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Maury Island

This 22-mile, approximately 40-minute round trip takes you to Maury Island, actually a peninsula of Vashon Island connected by a narrow sand spit. The island was named by Cmdr. Charles Wilkes in 1841 for Lieut. William L. Maury, who was an astronomer and hydrographer on Wilkes’ ship Vincennes. Maury became one of the few naval officers to resign their commissions at the start of the Civil War to “go south.” His major command was that of the CSS Georgia, a commerce raider that destroyed nine United States ships in 1863.

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Key waypoints and Main Street communities along the tour leg. Sites you do not want to miss!

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Ellisport

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Ellisport

A colorful summer village on the east shore, founded in 1879 by three Methodist clergymen, Ellis, Green, and Harrison, who took up homesteads. The town sits on Tramp Harbor. Its first name was Chautauqua, chosen when the local Chautauqua Assembly selected this place as a permanent home. The present name is for a clergyman named Ellis, who arrived in 1879 as a homesteader and founder of the settlement; It first...

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Point Heyer

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Portage

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Portage

A narrow spit of land that connects Vashon with Maury Island, which is not an island but a mile-wide peninsula that parallels Vashon Island for five miles along its southeastern border. An alternate name used on some maps is Portage Landing. Lying between the two insular bodies is the picturesque bay of Quartermaster Harbor, a long, slim, twisting body of water. Portage received its name from the early settlers who...

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Points of Interest
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Portage Store

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Tramp Harbor

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Quartermaster Harbor

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Portage Ferry Dock

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KIRO Transmitter Building

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Point Robinson Light Station

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Point Robinson Light Station

Robinson Point is on the eastern tip of Maury Island on East Passage. It was named Point Robinson by Cmdr. Charles Wilkes, for R. P. Robinson, purser’s steward on the Exploring Expedition's flagship, the USS Vincennes. The name was reversed in subsequent mapping. The Point Robinson Light Station is an exceptionally complete assemblage of early 1900s light station buildings. The buildings’ design and construction are typical products of the system...

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Vashon Golf Club

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Dockton Park

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Dockton

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Dockton

In 1891, the name was given by the Puget Sound Dry Dock Company after a large dry dock they built, which stood 182 feet wide by 325 feet long. The place faded when competition from the mainland made operations unprofitable. On the harbor, Vashon’s first settlers—John Gilman, Daniel Price, and Captain S. D. Sherman—arrived with their families in November 1877. Ocean-going transports and an occasional four-master with furled canvas lay...

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General Store and Post Office

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Manzanita (Vashon)

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