The 18th and 19th Centuries

The two main tribes which lived in the area around Commencement Bay were the Puyallup Tribe and the Nisqually Tribe. They were friendly tribes and shared each other’s berry picking and hunting grounds during the summer and fished together in the Nisqually and Puyallup Rivers in the winter. In the spring of 1792, Captain George Vancouver and his men, who were exploring in the name of King George III of England, became the first white men to view the twin points of Dash Point and Browns Point
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On May 8, 1792, Capt. Vancouver sighted the huge mountain which he named Mount Rainier for Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, an old friend. While exploring south Puget Sound on May 20th, 1792, Capt. Vancouver and his men rowed around the point into “an extensive, circular, compact bay,” Commencement Bay. He had been hoping that this would be the easterly waterway that would link the west to the east. The area was surveyed by both U.S. Naval ships and British Navy frigates and brigs and both points received their names between 1841 and 1877. During the 19th century Dash Point was used as a geodetic survey point.

In 1854, Issac I. Stevens, Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs of Washington Territory and the chiefs and delegates of the Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, and other tribes of the lower Puget Sound region, signed the Medicine Creek Treaty. The President issued an Executive Order in January 1857 creating specific Indian reservations, including the Puyallup Indian Reservation.

The Browns Point and Dash Point areas were a part of the Puyallup Reservation.
Disputes over the surveys of boundaries and tidelands were common between the government and the tribes. A survey of the Puyallup reservation was made in 1872 assigning plots of land to individual tribal members and 167 patent deeds were signed by President Grover Cleveland and issued to the individual Puyallup tribe members in March 1886, with each given approximately 160 acres of land. Ten Puyallup tribe members were patent deeded property on Browns Point and Dash Point.

The 1900s

Dash Point began its gradual growth as a community not long after the turn of the century. Over the first couple of decades land was purchased from the tribes by settlers who then developed their respective areas of land into a small community that grew over the century. Most of the activity of the first decade on Dash Point involved the amusement and sports of picnickers from Tacoma.

The Dash Point Social and Improvement Club was organized September 4, 1907 as a community organization and social club. The Dash Point School was established in 1914.

There were no roads to Dash Point unless one traveled across country on foot or by horse to the dirt roads that went through Julia’s Gulch to the top of Dash Point hill. This is most likely the road now known as Browns Point Boulevard. It was, however, a dirt road and dirt roads in the Pacific Northwest at that time were usually impassable especially in the fall and winter months.

After many years of rowing boats to catch launches going in and out of Dash Point, the community club contracted Pete Manson, who owned the best pile driving company in the area, to build a new dock for $7,777. The community furnished the labor and on a cold and very rainy December night in 1917, with the lowest tide of the year, the community poured the concrete pilings. In about 1918 the bulk of the property, which is now the part adjoining the dock, was donated for the purpose of a park, by R.P. Milne and Louis Eberhardt. Also in 1918 Harry Johnston deeded to the County the property in front of the present Lobster Shop and tennis court, for the park. Due to the generosity of Milne, Eberhardt, and Johnston, Dash Point had property for a park. On April 10, 1923 residents voted to put the property under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Park District.

The population of Dash Point and Browns Point grew at a steady rate well into the war years. On Dash Point houses were spread fairly evenly on the north-facing hillside. During 1941 to 1943 the two communities cooperated in operating the Crestview Observation Post located on the highest point above the two points. Fifty to 75 people were listed and allotted periods for plane watching. They reported any sightings and the descriptions of the aircraft to the Civil Defense headquarters. The tower was manned 24 hours a day. The code name for Crestview was Charlie Nine One.” The beginning of World War II brought some physical changes to the points. Ship building and an all out war effort became paramount in the industrial tidelands. With the uildup came workers and their families. The need for housing was answered on the points with both developers and individuals building homes for workers.

From The Browns Point/Dash Point Community Plan, Pierce County, Washington
and Two Points of View by Mavis Stears