An unbroken historical record: Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve - Administrative history

McKinley, Laura

This administrative history provides a general overview of the important issues, events, and management policies in Ebey Landing National Historical Reserve’s history. Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, a partnership park in central Whidbey Island, encompasses one of the earliest American settlements in the Puget Sound of Washington State. What began in the early 1970s as a movement to prevent the development of a place called Ebey’s Prairie grew into an opportunity to preserve and celebrate a larger cultural landscape. In 1978, Congress established the reserve in order to “preserve and protect a rural community which provides an unbroken historical record from nineteenth century exploration and settlement in Puget Sound to the present time.” It commemorates four historical eras: the first explorations of the Puget Sound by Captain George Vancouver in 1792; the settlement of Whidbey Island by Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey, a figure important in the development of Washington Territory; the rapid settlement of Whidbey Island in and after the years of the Donation Land Claim Act (1850-1855); and the growth since 1883 of the historic town of Coupeville. This administrative history provides a general overview of the important issues, events, and management policies in the reserve’s history. It discusses the movement to preserve Ebey’s Prairie, resulting in the establishment of the reserve, and how the area has been administered since its creation. As the first of its kind in the national park system, Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve is a model, illustrating positive and negative aspects of the reserve idea. This document will try to explain why certain decisions were reached, and how effective or successful they have been. The primary question that it attempts to address is: Is the reserve concept working, and has Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve accomplished what its founders intended? Because the reserve is the product of the efforts and creativity of many people, some of whom kept no written records, this report relies on a large number of interviews with persons important in reserve history. It is fitting that so much of this administrative history developed out of conversations, because communication has been a foundation of the reserve.

An unbroken historical record: Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve - Administrative history

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