Discovery Bay is a small bay connected to the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The Canada–United States border, international boundary between Canada and the ...

on the coast of the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large peninsula in Western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

Washington state Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

; it was also historically called Port Discovery. An unincorporated community also named Discovery Bay lies in Jefferson County at the southern end of the bay. The bay was named by

George Vancouver Captain (Royal Navy), Captain George Vancouver (; 22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Uni ...

after the ''Discovery'', a ship used in his 1792 expedition of the area. The community at the foot of the bay eventually assumed the same name.

Geography

Discovery Bay is located at the northeastern edge of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state. The bay enters the Strait of Juan de Fuca between the

Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalents ...

and

Quimper Quimper (, ; ; or ) is a Communes of France, commune and Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Finistère Departments of France, department of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the ...

peninsulas. The bay's mouth is just south of Protection Island, a small federally protected nature preserve. Discovery Bay is in length, and wide at its mouth. Its primary inlet is Snow Creek at the south end of the bay, and other small watercourses feed the bay on its east and west sides.

History

Native people – the

Klallam The Klallam (; also known as the S'Klallam or Clallam) are a Coast Salish people Indigenous to the northern Olympic Peninsula. The language of the Klallam is the Klallam language (), a language closely related to the North Straits Salish lang ...

(locally: S'Klallam) – have occupied the lands around the

for millennia, including locations on Discovery Bay. Most native populations on the Olympic Peninsula were relocated to reservations during the 19th and early 20th centuries, leaving only scattered individuals of native descent still residing on the bay. The Spanish explorers

Manuel Quimper Manuel Quimper Benítez del Pino (c. 1757 – April 2, 1844) was a Spanish Peruvian explorer, cartographer, naval officer, and colonial official. He participated in charting the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Sandwich Islands in the late 18th ...

and

Gonzalo López de Haro Gonzalo López de Haro (bef. 1788 in Puebla – 1823) was a Spanish naval officer and explorer, notable for his expeditions in the Pacific Northwest in the late 18th century. Background In 1788 two ships were sent north to investigate Russian ...

in are the first known Europeans to find and map the bay of Port Discovery. They were sent to explore the Strait of Juan de Fuca by

Francisco de Eliza Francisco de Eliza y Reventa (1759 – February 19, 1825) was a Spanish naval officer, navigator, and explorer. He is remembered mainly for his work in the Pacific Northwest. He was the commandant of the Spanish post in Nootka Sound on Vancouv ...

in 1790. The Spanish named the bay ''Puerto Quadra'', after

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (22 May 1743 – 26 March 1794) was a Hispano-Peruvian naval officer operating in the Americas. Assigned to the Pacific coast Spanish Naval Department base at San Blas, in Viceroyalty of New Spain (present ...

. In 1792, George Vancouver's exploration of the area provided names for Discovery Bay and Port Discovery. A landing party put ashore along the west shore of the bay near what is now Contractor's Point to fill water barrels from the creek there. Today, a sign alongside Highway 101 above the site of the landing commemorates the event. In 1858, the S. L. Mastick Company of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

established the Port Discovery Mill on the western shore of the bay, at what is now Mill Point. The

old growth An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

timber on the steep hillsides above the mill were felled, slid down to the sawmill, milled into lumber and loaded from the wharf to ships for other ports. A village grew around the mill to house its employees. The peak population of the community, in the late 19th century, was in the hundreds. Port Discovery remained an important coastal port well into the 20th century, and was visited by many Pacific Ocean vessels. Another major mill community was established at the foot of the bay, where the town of Maynard grew. The Maynard mill continued in operation until the 1970s, and was responsible for the several nearby small communities mentioned above. The abandoned sawmill was a popular sight for tourists and appears in many nostalgic area photographs and paintings. It deteriorated rapidly during storms in 2005–2006, and as of 2007 had been slated for removal, as part of a habitat restoration effort.

References

{{reflist * Jefferson County Historical Society, ''With Pride in Heritage: History of Jefferson County'', Portland, Oregon, Professional Publishing Printing, Inc., 1966. Bays of Washington (state) Bays of Jefferson County, Washington History of Washington (state)