Often called the Isle of Grapes. A bridge connects the island with the mainland. In 1878 Walter Echert began viticulture here. Years of experimentation and selection by Echert and others have produced a variety of grape, the Island Belle, suited to the soil and the climate. By the 1940s, three wineries and two juice plants operate on the island. There are still vineyards and wineries on the island but other...

View out from road looking southeast through McLane Cove to Pickering Passage. An 8-mile-long water passage, a half mile in average width, between the north end of Hartstene Island and the mainland in east central Mason County was named by the Wilkes Expedition of 1841 for Charles Pickering. Pickering, a naturalist was one of several civilian scientists to the U.S. Exploring Expedition.

A five-mile-long bay, with a half mile average width. When Cmdr. Charles Wilkes discovered the bay in 1841 he called it Hammersley Inlet as a common name for both the bay and the present Hammersley Inlet. Oakland Bay was named by William T. Morrow.

Mile: 7

It was the largest town in the area in the 1860s and was named for numerous but scattered oak trees in the vicinity by William T. Morrow. William and Elizabeth Morrow were the first settlers and had a Donation Land Claim of nearly three hundred twenty-two acres on which they filed February 8, 1855. A post office was established April 24, 1858 and operated until January 15, 1889. A plat...

Mile: 5

Seat of Mason County, spreads in neat squares over the flats bordering the bay. From here highways radiate to all parts of the peninsula. In 1853 David Shelton settled on a donation claim; then other settlers began to arrive, at first slowly and then more rapidly as the demand for logs and cut timber grew. In 1884 the town was platted and named for its first settler. For a number...

Points of Interest

Shelton Public Library and Town Hall

Mason County Courthouse

Goldsborough Creek Bridge

Simpson Logging Company Locomotive No. 7 & Peninsular Railway Caboose No. 700

Mile: 3