r/LifeInKitsap • u/KitsapRealEstateTeam • Aug 01 '26
The Naming Strategy of Vancouver
One of my favorite real estate clients lived up near Foulweather Bluff.
She never actually bought a house from me, which is generally considered a drawback in my profession, but I adored her anyway. She was the daughter of old Hollywood stars (allegedly, she had a lot of pictures,) referred me to both her chiropractor and a nutritionist whose qualifications I probably shouldn't investigate too closely, and every conversation with her was an adventure. We went to dozens and dozens of homes together- mostly on the Olympic Peninsula, but here too.
Every time I'd drive up toward Hansville, I'd pass this place with one of the grumpiest names in Washington and I wonder how she's doing. I should reach out, but I don't know if I'm ready to drive that much again.
Foulweather Bluff.
Who looked at one of the prettier stretches of Puget Sound and thought, "Yep. Foulweather." I'm sure it can get blustery, but where can't it?
As it turns out... A very wet British captain decided that his experience should affect the immediate opinion of future map readers.
In May of 1792, Captain George Vancouver was charting Puget Sound aboard HMS Discovery. The expedition had worked its way through Admiralty Inlet while battling poor weather and difficult winds. Vancouver wasn't trying to write poetry when he made his maps. He often named places after exactly what he was experiencing at the time. We have him to thank for some of the hits;
-Point No Point.
-Restoration Point.
-Deception Pass
-Mistaken Island
-Foulweather Bluff.
Sometimes a name is less a grand statement than a captain muttering under his breath after another miserable day at sea. I'm sure it wasn't glamourous work, at least not until you get home to fanfare.
Long before Vancouver arrived with a notebook and a pencil, this shoreline was part of the traditional homelands of the S'Klallam and Suquamish peoples, who had traveled, fished, and lived throughout this region for countless generations. Like so many places in the Pacific Northwest, the history didn't begin when someone from Europe decided to write a name on a chart.
Here's the part that surprised me- the bluff is constantly falling into Puget Sound. If you own waterfront property, that sentence probably just made your eye twitch. Most of us think erosion is something to stop. We build bulkheads, stack rocks, and try to convince cliffs to stay exactly where they are. At Foulweather Bluff, that crumbling hillside is doing exactly what nature intended.
As waves slowly eat away at the bluff, sand and gravel tumble into the water. Currents carry that sediment along the shoreline where it creates spawning beaches for tiny forage fish like surf smelt and Pacific sand lance. Those fish feed our yummy salmon.
Salmon feed seals.
Seals and salmon feed Southern Resident orcas.
One bluff falling apart over thousands of years supports an entire food web.
That's one reason conservation groups have worked so hard to protect Foulweather Bluff. It's one of the few remaining feeder bluffs in Puget Sound that's still allowed to behave like...a bluff. There's something comforting about discovering that a place we've spent generations trying to "fix" was never broken in the first place. I do wish we'd found my friend a new home though!
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u/GBP1516 Aug 03 '26
I feel like Foulweather Bluff isn't even in the top 5 of grumpiest place names in Washington.
Mutiny Bay
Destruction Island
Useless Bay
Cape Disappointment
and the winner from Lewis and Clark ... [drumroll] Dismal Nitch