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Vanished Shipyard LbNA #51931

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jan 5, 2010
Location:
City:Anacortes
County:Skagit
State:Washington
Boxes:1
Planted by:ECO Trekker
Found by: Thar she blows!
Last found:Aug 23, 2013
Status:aF
Last edited:Jan 5, 2010
This Letterbox is on Guemes Island. Check the tides, middle to low tides are most suitable.

Your car is not needed on Guemes to find this letterbox so unless you want to explore the Island by car you can park near the Guemes Island ferry terminal in Anacortes at the corner of 6th & I Streets.

Check the ferry schedule and allow yourself one hour on the island to complete this quest. The ferry ride to Guemes takes about ten minutes.

From the ferry dock on Guemes walk the beach West (taking care to keep out of people's yards) about one half mile, ten minutes at a brisk pace, where you will see the old pilings of a wharf. From the pilings walk 150' at compass bearing 290° to a remaining artifact of the old shipyard. There you will find a Geocache box (see www.geocaching.com). Within the Geocache box are the Letterboxing supplies. Bring your own ink pad.

Site History

Uncle Sam enlisted the help of shipbuilder Joseph Sloan, who built a new shipyard on Guemes Island and hired crews of hundreds to construct six wooden ocean-going steamers. On Nov. 11, peace was celebrated by a great demonstration in Anacortes, but the end of the war also meant cancellations on mill and shipbuilding jobs. Sloan, who had run for Congress in 1918, ended up losing everything and committing suicide in 1922.

1917
Sloan Shipbuilding opens on Guemes Island.

1918
The war ends in armistice.

1921
The shipyard property was sold to a Tacoma man who dismantled the buildings and removed all traces of the Guemes industry that had been built in 1917. The total property, including 28 acres, was sold for $6,000.00.