Long ago the North West end of Liberty Bay was the layout for a large Indian village which enjoyed the Eastern sunrise and a general North or South breeze to help keep the flying insects pushed back into the fish bearing headwaters of a large tidal flat.
Now there is a nice, rather new, park with viewing docks and a small trail. Poulsbo has used the area mostly as a commercial business area where the mildly flat land was nestled up from the tidal waters.
A young man I met some time ago was kayaking on an early morning run from Keyport Marina at the South end of Liberty Bay towards the public marina at Poulsbo. Jim stopped alongside Wind Rose to visit, and our conversation moved to the fun habit young Jim had, of trolling a line along the perimeter of the West shoreline on his way to work.
We talked fishing methods, boats his grandfather had, and his plans for the day. Then the conversation veered back to the fish in Liberty Bay.
Jim said that a couple years ago he had been doing his usual trolling trip with the kayak on an early fogged, white shrouded morning, when he came upon a boat of Indians fishing out the run of young salmon at the head of the creek along the East shoreline. Actually they were taking out the return run of a fish that was low in survival.
Jim reported this abuse to the Fish and Wildlife Dept. and an investigation ensued which caught the culprits. This led to a joint venture with the Indians to re-establish the stream pathway flow under Highway 305, as well as planting native vegetation. This large project was just completed and now has everyone's attention for years to come. Thanks in part to Jim's concern for his Liberty Bay.
It seems so remarkable to me how much has really changed here for the Indians.
The British Crown claimed the entire west coast of this continent in the year 1579. Then in 1592 a Spanish explorer whose nickname was Juan de Fuca gave claim for the Spanish, but did not look further than the Strait and to the North where the Russian explorers had recently prowled the northern waters around Alaska and the Canadian shores. That seems a long, long time ago.
Puget Sound had little attention even up to the late 1700's. By then fur trappers were in conflict mainly to the North, from what is now Vancouver Island extending along the coast of mainland Canada.
These were British and Spanish fur gathering conflicts which spurred the Spanish to respond around the year 1791 by dispatching a British captain who would meet with a Spanish governor on Vancouver Island to negotiate for ownership of land along the Northern coast.
A seemingly chance meeting of two ships in the April month of 1792, off the mouth of what is now named the Strait of Juan de Fuca, set the destiny of our Puget Sound and my Liberty Bay.
The British captain who had been making land ownership deals with the Spanish, pulled alongside an American Captain, an explorer from the East coast of the United States. Captain Gray said he had learned from the Indians there was an extensive body of water that extended far inland.
Two months later in May of 1792 the British captain moved his ship into the area and sent out what ended up to be about a two week exploration, mapping and exploring the shores of Puget Sound to the South. This was done with a small launch and a cutter from the mother ship. A few waterways were overlooked or passed by, including my Liberty Bay.
Having documented the extent of Puget Sound it was not visited by the Europeans or the Eastern Americans in any formal way for over 30 years. Fur trappers had begun to do trade with the Indians and settlers were few and far between.
The war of 1812 between Great Britain and the Americans came and went.
In 1824, the first European settlers were actively trying to get British sovereignty established with the Russians in Alaska.
Then in 1833 a group of European settlers built a fort in Puget Sound at Nisqually.
So until that time the Indians at Liberty Bay enjoyed the bountiful food that was naturally provided along the shores and waters of Puget Sound. Since food was very available there was plenty of time for artwork, and to develop the spiritual and social activities common to many tribes of the West Coast.
Let's see...179 years later and Wind Rose enjoys the breeze of Liberty Bay. We have sailed and anchored across from Nisqually in Oro Bay and avoided the Nisqually Flats. It hardly seems possible to explore an area the size of South Puget Sound in two weeks, yet it has been attempted by many with the modern day boats. Perhaps Jim will dream about a long kayak troll along some of these shorelines. I still have a lot to discover in my Liberty Bay.

Here is a webcam on my side links list: http://bwbryant.com/
It has a great view of my Liberty Bay that is live and up dated every 60 seconds. Too bad Captain Vancover did not have a web cam in the day.