May, 2021
We didn’t want to leave.
This morning was our last morning. Each of the three trailers of friends was preparing to leave the campground this morning, to head home to different towns around Washington State. But we didn’t want to go! One of us, I can’t remember who, mentioned yet one more place closeby that we hadn’t yet visited on this trip. Every one of us said “YES let’s go!” We needed to be hitched up and headed out by noon, but we had time for one more walk.
Where we went was to the land that the Ebey families (pronounced eee-bee) settled when they arrived here in the 1800’s. They chose a huge acreage of exquisite farmland to call their own. Not long after they settled here, they built a large pier/dock out from their land out into the saltwater Strait of Juan de Fuca, and it became known as Ebey’s Landing. When ships arrived from all points around the Pacific Ocean, one of the very first places to dock was Ebey’s Landing which was positioned right smack dab at the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As such, it was perfectly positioned to receive ships from all over the world, but it was also open to all manner of bad weather and destructive wave action coming in directly from the Pacific Ocean. There was talk about digging a channel right smack dab through Whidbey Island here so ships could get to the “mainland” without having to navigate around Whidbey Island, but that canal never did get dug. Many years later, the USA military built a fort just north of here that overlooked and guarded the Strait of Juan de Fuca … and they named the fort “Fort Ebey.” The Ebey family never built a fort, they were farmers and peaceful folks.
While we friends were camped her for the week, one or two of us tossed out the idea of visiting the remains of that WWII fort built in 1942 … but no one cared about the old fort with its concrete structures and fake guns (the originals were long gone) and its rusting metal parts. But, we were definitely interested in Ebey’s Landing and the farmland and old homesteads and such. So off we went.
[If you’re interested in FORT Ebey, there’s lots of info online about it. There have been many requests to the State of Washington to change the park/campground name to Ebey’s Landing State Park, but so far the name remains Fort Ebey State Park even though the Ebey family had nothing to do with the fort.]
Ok, enough of that. Let’s get going on this walk and see this farmland and see what else we can see. 🙂
The photos above are of land on a plateau off to one side and above the Ebey farmland. They owned this land up on the plateau too, and it was spacious and rich. But wait ’til you see what’s coming down in the valley.
And then we walked on, looking back to the home and the blockhouse behind us, but also looking forward, eager to see the valley farmland owned by the Ebeys.
Oh my, another wild animal! ….
Oops, ok, the pup above is Finn .. owned by (or he owns them) one set of these camping friends of mine. He’s so pretty, isn’t he?
We continued on that trail …
and then we came around a corner …
and oh my, the whole huge hundreds (thousands?) of acres of Ebey farmland appeared before us.
Looking to the left (below) … and to the right (below that).
Right down there where the land meets the water is where the Ebey’s Landing dock was. And right straight out from that, across the water, west, out the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and across the Pacific Ocean, is Japan. It was a peaceful day today, but you can see why there might be some cranky ocean storms that come ashore right here, that blow clear across the Pacific Ocean and hit right here.
Also in the photos above is a two-story home (but so far away that you probably can’t see it). It’s the Ferry House, built by the descendants of Isaac Ebey. This farmland is so huge that you probably can’t pick out the house in my photos. The house is so tiny compared to the size of this farm.
I zoomed my camera in as far as the zoom would zoom … here’s the Ferry House below.
We kept walking along that upper edge of the farmland. Eventually we reached the end of the trail … right up against the edge of the saltwater. Looking south, down along the beach, you can see the low spot that was Ebey’s Landing. The dirt road you see in the foreground does not go all the way down there, but there is a paved road that runs down there right along the water (see below).
We didn’t go down there, it was too far to go for us today. Maybe on my next trip here, I’ll drive down there and take a walk on the beach … where Ebey’s Landing dock was.
All of us thought about walking further today, but we had to get back to our trailers and get hitched up and headed out of the state park by noon. So … back we went. Sigh.
Back at the campground, all of us finished hitching up, tidying up, double-checking our rigs. We wished each other a safe trip home. And off we went …
I jogged back to my trailer after taking videos of my friends’ departures. Little Towhee was right there inside the trailer door. “Ann, let’s go! I have everything put away and safely stowed inside. Put that camera down and pick me up. Let’s go!”
And so I did … and so we did. 🙂 The big white truck headed out with Towhee the Trailer in tow, and with me and Little Towhee in the cab. What a great week, yes?!