The Port Blakely Mill, on Bainbridge Island, Washington, was founded by Captain William Renton in 1864.

Word that workers were needed at the Port Blakely Mill spread thoughout the world and people came from China, Japan, Hawaii, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Scandinavia, England, the Philippines, and other countries to work at the mill.

Millworkers formed communities adjacent to the mill, such as "New Sweden" and the Japanese community of "Yama".

By 1887, two thousand people lived in the town, including twelve hundred laborers, and Blakely Mill was said to be the largest sawmill in the world. There were stores, a barber shop, a laundry, churches, a magnifiscent hotel, and a small jail, which was dark and had a dirt floor. The school was on a nearby hill.

There was a theater called the "Please U Theater." There were no movies in the 1880’s. People who lived at Port Blakely put on shows for each other. Years later, people went to the Please U theater to watch silent movies, accompanied by piano music.

In 1888, the Port Blakely Mill burned down. The mill was quickly rebuilt and the new mill was even bigger than it was before the fire.

A year later, in 1889, all of downtown Seattle burned down in "The Great Seattle Fire." People at Port Blakely could see the fire, being only about eight miles away, across the water from Seattle.

Finally, the mill burned down again, and was closed in 1924. Today, all that remains of the mill is a vacant cement structure in a field, and stubs of pilings in the beach where there had been a wharf. And, except for a couple of the original houses that remain on Port Madison's north shore, there is little evidence that communities flourished in what is now a hilly forest with tall evergreen trees.

However, artifacts and pictures are on display in the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum. And, if you happen to drive past the Port Blakely site that used to be the Japanese community of "Yama" at the right time of year, you'll observe rows of blooming cherry trees in the forest. If you look closely, you'll see that the now wooded hillside is terraced where Japanese millworkers' homes were once located.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Smith, Phoebe (1992), Glimpses of Bainbridge: A Collection of Life Stories, Bainbridge Island, WA: Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center.

Price, Andrew (1989), Port Blakely: The Community Captain Renton Built, Seattle, WA: Port Blakely Books.