Dockton is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. But at the end of the Nineteenth century it was very much somewhere. This speck of a now-residential community lies on Maury Island, itself a speck attached by a thin isthmus to the somewhat larger Vashon Island.
What put Dockton on the map, so to speak, was the coming of a dry dock where fishing vessels could be built and repaired. This was in the late 1800s. “Dock town” soon attracted hundreds of workers, who brought their families, which required schools and stores. You get the idea.
Then, between the two world wars, fishing declined, the dock burned, and it all went away. Almost. Some of the old houses and shops remain.
Someone has set up an historical walking tour that tells the tale of the glory days. I didn’t try to document it, but did take a few photos of things that caught my eye along the way.
DOCKTON!! Used to be very close to the road leading down to Sandy Shores!
How Uncle Bob and Aunt Rosie wailed when the Dockton General Store finally closed!
I remember there being a church or two there. . .
And an abandoned farm (now restored and inhabited) with gnarled old apple trees we would visit and pick up windfalls! What a pleasure to see it again! Did you cross the Isthmus between Vashon and Maury? Drive on Cemetery Road? See the ruins of Beall’s Orchid Greenhouses? Visit any coffee-shop antique stores? It is all coming back to me!!
Bost, Michael. We’re traveling by boat. Boaty boat boat.
So, no driving on the isthmus. No tours of anything more than a mile from the dock. Not even any accordion concerts at your Aunt Rosie’s house.