In the spring of 1792, Captain George Vancouver and his men, who were exploring the inland water of the Pacific Northwest in the name of King George III of England, became the first white men to view the twin points of Dash & Browns Points. On May 8, 1792, Capt. Vancouver sighted the huge mountain which he named Mount Rainier for Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, an old friend. The sighting had been made from Marrowstone Point near Port Townsend near the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

On May 20th Capt. Vancouver sent Peter Puget on the launch and Mr. Whidbey on the cutter, which were two of their long boats, on a mission to explore the southern part of the extensive arm of water he called Puget Sound. They rowed along the western side of Vashon Island toward the South Sound.

On Saturday, May 26th, before Puget’s return, Capt. Vancouver decided to do some exploring on his own. He took the “Discovery’s” yawl and the “Chathums’” cutter, two small boats, down the east side of Vashon Island. About noon, he and his men made their way south across the water to the other side and stopped to eat on the eastern shore in a small cove which is located on the north edge of what is now Browns Point. The cove is the place that today is called Caledonia Beach; a gradually curving section of rocky/sandy shoreline. In his journal he describes the meal and how he was greeted by a clamming party of about a dozen natives; possibly members of the Puyallup tribe. He reported that he drew a line in the sand to specify that the natives were to eat on one side and the white men on the other; he did not want them looking over his shoulder as he ate. However, two natives crossed over the line. Capt. Vancouver offered the men venison pie, but believing it was human meat the natives were horrified and would not eat it. Finally, some of the group of natives were taken to the cutter at the water’s edge and shown the haunch of the animal. Satisfied, they consented to join their visitors in eating the pie.

After lunch Capt. Vancouver and his men rowed around the point into “an extensive, circular, compact bay,” now called Commencement Bay. He had been hoping that this would be the easterly waterway that would lead him to the “Lake of the Woods” or Minnesota. King George had intended that Capt. Vancouver find a body of water that would link the west to the east. Instead he saw this view:

. . . The waters washed the base of Mount Rainier though its elevated summit was yet at a very considerable distance from the shore, with which it was connected by ridges of hills rising towards it with gradual ascent and much regularity. The forest trees, and the several shades of verdere that covered the hills, gradually decreased in point of beauty until they became visible, when the perpetual clothing of snow commenced . . . (Capt. George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World (Picadilly, 1801), II, 134.)