Teekalet

This is the western of the two spits that form the entrance to Port Gamble bay.  Point Julia, on the east, was described in the previous post. It's likely that this one was fairly similar, but it's tough to tell, since the mill was built in 1853 and the spit was significantly altered by the time of the 1856 T-sheet.

AERIAL VIEW

Development of the mill site involved extensive filling of the back shore and beach areas, probably with dredged material, and then protecting this with walls and whatever rubble was available. Wharves and piles extended farther out to allow deep water access to boats.  The existing shoreline edge is an accident of the historic development and its shape reflects the requirements of handling logs and lumber.

Now, with cleanup and redevelopment planned, there is an opportunity to make adjustments to this hard edge that would result in a more appealing, accessible, environmentally functional, and low maintenance shoreline. This would require thinking about the configuration of the edge - and the relationship of individual segments to wave action. Based on the beaches that already exist between rubble headlands, I suspect one could keep just a few hard segments (hopefully done in something nicer than broken concrete) and enhance pocket beaches between them. Not saying this will happen, just that it would be nice!