Ebey's Landing Administrative History

Chapter Three:
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CENTRAL WHIDBEY ISLAND

In the late 1890s, the U. S. Army began building Fort Casey as part of the defense system for the gateway to the Puget Sound. It installed ten-inch guns to face the sound. The townsites of Chicago and Brooklyn briefly housed the Fort Casey workers. The base became an important part of the local economy, and remained active as a training ground through World War II.

Within the original donation land claim settlements, the old patterns of ownership and land use generally remained stable. Despite the fact that the best lands were taken, small waves of farmers continued to arrive periodically until World War II. Some were enticed by promoters from Island County chambers of commerce or by government agents, who frequently overestimated the productivity of logged-over lands and advertised the island as a farmer's paradise. This proved incorrect for many newcomers, and few understood the limits of the soils of the remaining available land. Some upland farmers turned to egg and dairy production in the 1920s, but even this could not compete with lowland production and declined in the 1930s. [29]

Nonetheless, in-migration and visitation to the island continued. The increasingly dense urban strip around Puget Sound made the island an attractive recreation site. This situation drew more vacationers and traffic, encouraged by additional ferry service, as well as the new bridge built over Deception Pass in 1935. World War II brought thousands of civilians and military personnel into the Pacific Northwest. In September 1942 the U. S. Navy installed 265 men in the new Oak Harbor Naval Air Station, a training and operations base for land and sea planes. After the war the base grew into a permanent naval air station, concentrating thousands of military workers and their families in central and northern Whidbey Island. Their presence stimulated the local housing market, in part because they often returned in later years to retire. [30]