Oral history with Karen Beierle (WHO-050)

Who remembers when the first television came to Bainbridge Island? Listen here as lifelong Island resident Karen McCormic Beierle shares her memories of growing up on Bainbridge, including the 1949 earthquake that destroyed the Pleasant Beach School.

Born in the late 1930s, Karen grew up in the Point White/Lynwood area. She left the island briefly to attend college and begin a teaching career, then returned to raise a family here in the home she and her husband still occupy in Fletcher Bay.

In this 19-minute podcast excerpted from a one hour and 47 minute interview with BIHM volunteer Tom Arnold, Karen describes the Point White ferry, Lynwood and Fort Ward in the 1940s, and the Navy’s presence in the area. After we hear of her experiences in the 1949 earthquake, the podcast concludes with Karen sharing some of her perspectives on the return of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese-American residents following their internment during World War II.

Credits: BIHM host: Tom Arnold; audio tech: Chris Walker; publisher, Diane Walker.

Abby Wyatt2024-04-26T10:37:42-07:00September 3, 2018|

Land Acknowledgment

“Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished.” – Chief Seattle 1854

We would like to begin by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is within the ancestral territory of the suq̀ʷabš “People of Clear Salt Water” (Suquamish People). Expert fisherman, canoe builders and basket weavers, the suq̀ʷabš live in harmony with the lands and waterways along Washington’s Central Salish Sea as they have for thousands of years. Here, the suq̀ʷabš live and protect the land and waters of their ancestors.