Restoration Point is a conspicuous ledge on the southeastern tip of Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, about 7 miles (11 km) east-northeast of Bremerton and about 7 miles (11 km) west-southwest of Seattle, Washington. The ledge is an ancient wave-cut platform, or marine terrace, that an earthquake on the Seattle Fault lifted almost instantaneously by 23 feet (7 m) roughly 1,100 years ago. Geologists did not formally describe the fault until 1992, after Robert Bucknam began studying the uplifted point in the late 1980s. Decatur Reef, a submerged extension of the point, takes its name from the USS Decatur, which in turn honors the naval hero Stephen Decatur. The ledge and reef are bedrock of the Blakeley Formation, a sequence of alternating shales and sandstones with fossil-bearing marine beds that dates from the Eocene and Oligocene epochs. The formation’s type section lies at Restoration Point. Early US Geological Survey work put the original formation at about 8,000 feet (2,400 m) thick, including roughly 1,000 feet (305 m) of conglomerate that was later assigned to a separate formation.

The Suquamish lived along these shores for millennia before any European arrived, and they call the point Tuxwiəqa’lə, a name evoking wind moving through trees. In 1855, the tribe relinquished its claim to Bainbridge Island by treaty. In 1792, English explorer Captain George Vancouver anchored his ship, HMS Discovery, off the point for several days while boat parties surveyed other parts of the Sound. He named the point on May 29th, the anniversary of the Stuart Restoration, when King Charles II was restored to the English throne. The point’s next brush with history came on December 7th, 1855, when the sloop of war USS Decatur ran aground on rocks there while bound for Seattle. The ship had been sent to support settlers during the Puget Sound War, a conflict with Native tribes over land rights. Had she not righted herself and floated free on the incoming tide, the fate of Seattle might have turned out very differently. In January 1856, the Battle of Seattle pitted American troops, local militias and the Decatur’s sailors and Marines against warriors from the Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Puyallup and Klickitat tribes. The Haida and Tlingit also clashed with the American navy during contemporaneous raids on other Native peoples of Puget Sound. The conflict ended in 1858 with the controversial execution of Chief Leschi.

Restoration Point was once a nearly level platform of soil and beach grasses. In 1896, the Country Club of Seattle laid out a nine-hole golf course there, and local accounts hold that it hosted the first tournament in Washington that year. Josiah Collins, a Seattle fire chief and an early golf promoter, reputedly brought rudimentary golf clubs home from Scotland. The course has sand greens and is not irrigated, so its fairways turn brown in summer. The bluff is lined with 18 rustic yet stately homes, mostly owned by fourth-generation descendants of the founders, who hold the course and other amenities in common. The club is open only to members and their guests. The uplifted terrace remains visible from the water, and the US Geological Survey has warned that a repeat of the quake would devastate nearby communities and ports. Recent research on the island’s fault scarps points to an even more recent rupture, possibly within the past 1,000 years. Read more here and here. Explore more of Restoration Point and Bainbridge Island here: