Terraserver photo of Orcas site. You can sort of see the lot's curve in the trees, and the arrow points to the possible projection building still in place.
Theater Catalog's 1955 Drive-in Index lists a theater on rural Orcas island, an island reachable only by ferry. Not expecting to draw from a large area, it only had a 50 car capacity. According to the Tim Thompson site, this would place this theater in a three way tie for the country's smallest theater. The Harmony Drive-In of Harmony, Pennsylvania and the Highway Drive-In of Bamberg, South Carolina are mentioned as holding only 50 cars, even though he doesn't mention the Orcas on that list. (Tim Reed's statistics from the 1955 list places the Orcas in a tie for fifth place, but this page no longer exists.)
I wrote to Orcas Island Historical Museum, and Jen Vollmer wrote back telling me that the drive-in existed between June 29, 1952 to sometime in 1961. The first movie was a free showing, of Bluegrass of Kentucky with short subject "Climbing of the Matterhorn." The theater was fatally damaged by a storm in 1961, but sources disagree if the storm was in the summer or if it was the Columbus Day Storm of that year. Newspaper articles say the capacity was 70 cars, more than the 50 cars reported on the 1955 list.
The theater was owned by B. L. Smith and E. M. Snow from Mount Vernon, and operated by husband and wife Palmer and Inez Stearns.
Map of site of Orca, at the southwest corner of that intersection.
Terraserver photo of Orcas site. You can sort of see the lot's curve in the trees, and the arrow points to the possible projection building still in place.
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