Planted 6/21/04
Strawberry box reported missing 7/1/05
Egg and I box alive and well 8/21/08
By Amanda from Seattle
Vashon Island, WA
Vashon Island has two ferry terminals. The southern terminus of the Vashon Highway is the Tahlequah Ferry Terminal, which connects to the Point Defiance neighborhood of Tacoma. The northern terminus of the Vashon Highway is the Heights Dock at Point Vashon. This terminal services the Puget Sound ferry docks in Southworth, Fauntleroy Cove (West Seattle) and Downtown Seattle.
The island has long been a haven for writers, perhaps the best known was novelist Betty MacDonald, who lived on the island from 1942 to 1956. Her book, "Onions in the Stew" celebrated life on Vashon and became a best-seller a few years after her better-known novel, "The Egg and I". "The Egg and I", her first book and a $1 million seller, was a bleakly humorous account of chicken farming near Chimacum on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. She moved there in the late 1920s with her first husband, Robert Heskett. The marriage lasted four years. A film version of "The Egg and I" starred Fred McMurray and Claudette Colbert and spawned a series of Ma and Pa Kettle movies.
Betty MacDonald lived on a six acre farm on Vashon Island with her second husband while writing her books. Today the Farm is owned by Judith Lawrence and is a Bed and Breakfast. In "Onions in the Stew," MacDonald told of the family's life on Vashon, from crazy plumbing and sulky teenagers to trees falling and mud sliding across the milelong forest trail that, for the first few years, was the main access from the ferry dock to their house. (Parts of the trail, called the Bunker/Dolphin Point Trail, can still be walked, but the former MacDonald house is owned separately from the farm and not open to visitors.)
At the Corner of SW 112 St. and 98 Ave. SW take the Bunker Trail (it is the small trail on the left that leads downhill). Follow it down the steps and stay right around an area that has seen mudslides in the past! Go past a dilapidated looking house-like structure! Note the view of the Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal across the way. Just before the small bridge is a bench on your right. The Egg and I Letterbox is underneath the back side of the bench.
In 1910, Vashon Island produced 165,000 crates of strawberries, making it one of the premier berry-producing regions in the country. By the 1920s, the strawberry maggot had decimated the berry crop. Today the berries are grown only at a few U-pick farms, but their place in history is remembered each July with the Vashon Strawberry Festival, which lures thousands of visitors from the mainland.
To find the Strawberry Festival Letterbox, go to Burton Acres-Jenson Point Park on Harborside Drive. It includes a boat launch, restrooms, a picnic area, beach access and swimming. Park here and cross the road to the unmarked trailhead. At the first intersection go right. Next fork take a left, another fork and another left. Look for a right turn into an area covered with ivy. Take this right into a clearing where there is a large 4-trunked tree. At the base of the tree, the Strawberry Festival Letterbox is hidden. Continue back on the main trail and take the next fork to the left this will return you to the original intersection and a right turn here, returns you to your car!
Please replace all letterboxes well, making sure that they cannot be seen from the trail or surrounding area. Thank You!
To email me with comments or questions about a letterbox: samanark@yahoo.com
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