Port Blakely Kitsap County, Washington

Name: Port Blakely
Address: Washington

Mapped Location

Port Blakely: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

Information

General information on Port Blakely

Feature Type: Place

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for Port Blakely

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name	Description
Port Blakely	Official

Origin Notes and History of Port Blakely

References to Port Blakely that document the origin of its place name

BLAKELY, an island in San Juan County; a rock, harbor and town on Bainbridge Island in Kitsap County. The island and the harbor were both named by the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, in honor of Johnston Blakely, an American naval hero of the War of 1812. The name of the rock and of the town were derived from that of the harbor. In 1813, Blakely was given command of the new sloop-of-war Wasp, in which he made a number of most daring captures. On June 28, 1814, he captured the Reindeer, for which Congress voted him a gold medal. After a number of other successful exploits, news of the sioop ended. No word was ever received of the Wasp or her brave crew. There is now being made an effort to standardize the spelling of the name. The officer himself on one sheet of manuscript spelled his own name Blakely and Blakeley.

Edmond S. Meany in Origin of Washington Geographic Names

Meany, Edmond S., Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923 University of Washington, pp 22 | Origin of Washington Geographic Names

A Selected Bibliography of Port Blakely, Kitsap County, Washington

A compilation of essential readings detailing the history, geography, and culture of the region.

Port Blakely the community Captain Renton built by Andrew Price

Andrew Price’s Port Blakely: the community Captain Renton built explores the intense industrial adaptation and the vibrant, diverse civic resilience forged within one of the Puget Sound's most powerful early lumber-mill company towns. The narrative illustrates how the profound environmental realities of this maritime topography—defined by the deep-water harbor of Bainbridge Island, the towering, dense expanses of coastal old-growth timber, and the vital marine highways of the Salish Sea—required immense physical labor and shared, structured adaptation from a globally diverse workforce. By detailing the gradual transition from an isolated, raw frontier logging camp to a meticulously organized, cooperative industrial community orchestrated by Captain William Renton, the text highlights how the massive scale of timber extraction relied heavily on the social cohesion of immigrant, indigenous, and pioneer laborers living in close-knit proximity. Ultimately, the account demonstrates that patiently navigating the dangerous, grueling realities of industrial milling and collaboratively building a shared, multicultural community infrastructure were essential steps in transforming a remote island extraction site into a dynamic, enduring cornerstone of Washington State’s maritime and economic heritage.

196 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Non-circulating [ 1 ]

Biographies · 1st ed · Port Blakely Books, Seattle, Wash., 1990
Related Catalog Items: Port Blakely · Kitsap County

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Last updated: 2025-09-23