Between Eden and Oz: Life On Guemes Island 1990-2010

Between Eden and Oz: Life On Guemes Island 1990-2010, 246 pages with photos and illustrations. Introductory price of $19.95. Proceeds benefit LineTime and other Island organizations.

A great deal changed on Guemes Island in these two decades: the Navy routed all of their jet aircraft over the island, a large nori farm was proposed off North Beach, winds over 110 mph destroyed thousands of trees and several buildings, the Guemes Island General Store was built, Skagit County voted to privatize the ferry and extend weeknight ferry hours, USGS studied what was eventually designated our Sole Source Aquifer, the Potlatch water system drew so much sea water, it was condemned by the state, the Murray Read Pavilion was funded and built by volunteers and Guemes Mountain and Jack Island were preserved. Those are just a few of the events, sometimes controversial, that played out amidst the kayaker rescues, Fourth of July Parades, coyote sightings and outrageous rumors. We changed as well. Our awareness of and appreciation for our environment grew. Our population surged.

"Reading this brought me pleasure and an education. I learned a great deal about people both familiar and unfamiliar to me, and about the island’s history and culture. And there is some very good writing in here." —Nick Allison

From the introduction: 

"The Guemes of the present remains much like the Guemes of the past—not, it’s true, the primeval Guemes of 1791, when the Spanish invader walked its beaches, nor the Guemes of the era of Charley Gant, settled by white men but still wonderfully close to nature. It’s never more beautiful than during a magical summer morning, when dawn fires the cool blue sea with tints of rose, and a soaring heron drifts slowly toward Padilla Bay across the snowy face of the Gran Montana de Carmelo. And, later in the day, when one drives about the island, returning neighborly waves of the hand, one is reminded that there still exist a few backwaters where the friendly calm of the Northwest’s years of early growth survives into its harried present."

This history of Guemes Island is compiled primarily from The Guemes Island Environmental Trust Newsletter (1989 to 1996), The Evening Star (written, published and distributed single-handedly by Win Anderson from July 1995 to October 2009) and LineTime.org (2003 to the present).

Table of Contents • Epilogue  * Excerpt 1  • Excerpt 2  • Excerpt 3

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