Olga is a community rich in history. Ancient bison bones were found in an area nearby not too long ago that verifies human activity here at least as far back as 13,000+ years ago. In the 1850s, the Lummi Nation considered the area known as Olga today to be part of their territory. The first white settler in Olga, William Moore, arrived around 1859. William married a native woman who was the niece of Chief Seattle. They settled on a homestead claim of 160 acres just north of the bay. After the resolution of the Pig War in 1872, settlement proceeded at a greater pace. Mail boat service was a huge factor in Olga’s growth and development. The current hamlet boundary encompasses approximately 60 acres with 54 existing residential units. 

How Olga (pronounced Ahl’gah by oldtimers) got its name—The most accepted story is this: When an application was made for establishment of the post office at Olga on March 3, 1890, Anthony Ohlert was one of the town’s leading citizens as well as a storekeeper. He suggested his mother’s name, Olga, and it was accepted.

References: 125 Years Olga Memories and Potlucks, Doe Bay Historical Images and Favorite Recipes, recollections of Olga long-time residents John Willis, Betty Jean Rodenberger Densmore, Jane Willis Barfoot-Hodde, Alta Garrison and Fran Barfoot MacMillan; various articles from the Orcas History Museum archives, and a lot of rumors, folk lore and suppositions. Accuracy is not guaranteed!

More information on many of these locations and people that are mentioned may be found in a scrapbook maintained at the Barreling Plant/Artworks Building.

PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL. MANY LOCATIONS NOTED ON THIS TOUR ARE PRIVATE RESIDENCES OR PROPERTIES THAT SHOULD NOT BE DISTURBED IN ANY WAY. 

We recommend you walk this part of the tour. As you walk from the Artworks building/Barreling plant into the Hamlet of Olga toward the water, the first building of note will be on your left.

The clubhouse (originally called the Olga Energetic Club) was built in 1913 by the members of the Olga Energetic Club, a group of 12 women who wanted to have fun quilting, sewing together and doing good works for their community. Sunday School, school programs, funerals and social gatherings were all held at the clubhouse. Smaller get-togethers, card parties and 4-H meetings were held in the downstairs rooms. In 1997, the few remaining members of the Energetic Club presented the deed to the building to the Olga Community Club. It stands as one of the only remaining buildings from the very early days of Olga. 

    2 THE BARFOOT BUILDING (Also referred to as “The Blockhouse”) 

Jack Barfoot (in spite of losing an arm in a motorcycle accident) along with his wife Jane Willis-Barfoot, hand made the bricks that created this blockhouse in the 1940s to originally house chickens. They produced fryers and eggs sold on the mainland. It was a thriving business with 20,000 chickens per year marketed under the labels of “Fry-her”, “Ro-tiss-it” and “Kapon.” It kept the family and several local kids employed for many years. The building has since been converted to storage units. 

The large open grassy area used to be Olga’s tennis courts. Mr. Van de Veer, who lived in the house just north of the Olga Dance Hall (now gone but was across the street from site #6), was a dapper grey-mustached gentleman who always wore white tennis shoes. He kept the tennis court grass mowed and in good condition. No one seems to know why they are no longer there, but one might guess it happened when Mr. Van de Veer was unable to maintain them.

Corner of Maple and the County Road. The original “Irene’s Bakery” was owned by Irene and Orval Senff. This building burned and Irene and Orval built a new building behind the barreling plant. It is now a private residence on the left side of the road as you drive back toward Eastsound. Irene was such a good cook, they could hardly keep up with the demand. When the “Barfoot Family chickens” were abundant, Irene introduced chicken-in-a-basket, which was tremendously popular in the 1950s and 60s. At Jeff Moore’s General Store, you could buy almost anything from yard goods, buttons, all sorts of neat things. His original store was in Dolphin Bay (which no longer exists) then to the Olga Store (site #6). Jeff Moore’s wife, Sarah, was a member of the Duwamish Tribe.

This is the third post office building in Olga’s history, now a private residence. The first was a log cabin at Buck Bay (or it might have been in a lower room of the Rice Boarding House), but later moved to a building that housed the first store in Olga (site #6). Or it might have been moved to Clara Abrahamson’s house with Mr. George Lewis the postmaster and the Olga Store later. The original post office was established in 1890 (this we do know) with Hibbard Stone serving as its first postmaster (or it might have been Mr. Rice.) In the early 1800s, Doe Bay received mail from Eastsound, it was then carried by foot or horseback over trails by one of the Viereck boys. The pouch they used is in the Orcas Historical Museum in downtown Eastsound.

This historic building originally housed the second post office (we think), Jeff Moore’s first store in Olga, and across the street on the water side was the Olga Dance Hall (now gone.) The first Olga Store was along the shoreline on property you can see from the dock (now all private homes.) It was first run by Mr. Rice who owned the Hotel (site #8). The Dance Hall, enjoyed by many but apparently not enough, was torn down in 1937.

The Olga Store is once again rising up and will house the post office along with an outpost of the Orcas Food Co-op. Many donations and work of dedicated community members are making this happen in our quiet little hamlet. Slated to open in the Fall of 2023, it is a tribute to the ongoing community involvement that typifies Orcas Island.

From the Olga Store, go right up Olga Park Lane a ways until you see a home on your right with “Casa Fiametta” painted in blue on the white decorative woodwork over the entrance area. 

7     CASA FIAMMETTA (Home of Artist John Fery)

Fiammetta was the name of Fery’s daughter. The studio reference below was next door to this home that is still in the Fery family. Fery was a well-known artist, born in Austria in 1859. He was hired by Great Northern Railway Company to create promotional paintings of the stunning scenery of the West. Much of his art is still displayed in several museums. The Fery family dream of togetherness and tranquility was shattered over the Thanksgiving holidays in 1929 when his studio caught fire and burned to the ground. Everything was gone: clothing, guns, painting supplies, personal mementos and papers, a cache of money tucked away in a trunk, a life’s worth of sketches, and of immediate concern, a year’s worth of finished paintings due Great Northern on a two-year contract. It ended his contract with Great Northern.

8     THE RICE HOTEL (Also called the Olga Inn—now a private residence) 

A favorite story about this establishment is about Mrs. Higginson. Mrs. H (as she was called) was a frequent guest at the Inn run by Mr. and Mrs. Rice. In the fall of 1910, as a gift to Mrs. Rice, Mrs. H presented her with a Kodiak bear cub. They named it Higgie. It grew very rapidly from 50 cute little pounds to 1,100 very large pounds and would break out of its pen to feast on the local fruit orchards and livestock. In June of 1913, it met its fate while enjoying Sam Lightheart’s garden. There has never been another resident bear on Orcas Island since. 

The Olga Dock has been through many reconstructions and is much smaller than in its heyday. The mail boat called the “Osage” carried mail, freight and passengers to Olga from Bellingham and the rest of the San Juans using this dock. Also, as you stand on the dock looking back at Olga toward the Barreling Plant, look left and along that shore was the first Olga Store and dance hall, as well as (#10) the University of Washington Biological Station. It is now all filled with private residences.

In 1909 the UW Biological School at Friday Harbor held a field camp in Olga. The students lived in tents pitched in the area behind the store and the flat area above the beach. Food was prepared over campfires or possibly by Mrs. Rice in the hotel and served outside. Students gathered specimens from both the beach and Mt. Constitution.

This lovely old home with white grout between the log siding is believed to be the Olga home of Cecil Morse, oldest son of Robert Morse of Morse Hardware fame in Bellingham, WA. Established in 1891, it was believed to be one of the oldest mercantile businesses in the northwest region and also one of the oldest continually operating family-owned businesses in the area. They used to call this shoreline area of Olga “Little Bellingham” because this was a very popular spot for people from Bellingham to have their summer homes. 

Walk all the way up Ohlert Lane to where you will see a home at the end and a public path down to the beach. The first John Gray was the second homesteader in Olga after William Moore. He, too, married an Indian maiden, Lucy Ketonah, daughter of a Haida High Chief from the coast of British Columbia and the only member of her family to survive a deadly disease brought by fur traders. Bereaved with grief, she wanted to join those she had loved so she paddled away in a canoe and slit her wrists. Along came Sea Captain John Gray who rescued Lucy, nursed her back to health, married her and settled in Olga. For many years, two large war canoes full of Haidas paddled the many miles to Olga to pay respect to their beloved Princess. If you go down the public pathway to the beach area and look across the bay you will see remnants of an old dock where in the logging days they would bring logs to be dumped into the bay. The open area above it is where there used to be large strawberry fields.

This is the end of the Olga Walking Tour. The balance is a driving tour towards Doe Bay and beyond.

 The location of strawberry fields that produced for the Barreling Plant are indicated along your driving trip by the strawberries on the map. Sadly, none of them exist today and most are just large cleared areas of fertile land or trees have retaken their place. This portion of the tour points out other sites of interest and olde that make up some of the tapestry of this side of Orcas Island.

As you leave Olga driving east on Pt. Lawrence Road toward Doe Bay, you will go over a small bridge at the mouth of a lovely bay that used to be called Stockade Bay (now called Buck Bay.) 

In the early 1880s the three Newhall brothers (Andrew, Ed and Capt. William) started a sawmill at Stockade Bay that employed several men and delivered lumber in their schooner, “The Industry.” It was later moved to Newhall, which is now called Rosario. Stockade Bay originally got its name because in the time of the early Native Americans on Orcas, an annual event occurred where hundreds of local deer would be chased down the steam and into the bay where they would be corralled and “harvested” for food and skins for the coming winter months.

After passing over Stockade Bay, the road will turn sharply left, go up and turn sharply right. After a very short straight drive, straight ahead of you at a Y will be Olga Cemetery Road. Go up Olga Cemetery Road until you come to the Cemetery. If you enter, please be respectful and make sure you close the gate when you leave. If you don’t, deer will get in and dine on the flowers!

14     THE OLGA CEMETERY (Established in 1896. This is a community-owned, private cemetery)

Picnics were held here the week before Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day) where men, women and children gathered for dinner set on tables in a grove of trees below the cemetery. They would work all afternoon cutting trees, making or repairing the fence or digging graves for the recently dearly departed. The property was originally owned by Mr. and Mrs. Moore who owned the stores in Olga. He later donated the land to the community for the cemetery. The community still owns it, and the families of the approximately 350 “residents” maintain it. Unlike other cemeteries on the Island, it receives no city or county money to maintain it. Members of the Fery and Gray families are buried here.

Returning to where you entered Olga Cemetery Road, you will make a hard left and continue on Pt. Lawrence Road toward Doe Bay. As you drive a short ways, you will notice on the left a very yellow house with a little 420 gift shop. This is site #15.

15     THE OLGA SCHOOL HOUSE (Now a private residence)

Only the part with the more narrow roof was the school. A lot of remodels and changes have occurred since then. The Orcas Island School District No 76 was formed in 1873. Thirteen young people from the ages of 4 to 21 attended. The original Olga/Doe Bay School house was located in the Doe Bay area. It was moved to this location in 1880. You can get a good picture of all the early schools on Orcas Island by visiting the Crow Valley School Museum just outside Eastsound.

Continue east on Pt. Lawrence Road for about 2 miles until you see a wood sign on your right that says “Shorewood.” Turn right onto that road. 

This is the only place where you can really imagine the expanse of some of the strawberry fields. All of this very wide open area was Moultray family land covered with Marshall Strawberries planted and harvested by Glen and Elizabeth Rodenberger. Indians would canoe all the way from Vancouver Island to help here, as they did in many other fields on Orcas. Mrs. Rodenberger talked about them fondly, especially Jonny Sam who was “a really fine fellow” and also praised them for being some of the best workers who always “picked the strawberries nicely and clean.” The industry relied heavily on them during its heyday.

Turn around at Moultray Farm Road to go back to Pt. Lawrence Road and continue east about a mile until you see the sign for Doe Bay Resort straight ahead of you. Turn right into the resort and park. It’s a nice time to stretch your legs and walk down toward the store and restaurant, take in the view and imagine the early 1900s.

A detailed history and many photos of this area are found at the Orcas Historical Museum in Eastsound. The Doe Bay General Store building was built in 1908 by Anthony Olhert. It now houses a general store and very good restaurant and looks surprisingly like it did when it was originally built. It became a fishing resort in 1928. At least two docks have been built here (1904 and 1910). Both, however, were not able to withstand the rigor of the waves and tides stirred by winds off Rosario Strait. While they existed, however, they were visited by the passenger boat “Rosalie” and numerous other steam- and gasoline-powered vessels as well as the mail boat “Osage” from Bellingham. Lore has it that the docking and unloading of passengers could be so daunting that some (including passengers) were literally tossed off into the arms of awaiting men on the dock. The original Doe Bay post office was in the general store until the mail could no longer be delivered at the dock. This also was called “Twin Cedars Resort” in the 40s and has gone through a few transitions from art colony to “hippie” since then and pretty run down. However, it was rescued recently by the Brotherton Family out of Seattle and is thriving once again. To learn all about Doe Bay’s history visit doebay.com/about-us/history.

As you leave the Doe Bay Resort, turn right and then immediately right again on Homestead Road.

   18 VIERECK HOMESTEAD HOUSE (Now a private residence)

Continue on Homestead for a bit until you see a white house tucked back on your left. The John Gottlieb Viereck family was the first to settle in what is now known as the Doe Bay Resort area. A multi-racial couple, Viereck, who owned a general store near Blaine, and his wife, Jennie Kahlan from the Tsimshian tribe settled here in 1871. John Viereck ultimately had 13 children; six by Jennie and 6 by a previous wife, Maria Gilbert, also a Tsimshian Indian. This is the third rebuild of the Viereck home – the first two lost to fires. This one still standing was built in 1898 and is actually older than the Rosario Mansion. It was built by Shipwrights in Deer Harbor, and the interior walls are all shiplap. Viereck was German and brought the four large Linden trees (also called Lime and Basswood trees) that you see in the driveway with him from Germany. This house was named “The Linden” by residents who took to naming properties of note back in the 40s.

You will need to turn around in the parking area located next to the house and return to Pt. Lawrence Road and go right toward site #19. Drive until you see an old car on your right next to a large sign that says “Whalestooth Farm.” Turn right here. The old mill barn (leaning somewhat) will be ahead of you to the right. 

In 1949, brothers Joe and Thurman Bond (both now deceased) purchased a saw and a planer mill and the Bond Lumber Company was established. It supplied lumber to builders throughout Orcas and beyond for nearly 50 years and is still operating today to mill lumber for islanders. During its heyday and until shortly before he died, Thurman hosted a coffee social every Sunday afternoon – a tradition started by his mother. With the help of Betty (Crocker), he would bake a batch of cookies, put the coffee on to perk, and play solitaire while waiting for friends, both old and new, to arrive. Thurman looked forward to this event each week and kept a careful mental tally of guests. Thurman Bond died at the age of 90 on 8/30/13. In his honor, the community held a coffee social for anyone who wished to come. Strawberry fields surrounded the mill as well as areas across the street. Also, if you see a wild turkey or two around, they may be descendants of those set free when an old barn burned down on the property several years ago.

Turn around at the mill on Old Sentinel Road and return to Pt. Lawrence Road and turn right. As you continue a very short way on Pt. Lawrence Road, you see a yellow 15 mile an hour sign indicating a hard right turn. Make that hard right turn and drive a ways until you come to a fork. Take Sea Acres Roads (to the right, and the road will become gravel.) Continue on Sea Acres Road a ways, then make a right at Seacliff Trail. Just ahead of you is Salt Spray Lane on the left. You may pull in briefly on Salt Spray (barring no one is coming toward you) and stop. 

   20 SEA ACRES RESORT (Now all private residences)

The large white building down by the water’s edge was a restaurant with a boathouse underneath where many a lively square dance was held in the glory days of the Sea Acres Resort – another bustling fishing resort in the 30s and 40s. Six cabins built in circa 1935 were the beginning of this resort. In 1945 it was sold to the White and Calhoun families who built four more cabins, a combined dining room and penthouse. It changed hands again in 1951 and was operated as a resort until 1965 when it was subdivided and all the cabins and the big white house were sold to private individuals. There were no strawberry fields out here that we know of, but we thought it was a fun place with a pretty view to end our tour.