Elizabeth Galentine

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Islands can be wonderful places. Most people you find on an island intended to be there. Mainland towns have their share of people wandering through or stopping en route to somewhere else. That's noise you don't get on an island. Islands are intentional places. Deliberate. Quiet. Life lived on island time.

I first visited Anderson Island as a boy when my family spent a summer day riding our bikes to the Steilacoom dock and, after my first ferry ride, around the island. We stopped at Wide Awake Hollow, one of the oldest one-room schoolhouses you're likely to see around here. It has a mellifluous sounding name Anne of Green Gables would love.

You will see Wide Awake Hollow on the cover of Anderson Island by Elizabeth Galentine. It's the latest in a series of local histories by Arcadia Press. All the books in the series (there are many; I'll tell you about a few others in the coming weeks) are community pictorials. This one feels like a family scrapbook. Names and faces repeat, buildings are shown several times and, like most family albums, almost everyone is smiling.

The book tells its stories through pictures and captions. It shows some of the farms, businesses, and boats that made up the early economy. It introduces you to some of the islanders, past and present. It mentions the six year effort to bring electricity to the island -- succeeding in 1961. There is a chapter about McNeil Island settlers who had to leave their properties when the government opted to secure that island for a prison. And the book mentions day visitors and summer folk who arrive to escape the the hub-bub eight miles and a world away.

I have visited Anderson Island many times since I was a boy. I biked the island several times, played with my daughters at Wide Awake Hollow and Andy's Park, swam in Lake Florence, bought a few things at the store, and idled away time smelling saltwater and birdwatching. I also have memories of the nearly 80-year-old community clubhouse shown repeatedly among the book's photos. I once gave a Northwest history talk there before being put up for the night in one of the island's cozy bed and breakfasts. I also met some wonderful people that weekend, including the late Hazel Heckman, author of two books about her beloved island. My wife, who often works at the clubhouse library these days, knows many of the islanders. She speaks of them as friends.

It's a nice family album to page through. It's a lovely place to visit. I recommend you do both on island time.

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