Port Blakely - Washington Ghost Town

PORT BLAKELY

NAME: Port Blakely
COUNTY: Kitsap
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 3
CLIMATE: Cool winter and summer.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime.

COMMENTS: A few residents in the area.
REMAINS: Some original buildings and remnants.

Port Blakely then and now equals the difference between night and day. Once the proud harbor for sailing ships from all over the world, few signs of the once booming town remain. Shipbuilding and sawmills were the lifeblood of the port. During its heyday, it is said one of the sawmills in Port Blakely was the largest in the world. It employed 1200 men and cut 400,000 feet of lumber a day. At its shipyard was built the largest stern-wheeler in the Northwest, the S.S. Julia. The town was described in the late 1870s as “being long and narrow, confined at the rear by the steeply rising hills, on the front by the bay filled with so many sailing vessels it sometimes had the appearance of a ‘woods of killed and bleached trees’. Although the town no longer exists, there are scattered suburban cottages and a few permanent homes. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.	The only photo at Port Blakely; an old garage. Courtesy Tom McCurnin Port Blakely Courtesy Vic Uhlik Attached is a copy of each side of a postcard sent to my grandmother by a relative, Ward Buzzell, in Port Blakely, Wash., Kitsap County, 1914. The 1920 US Census, Kitsap Co., Wash., indicates he was a labor at the shipyard. Courtesy Vic Uhlik Port Blakely Mill Courtesy Ole Johnson Port Blakely Courtesy Ole Johnson Port Blakely Courtesy Ole Johnson

Port Blakely then and now equals the difference between night and day. Once the proud harbor for sailing ships from all over the world, few signs of the once booming town remain. Shipbuilding and sawmills were the lifeblood of the port. During its heyday, it is said one of the sawmills in Port Blakely was the largest in the world. It employed 1200 men and cut 400,000 feet of lumber a day. At its shipyard was built the largest stern-wheeler in the Northwest, the S.S. Julia. The town was described in the late 1870s as “being long and narrow, confined at the rear by the steeply rising hills, on the front by the bay filled with so many sailing vessels it sometimes had the appearance of a ‘woods of killed and bleached trees’. Although the town no longer exists, there are scattered suburban cottages and a few permanent homes. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

The only photo at Port Blakely; an old garage.
Courtesy Tom McCurnin

Port Blakely
Courtesy Vic Uhlik

Attached is a copy of each side of a postcard sent to my grandmother by a relative, Ward Buzzell, in Port Blakely, Wash., Kitsap County, 1914. The 1920 US Census, Kitsap Co., Wash., indicates he was a labor at the shipyard.
Courtesy Vic Uhlik

Port Blakely Mill
Courtesy Ole Johnson

Port Blakely
Courtesy Ole Johnson

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