present-day Kingston. But the mill was short-lived, and it moved the year after to Port Madison on Bainbridge Island.

At nearly the same time, William Talbot and Andrew Pope started a sawmill in Port Gamble that would become the longest-running mill in America, closing in 1995.

"The town itself hasn’t changed much from the early years," Port Gamble Museum curator Shana Smith said.

The look and feel is similar, with historic buildings in the New England architectural style similar to the those in East Machias, Maine, where Talbot and Pope came from. Over the years the town has contracted, and of course the mill no longer exists.

The company town sprang up, offering housing and services for families working at the mill.

The S’Klallam Tribe lived in the area occupied by Port Gamble but agreed to move across Gamble Bay. Many tribal members worked at the mill.

By the 1880s another major settlement in North Kitsap had taken hold.

Poulsbo was a small, primarily Norwegian village on the shores of Dogfish Bay, later changed to Liberty Bay. Jorgen Eliason arrived from Fordefjord, Norway, followed soon after by Iver Moe from Paulsbo, Norway.

The town was supposed to be Paulsbo, but the postmaster misread Moe’s handwriting and it’s been Poulsbo ever since.

While the town had a mill, too, it was primarily known as a fish-packing hub where cod fishermen would bring the Alaskan catch to be canned. The Scandinavian influence in Poulsbo and surrounding areas is evident by reading place names: Poulsbo, Breidablik, Lindvig, Lindvog and of course all the "son" and "sen" suffixes.

In those early days of Kitsap industry, largely because of logging that was also on Bainbridge Island, Seabeck and Port Orchard, the area was the richest in the Washington territory.

Note to Readers: This is the third installment of a six-day series chronicling the origins of Kitsap County place names. It will culminate Jan. 1, 2007, with a full spread of trivia based on the series (so do your homework this week). For more on names, log onto www.kitsapsun.com and go to "blogs" at the top of the screen. Scroll down to "How Kitsap Got its Names," for an interactive discussion and database of Kitsap’s place names.

The series:

The Tribes — Monday

Bainbridge —Tuesday

North Kitsap — Today

Central Kitsap — Thursday

Bremerton — Friday

South Kitsap and North Mason — Saturday

Place names sidebar:

Agate Passage: Agate Passage bears the name of Alfred T. Agate, the artist on the 1841 Charles Wilkes expedition. Wilkes sprinkled names upon just about everything he saw during the trip. More North Kitsap names courtesy of Capt. Wilkes are below.

Eglon: Originally named Silver Creek, but postal authorities rejected the name because of another Silver Creek in the state. The town then chose Eglon, in reference to a name in the Old Testament. It also happened to be the shortest, according to "Kitsap County: A History."

Liberty Bay: In the late 1900s, Poulsbo residents just didn’t have any luck with the state Legislature. Twice the lawmakers refused to change the bay’s name from Dogfish Bay to Liberty Bay. Eventually Liberty Bay stuck because of common usage, though a creek in Poulsbo still has the name Dogfish Creek.

Port Gamble: This New England-themed town was also named during the Wilkes expedition. It honors Robert Gamble, a Navy lieutenant who was wounded in the War of 1812 aboard the frigate President in a battle with the British ship, Belvidere.

Apple Tree Cove: Named during the Wilkes expedition. The surveyor never set foot in what is now Kingston, but he assumed what he saw were blossoming apple trees. Most believe they were dogwoods.

Breidablik: A region in a valley north of Poulsbo. It means something akin to "broad view" in Norwegian.

Poulsbo: According to the official city history, settler Iver Moe intended to name the town Paulsbo, meaning "Paul’s place," after his hometown in Norway. The postmaster misread his handwriting as Poulsbo.

Point No Point: Named by Wilkes for a similar, difficult to see feature in New York’s Hudson River. The S’Klallam called the area Hahdskus, which means "long nose." The Point No Point Lighthouse, believed the oldest in Puget Sound, was the site of the signing of the Point No Point Treaty between the Washington Territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens and the S’Klallam, Skokomish and Chimacum tribes. They were moved to a reservation at the head of Hood Canal. Many S’Klallam stayed put, and in 1938 the U.S. government granted the tribe 1,234 acres of reservation on the eastern shores of Gamble Bay.

Hansville: This North Kitsap town, nearly at the tip of Kitsap County, was named after early settler Hans Zachariason.

Kingston: Named after lumberman William P. Kingston, who started operations there in 1888. "King" was often used to describe the area geographically.

Bainbridge Island

Capt. George Vancouver’s fruitless quest to find the Northwest Passage brought him to Puget Sound and Bainbridge Island in 1792, possibly making him the first known European contact in this region.

With officers with names such as Peter Puget and Joseph Whidbey on board his two Royal Navy vessels, he eventually anchored off a point on the eastern side of Bainbridge Island where Native Americans were having a seasonal gathering. Native Americans welcomed the young explorer and his crew of hearty surveyors, and paddled out to the ships to trade ceremonial items.

From there, Vancouver and his men set out mapping Puget Sound lands and waters, bestowing place names as they went that sometimes remembered war heroes or officers on the vessels Chatham and Discovery, which made up his squadron. They named the stretch of land on which they were anchored off Restoration Point in honor of the re-establishment of the monarchy in England by King Charles II in 1660, according to "Picture Bainbridge: A Pictorial History of Bainbridge Island" by Jack Swanson.

They used the name Admiralty Inlet, according to "Bainbridge Through Bifocals" by Elsie Frankland Marriott, in honor of the overseer of England’s navy, and Mount Rainier after British navy Adm. Peter Rainier.

Port Orchard Bay was named for a ship’s clerk on the expedition; Puget Sound and Whidbey Island for his officers.

Vancouver had a quick temper with his men and failing health made it worse. A third of his crew bore scars from his floggings, according to the book "Peter Puget" by Robert Wing.

But life wasn’t all pain and toil. There was time to enjoy spruce beer, made from boiling spruce or fir boughs, then combining the liquid with yeast and molasses. Vancouver’s fleet left, believing Bainbridge Island was a peninsula.

While Bainbridge Island had many Native American names (some still stick today, like Yeomalt), the main white name-giver was Capt. Charles Wilkes. He arrived here in 1841 with his ample fleet as part of the United States Exploring Expedition, the first of its kind under President Andrew Jackson. Wilkes named a whopping 300 places in Washington.

The large bay at the north end of Bainbridge became Port Madison Bay, and its west and east points Jefferson and Monroe, in Wilkes’ parade of presidents’ namesakes. Wilkes, who along with an earlier Hudson’s Bay Co. team that discovered it really was an island, named Agate Pass not for its see-through rocks, but for young Alfred Agate, a New York botanical artist with the expedition. A botanist, William Rich, got a passage named after him.

Of course, it was Wilkes who named Bainbridge Island after Commodore William Bainbridge, a U.S. Navy captain in Tripoli in the War of 1812. Bainbridge was somewhat famous for his declaration of "let us meet the foe at sea," as his ship, the Constitution, took part in a victory over the British, according to a Seattle Times article. Bainbridge also spent 19 months in prison for running a frigate aground off Tripoli, according to "Picture Bainbridge."

Wilkes named Port Blakely and Blakely Harbor for Capt. Johnston Blakely, another War of 1812 figure.

Like Vancouver, Wilkes ran a tight ship. One crew journal describes him as "a rascally tyrant, liar, black-hearted enough to be the devil’s brother."

Some names that came later on Bainbridge include the two of the most embarrassing: Toe Jam Hill and Welfare Avenue.

Some say "Toe Jam" is a variation of the name of an old-timer who used to live there — Torjam. Two other theories involve a tavern at the foot of the hill. One says the bartender there gave the cheap rotgut — toe jam — to immigrants who lived nearby. Another says the bartender gave the toe jam to workers from the Port Blakely Mill seeking a free drink.

As for Welfare Avenue, it may be an embarrassing address for social climbers here, but it’s actually named after the esteemed maritime family.

Here are some more on the island’s communities, according to local history buff Jerry Elfendahl:

Rolling Bay, which really had three locations, may stem back to the Suquamish name for "place where the waves get jumping." Another theory is that it is a variation of the name of a squatter who once lived there.

The "Manitou" in Manitou Beach refers to a creator in native tongue, but may have been given by white men much later looking for a resort-like name.

Eagle Harbor was probably named by the Wilkes expedition for a War of 1812 hero or because there were a large number of eagles there, as the Suquamish noted. Wing Point and Bill Point at the north and south are parts of the eagle. Eagledale used to be called Southside but was changed in a contest.

Crystal Springs was named for springs formed there from receding glaciers.

Point White earned its name from all the droppings from birds there to find food.

Manzanita was so named because a postmistress gazing at madrona trees thought they were manzanita trees.

Fort Ward was named by the War Department in honor of Col. George Ward, wounded at Gettysburg in 1863.

Pleasant Beach used to be called Sylvan Grove.

Gazzam Lake was named for Warren Gazzam, who platted Crystal Springs.

Faye Bainbridge wasn’t a woman at all. Faye was the name of a male attorney-turned-farmer who gave the land to the state.

Tolo, as in Tolo Road, comes from the Chinook jargon for "to earn."

Falk and Grow are streets named after old settlers.

Battle Point was named after a great Native American battle that took place there.

Note to Readers

This is the second installment of a six-day series chronicling the origins of Kitsap County place names. It will culminate New Year’s Day with a trivia quiz based. For more on names, log onto www.kitsapsun.com and go to "blogs" at the top of the screen. Scroll down to "How Kitsap Got its Names," for an interactive discussion and database of Kitsap’s place names.

The series:

The Tribes: Monday

Bainbridge: Today

North Kitsap: Wednesday

Central Kitsap: Thursday

Bremerton: Friday

South Kitsap and North Mason: Saturday

Sing Its Praises

To sing a fun song on Bainbridge Island place names provided by history buff Jerry Elfendahl, visit the "Bainbridge Conversation" blog by going to www.kitsapsun.com and pulling down on the "Blogs" icon at top.

Spruce Beer

Believed to be enjoyed by Capt. George Vancouver’s crew during their foray into Puget Sound: To six gallons of water, add 3½ pounds of outer sprigs of spruce branches. Boil for six hours. Strain. Add 7 pounds of molasses. Boil. Add 4 tablespoons dried yeast. Allow to ferment. Add small amount of rum or arrack and brown sugar. Stir.

From "Picture Bainbridge: A Pictorial History of Bainbridge Island," by Jack Swanson

Place Names

The following are some more place names and their origins for Bainbridge Island and surroundings:

Arrow Point: A point on the west flank of the island named for the many arrowheads and artifacts found by Albert Lord in 1906 when he platted the area.

Bean’s Point: A former name for the island’s Restoration Point. Bean was the name of a settler there killed by Native Americans.

Blakely Harbor and Rock: Named for U.S. Navy Capt. Johnston Blakely, killed in the War of 1812, by Capt. Charles Wilkes.

Creosote: A community on Bill Point where a wood-preservative facility operated.

Eagle Harbor: There are two theories. One is that it was named by the Wilkes Expedition for Lt. Henry Eagle, a War of 1812 hero. Another is that the Suquamish Tribe knew it as a place where eagles congregated.

Madrone: An old name for Winslow.

Murden Cove: Named in 1856 by a U.S. Coast Survey for a beach dweller who lived there.

Soquamic Bay: The former name given to what’s now Port Madison Bay in 1824 by a Hudson’s Bay Co. man.

Winslow: Named for Winslow Hall, one of the Halls Brothers who had the shipyard.

Sources include "Place Names of Washington" by Robert Hitchman and "Vancouver’s Discovery of Puget Sound" by Edmond Meany

From the first people came the first names.

The Twana, S’Klallam and Suquamish were the first inhabitants of the Kitsap corner of the Pacific Northwest, where archaeologists estimate settlements date back between 2,000 and 10,000 years ago.

The Tale of Waketickeh Creek

In long ago times, the water in this creek was full of salmon. One day Transformer slipped on them while crossing and cursed the stream, saying "in the future no salmon will run up here." He put big boulders to block the salmon and removed the gravel they need to spawn. The name in Twana means "no salmon run up." It is the first stream north of Cummings Point on Hood Canal, just north of the Hamma Hamma River in Mason County.

Source: "The Structure of Twana Culture" by anthropologist William W. Elmendorf.

Twanoh. Quilcene. Suquamish. Skokomish. S’Klallam.

From the first people came the first names.

The Twana, S’Klallam and Suquamish were the first inhabitants of the Kitsap corner of the Pacific Northwest, where archaeologists estimate settlements date back between 2,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Long before Europeans arrived, the people they called Indians named every place important to them.

According to anthropologist William W. Elmendorf, who undertook an exhaustive study beginning in the 1930s of the Twana language group — nine similar communities around Hood Canal — the names usually were about geographic characteristics. Waketickeh Creek means "no salmon run up." Skokomish simply means "the river." Add a syllable and you get "people of the river."

The Twana named 178 places on the canal. Maybe a dozen survive in Anglicized versions, sometimes persistently. Dabob was not the Twana name for the bay at the mouth of the canal but a "map name," Elmendorf says. Twana and whites alike continued to call it Tarboo, meaning windy.

Twanoh State Park was actually named by whites in honor of the canal people, as Seattle was named after the Suquamish community leader who signed the Treaty of Point Elliott.

The band of S’Klallam who moved across Port Gamble Bay to make way for a mill in 1853 were friendly neighbors of the Twana. They may not have relocated from their Strait of Juan de Fuca territory into Kitsap — named for a Suquamish community and military leader who was likely Seattle’s uncle — until after the first explorers mapped the region, Elmendorf speculates.

The Twana admired and adopted the S’Klallams’ elaborate spiritual practices, he says. The bands intermarried and shared fishing and shellfish sites at the mouth of the canal.

The three tribes with Kitsap roots spoke different languages but had close ties, understood and even spoke each other’s tongues. Some of the Twana names for places came from the other tribes’ languages, but curiously few, if any, S’Klallam or Suquamish names survive in Kitsap places.

Illahee near Bremerton is Chinook jargon — simplified trade language — for a place where people live, according to "Washington Place Names" by former Tacoma librarian Gary Fuller Reese. Reese spent 25 years researching maps, previous authorities and visiting the places he wrote about.

Olalla in South Kitsap is Chinook jargon for salmonberries.

After the treaties were signed in the mid-1800s, the Twana mostly relocated to the Skokomish Reservation that took the name of the river and the band that dwelled there.

With only one winter village from which the bands took their names, there were no more Quilcene Twana (phonetically tuwa’duxq) or Dabob Twana, or Dosewallips Twana. There were only Skokomish.

NATIVE NAMES

Dosewallips, duswa’ylups: The title of a mythical chief who the Transformer changed into a mountain near the head of the river.

Duckabush, dux yabu’s: "Place of crooked-jawed salmon."

Quilcene, q alsi’d: Elmendorf’s tribal informants could not translate the meaning.

Skokomish, sqoqc: "The river."

Dabob: The community here was called Tarboo (ta’bux) by Native Americans and whites, but the meaning was untranslatable (Elmendorf). Dabob was possibly made up by mappers.

Suquamish: The community was named for the tribe that lived there, "people of the clear saltwater," in their Salish language, Lushootseed.

Tahuya, ta xu’ya: Was thought to mean "that done," by the Rev. Myron Eells, who ministered to the Skokomish in the 1870s and wrote extensively about them. But Elmendorf, who used two old tribal members as "informants" about every cultural and language matter, concluded Eells’ explanation made no sense.

S’Klallam: Strong people.

Hamma Hamma. dux xabxa’bay: "Place of horsetail rush."

Lilliwaup, dux le’lap: "Place at the farthest-in, tail end of the water."

Dewatto. duwa’tax: Untranslatable, used by people from all over the canal during summer and fall fishing season.

Sources: "The Structure of Twana Culture," William Elmendorf; "Washington Place Names," Gary Fuller Reese.