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History of Gold Beach

This 2020 photograph, taken from near the same location on the bluff as the first photograph, shows Lower Gold Beach as it is now with homes occupying almost all of the available sites, the remnants of the clubhouse dock at the south end of the site, and Point Robinson in the distance (Terry Donnelly Photo).

Gold Beach Community Club

​​Following are some additional photos taken during the development of Gold Beach.
These photos provided to us by Bruce Haulman, were taken in 1968 by Dick Hammond. The aerial photograph was published in 1970 by Charles R Seigel.

These photographs show the very first homes, our clubhouse, swim pool, and the pier/dock.  The pier/dock had a floating dock at it's end and was a popular place to fish.  The pier/dock was destroyed by a series of super-tide storms in the 80's and never rebuilt due to cost.​​

This 1976 photograph taken from the bluff to the south of the development shows Lower Gold Beach with a handful of homes built, the clubhouse and dock at the south end of the development, and the pilings for barging away the excess sand and gravel at the north end of the site

(Photo Courtesy of Vashon Heritage Museum).

Written by Bruce Haulman, Residents Cyrus Anderson and Terry Donnelly
for the Beachcomber.   To view the Beachcomber article (February 11, 2021):  

[ Click here ]

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- Special thanks to Cyrus, our resident Island historian, Bruce and Terry for providing this article for our website.

By Bruce Haulman, Cyrus Anderson, and Terry Donnelly

Gold Beach:

Nestled on the east side of Maury Island is one of the few residential sub-
division on Vashon-Maury Island. The site was created by washing down the hillside to
form the shelf where Lower Gold Beach was built, and Upper Gold Beach sits at the top
of the bluff. Many Islanders think Gold Beach was once a working gravel mine that was
converted to a residential development. But, Gold Beach was never a gravel mine. The
excess gravel and sand left after the area was washed down to create Lower Gold
Beach was gathered in piles and a dock and conveyor system was installed to barge
the remains to construction projects on the mainland.

There are also several possible Twulootsheed names that the Native People of the
region used for this area. Vi Hilbert and Zamin Zahir in Puget Sound Geography
identified the area as either Sxa’labEts, which means “measuring poles” or xa’labEts,
which means “hollow log.” Later marketing of lots in Gold Beach featured a pamphlet
with a photograph of a woman crawling out of a very large hollow beach log. The
derivations of these names is not clear, but even before the area was enlarged by
sluicing down the hillside, it would have been a desirable stopping place along the steep
banks of Maury Island.
Early American settlers Abraham Dawson, John Nikleisan, and George Edwards filed
homestead claims in the area in the mid-1880s, and Dawson “proved” (or finalized) his
homestead claim in 1891 declaring he had been on the land since 1886 and had made
improvements as required by the Homestead Act. In 1887, Dawson gifted land for a
cemetery along the top if the bluff and created the Maury Island Cemetery so the
Edwards family, who homesteaded the land where the later Pembroke Farm and Gravel
Pit would be sited, could bury their eldest daughter Effie Edwards, whose grave is
unmarked.

In the mid-1960s a group of developers led by Dom Spano began to develop what
would become Gold Beach. Spano would continue to develop areas on Vashon
including Patten’s Palisades at Point Vashon, and the discontinued development of a
destination marina at Dockton. The first move was to drill a well in May1965 to evaluate
the water supply for the development. After two and one-half years of preparation and
installing water lines, Division 2, which is now known as Upper Gold Beach, was
opened with the first house built in 1967. According to Karlista Rickerson, this first
building was a kit house from the Seattle Home Show that was used as a sales office.
During 1966 and 1967 the hillside was sluiced down to create the area for Division
1, (and later Divisions 3, and 4 in 1977) which is now known as Lower Gold Beach. Brian
Brenno described the dirt plume created by the sluicing of the hillside that was swept by
the currents all the way through the Tacoma Narrows. In today’s world of environmental
regulations and limits on developing shorelines and sensitive areas, this kind of
destructive terra-shaping is not allowed.

The first construction in Lower Gold Beach created the Clubhouse, Pool, and a Marina-
style dock. Lot buyers were able to design their own homes, resulting in the wide
variety of architectural styles in Gold Beach today. The first owner-built home, a 1968
bungalow with a white picket fence, today sits next door to the newest home in the
development built in 2020 – a sleek, ultra-modern.

The 1976 photograph taken from the bluff to the south of the development shows Lower
Gold Beach with a handful of homes built, the clubhouse and dock at the south end of
the development, and the pilings for barging away the excess sand and gravel at the
north end of the site. The 2020 Terry Donnelly photograph, taken from near the same
location on the bluff as the first photograph, shows Lower Gold Beach as it is now with
homes occupying almost all of the available sites, the remnants of the clubhouse dock
at the south end of the site, and Point Robinson in the distance.

The marketing of Gold Beach began in 1967 with expansive advertisements in the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer and declared “For new beginnings! -the best of Vashon Island
45 minutes from Seattle! … a different world … choice residential development
…recreation at its optimum… the “Space Needle” view of Mt. Rainier and the Olympics,
throw in the Sandy Beaches of Hawaii….This is the GOLD of Gold Beach… at the end
of the rainbow… Gold is where you find it…and you will find it at Gold Beach” Some
current residents refer to Gold Beach as the “Riviera of Vashon” because of the warm
sunny micro-climate that allows plants to thrive that do not survive as well on others
parts of the Island.

The name Gold Beach has three possible origins. It was named by its developer Dom
Spano and according to Marshall Sohl was either named after Gold Beach, Oregon,
where Spano vacationed; or after the Scotch Broom that turned the hillside golden
yellow when in bloom; or after a vein of gold purportedly found when the hillside was
sluiced down to create the land for the development. Marshall Sohl writes “But before
the (sluicing) pumps could be turned off, most of the gold was washed down into the
bay”. He goes on to wryly observe “The only nuggets left today are the good people
living there.  The only gold left is the real-estate."

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