Hedley Spit is an accretionary deposit, about 3.5 feet (1 m) above sea level, on Bainbridge Island at Point Monroe, just north of Fay Bainbridge Park (long called Fay Bainbridge State Park, though a local park district has managed it since the 1990s), roughly 11 miles (18 km) northwest of Seattle and 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Port Madison, Washington. Like much of Puget Sound‘s shoreline, the spit rests on glacial sand and gravel left behind when ice sheets retreated about 16,000 years ago. Its low, elongated shape reflects sediment carried north along the coast from the island’s soft, erosion-prone bluffs. For thousands of years the Suquamish people and their ancestors lived on Bainbridge Island, maintaining roughly nine permanent villages. In 1792 the English explorer Captain George Vancouver anchored his ship, HMS Discovery, near the island’s southern tip, at what later became known as Restoration Point, while boat parties surveyed other parts of Puget Sound. In 1841 US Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes visited the island while surveying the Pacific Northwest coast and named it for Commodore William Bainbridge, who commanded the frigate USS Constitution in the War of 1812. Wilkes also named Point Monroe and Port Madison for Presidents James Monroe and James Madison.

Bainbridge Island was long prized by the Suquamish for its large, easily worked cedar trees, ideal for dugout canoes. Canoes were central to Suquamish life: dense forest made overland travel difficult, and coastal waters were the primary route for gathering seasonal, region-specific foods, including salmon and other fish, shellfish, berries, and roots and bulbs such as camas and wapato. Canoes let families travel long distances quickly, ensuring adequate food, renewing alliances between villages, and sustaining the social and ceremonial ties that allowed Suquamish culture to flourish beyond mere survival. That culture persists today: after ceding most of Bainbridge Island to the United States under the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott, the Suquamish retained the nearby Port Madison Indian Reservation, where the federally recognized Suquamish Tribe is headquartered and continues to practice canoe culture, fishing rights, and other traditions.

Hedley Spit was reputedly named for an early pioneer settler and formed as sediment eroded from bluffs along the island’s eastern shore moved north by longshore currents. Those bluffs, running from Skiff Point south of the spit to Point Monroe, are a critical sediment source for beaches that widen from south to north; roughly 45 percent of that shoreline has been armored with bulkheads or other structures, cutting off an estimated 5,209 feet (1,588 m) of sediment supply. Researchers have accordingly flagged the bluffs as a priority for conservation to sustain the beaches and the spit itself. Hedley Spit today is a narrow, densely built residential neighborhood, its homes packed onto fill and natural sand along Point Monroe, some fronting the sheltered lagoon on the spit’s inner shore and others facing Puget Sound directly. Rising sea levels already threaten these low-lying waterfront properties, and by mid-century many risk severe erosion and flooding absent new protective measures or managed retreat. Read more here and here. Explore more of Hedley Spit and Bainbridge Island here: