Grapeview is a community comprising Allyn, Stretch Island, and Reach Island on the western shore at the head of Case Inlet in South Puget Sound, about 19 miles (31 km) west-northwest of Tacoma and 16 miles (26 km) northeast of Shelton, Washington. Originally platted in 1891 as Detroit, the town was renamed Grapeview in 1922 during Prohibition for its view of the vineyards on Stretch Island. Case Inlet is an ancient fjord that runs north from the Nisqually Reach and separates the Key Peninsula to the east from the Kitsap Peninsula to the west. The fjords of South Puget Sound were carved from ancient rocks that record over 100 million years of Earth’s history, including periods of ocean inundation, volcanic island arcs, and subduction zones—mostly between 220 and 65 million years ago during the Mesozoic. These ancient rocks lie beneath sandstone and volcanic formations that formed between 50 and 42 million years ago during the middle and late Eocene. During that period, large rivers flowed across an extensive coastal plain known as the Puget Lowland, which lay west of the modern Cascade Range and east of the modern Olympic Mountains. At least six major glacial incursions into the Puget Lowland occurred between 2,580,000 and 11,700 years ago during the Pleistocene. The ice originated in the mountains of British Columbia as part of the Cordilleran ice sheet of northwestern North America. During each successive glaciation, ice advanced into the lowland as a broad tongue called the Puget Lobe. The lobe blocked the northern connection to the Pacific Ocean, causing water to flow southwest from the glacier’s terminus to Grays Harbor along what is now the Chehalis River valley. The most recent advance, known as the Fraser Glaciation, saw ice occupy the Puget Lowland from about 18,000 to 15,000 years ago; at its maximum, Seattle was buried under at least 3,000 feet of ice. Most of the present topography is a direct result of this glaciation. Subsequent processes—such as stream and wave erosion, landslides, earthquake deformation, and volcanic eruptions—have only slightly modified the landscape.

Case Inlet lies within the territory of the Southern Coast Salish peoples. Lushootseed-speaking Squaxin bands, whose primary village Tuxsqwa’ksud stood at the inlet’s head near Allyn, were canoe-dependent and built their economy on maritime resources rather than upland hunting. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver and Lieutenant Peter Puget became the first Europeans to explore Puget Sound in search of a northwest passage. Vancouver anchored HMS Discovery and HMS Chatham near Seattle and sent Puget in two rowing craft to survey the sound’s southern reaches. In 1841 the US Exploring Expedition under Lieutenant Charles Wilkes sailed into Puget Sound. The flagship USS Vincennes and brig USS Porpoise anchored at Fort Nisqually, a Hudson’s Bay Company post established in 1833. Wilkes mapped the sound to promote American expansion into a British-dominated region and named Stretch Island for gunner’s mate Samuel Stretch. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled competing claims to the Oregon Country—a territory shared with Britain since the Treaty of 1818—and in 1853 Washington Territory separated from Oregon Territory. In 1872 Confederate veteran Lambert Evans became Grapeview’s first settler. He acquired 40 acres on Stretch Island, later adding 172 acres, and planted grapevines and fruit trees, rowing 23 miles to Olympia and 21 to Steilacoom to sell his produce. In 1885 the Detroit Land Improvement Company bought land to develop a city called Detroit. Building lots were laid opposite Reach Island, and the venture briefly flourished with a sawmill, two saloons, and a hotel. Four years later Adam Eckert arrived and experimented with grape varieties, eventually developing the distinctive Island Belle grape. For 30 years his company produced grape juice and fresh grapes for markets in Tacoma, Seattle, Shelton, and Olympia, earning the nickname Isle of Grapes. By 1893 growing settlement led to the establishment of a school district, and in 1922 the community was renamed Grapeview to reflect its agricultural character.

Early settlers built the local economy on logging and sawmilling. Settlements sprang up at creek mouths where waterpower ran the mills. With no roads linking communities, water transport was the most efficient means of moving people and goods. Initially, rowboats were used, but strong tidal currents and inclement weather slowed travel. Mills needing to ship timber hired or built their own steamboats. From the 1870s until 1924—before an interconnected road network emerged—steamboats on Case Inlet served many small communities along South Puget Sound. These vessels handled tasks ranging from transporting passengers and construction supplies to delivering groceries. Local ports built craft such as the E.M. Gill at Vaughn in 1895 and the Detroit at Grapeview in 1889. In 1916 the Washington State Legislature enacted strict alcohol prohibition laws. Yet home wine-making kept demand high for grapes from Stretch Island vineyards. In 1920 the state ratified the 18th Amendment, extending Prohibition nationwide. When Prohibition ended in 1933, companies quickly filed for licences to run commercial wineries. The first bonded winery in Washington was St. Charles Winery, founded by Charles Somers on Stretch Island. By 1937 the state hosted 28 wineries, and in 1938 the Washington Wine Producers Association reorganised as the Washington Wine Council to promote the grape and wine industries. In 1965 St. Charles Winery was sold to a Yakima-area company and the Stretch Island vineyards declined. By 2015 only a few small vineyards and an occasional wild vine remained. Behind one home stands a solitary vine planted in 1872 by Lambert Evans—17 years before statehood—a lasting reminder of the genesis of Washington’s modern wine industry. Read more here and here. Explore more of Grapeview and Case Inlet here: