Vashon As Bio-Region...The history of Vashon-Maury Islands has had few climatic moments and few heroes. This is not a history of individual accomplishments. Rather, it is a history of groups attempting to find their place in the world, to find a living, and in doing so profoundly and significantly changing the land and the resources which surround them. The daily activities that form the core of these ordinary lives, taken together over years, begin to fundamentally alter the landscape, shift the natural habitats, and change the balance of species within the biosphere. |
What The Future Holds...An Island Community - 1940 - Present. Beginning in the 1940’s, consciousness of Vashon-Maury Island as a unified community replaced the separate identities of local communities scattered around the Island. This common "Island Identity", and the Island’s links with the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitian area were intensified as the Island’s traditional resource based economy collapsed and was replaced with a service/commuter based economy. |
Vashon’s history is a multicultural, cosmopolitan history that reflects the presence of a diverse population of Indigenous Peoples, Asian Immigrants (Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Vietnamese), Northern European Immigrants (Norwegians, Swedes, Germans), Southern European Immigrants (Italians, Slovakians), and Americans (both North and South). |
