At one time, Inspiration Point provided a spectacular viewpoint over Quartermaster Harbor.

With a sweeping view of sunrises and sunsets on Mount Rainier framed behind Maury Island, it was a gathering place for all kinds of romantic engagements, a well-used party spot, and a place once known for its inspirational Easter sunrise services.

Vashon’s Inspiration Point has, however, lost much of its inspirational nature as the second growth forest of the island has gradually cut off the view.

Keith Prior, a Vashon Park District board member, is one islander with memories of that view. Around 1950, when he was five or six years old, his mother decided to spend her summers on Vashon Island. They drove up from California and as they traveled up Vashon Highway, they would always stop at Inspiration Point.

“I miss those views of Burton, Dockton, and Mt. Rainier (Tahoma) that I grew up with,” Prior said.

There are numerous Inspiration Points in Washington State — Bellingham, Mount Rainier, Spokane, and Vashon Island all have viewpoints with the name.

As the Burton-Shawnee Road was completed in 1928, and then extended from Shawnee to connect with Wax Orchard Road leading to Tahlequah in 1934, Inspiration Point became more easily accessible to islanders. When the road was constructed, a pull-out at the Point was included but the site remained largely undeveloped until the late 1950s, when the Vashon Chamber of Commerce formed a special committee to develop a plan for beautifying the overlook.

Islander Bill Beymer, who chaired the committee, worked with island architect Keith Putnam to develop the plan for a landscaped parking area so islanders and visitors could enjoy the views.

In September 1958, Bill Beymer organized a D-Day (or “Development Day”) for volunteers to pitch in and clear the site, build a wall, landscape, and plant decorative plants.

More than 50 islanders responded. Carpenters, masons, rock movers, wheel-barrow pushers and helpers got to work. The Ellisport Community Club, coordinated by Mrs. Laddie Stransky, picked up donated food from the south side of the island for the morning crew, and the Vashon Heights Community Club, coordinated by Mrs. Jim Cole, did the same from the north side for the afternoon team.

King County pledged to help with road district equipment, and Robert Sestrap from Wax Orchards, John Engels from Triangle Service (now Engels Repair and Towing), and Bill Magill, Vashon Road Supervisor, provided the trucks and tractors needed to complete the job.

The result was the basis for the Inspiration Point Lookout site we currently have.

In spring 1960, “a five-ton disk of quarried sandstone, six feet in diameter, and eight inches thick” became the “tabletop” at Inspiration Point, according to an April 7, 1960 Beachcomber article. The disk was apparently a millstone intended for Russia that had been stored in Seattle and never delivered. Cleve Bard discovered the millstone at a storage yard in Seattle and arranged for it to be transported to Vashon for Inspiration Point.

More than a decade later, in 1977, Frank Miner — a descendant of one of the original settler families on the island — donated the carved rock at Inspiration Point in April 1977. Miner wanted to inform visitors to Inspiration Point “of when settlement began on the island.”

The inscription honors George Vancouver who named the island after his friend James Vashon, and recognized the Sherman, Price, Miner, and Gilman families who were early settlers to the island. No mention of the s ̌xwəbabs, or Swift Water People, who inhabited Vashon-Maury Island for millennia, was deemed necessary.

By the 1980s, the view at Inspiration Point was disappearing as the second growth trees began to mature and block the view. In a 1980 piece in The Beachcomber titled “Trees robbing viewpoint of island inspiration,” Chris Orange quipped about the trees growing to obscure the view: “Next time you plan to stop by Inspiration Point to catch the view, bring a pair of stilts.”

The problem, according to Orange, was that “neither the King County Parks Department nor the Public Works Department take responsibility for the viewpoint’s upkeep…”

For the next 40 years the situation remained unchanged, even after the Vashon Park District was formed in 1983 and ultimately took charge of the Inspiration Point viewpoint. In 2023 the rock wall was failing due to poor drainage and erosion. The Vashon Park District hired Jake Johnson to improve the drainage and move the wall back up onto solid ground. But the view remained obscured.

That same April, a group of islanders led by Barbara McMahon and Lisa Chambers came together to form the Vashon Parks Foundation, with the mission of persevering, improving and promoting Park District work primarily through fundraising and community outreach.

Their Inspiration Point Project, led by Marie Bradley (of Bradley vs ASARCO fame), has made view restoration at the Point a top fundraising priority. Arborist Brian Novotney was hired by the Park District in December to thin and limb the trees at the Point to open the view. He completed his work in late December so that islanders could enjoy the restored views for the holidays.

Tina Garcia, who returned to the island about ten years ago, recalled seeing photos of her Norwegian family at Inspiration Point. Reflecting on how the island has changed, Garcia said: “I oftentimes wonder what all of those Norwegian ancestors would think of their future generations, and if they could have ever predicted that their great-great-great-grandchild (my son) would be Mexican, Native American, Italian, and Puerto Rican.”

In 1920, some of the Vashon Island News-Record “family” took a trip to the south end of the island to see the construction of the new Tahlequah Dock. They reported: “If one is in quest of beautiful scenery, the view from “Inspiration Point,” as it has been appropriately named, will certainly arouse enthusiasm. No finer view of the mountain ranges, the Sound, or of Tacoma can be obtained on the Islands. It is inspiring.”

As the Vashon Park District and the Vashon Parks Foundation work to open the views at Inspiration Point, islanders will get to experience those “inspiring” views once again. For more information on that project and others at the Vashon Parks Foundation, visit vashonparksfoundation.org.

Bruce Haulman is an Island historian. Terry Donnelly is an Island photographer.

Inspiration Point, 1959, Vashon Garden Club volunteers help landscape and plant shrubbery to beautify the site. (Beachcomber photograph, courtesy of the Vashon Heritage Museum.)