Home Lost in Mudslide

Both the Improvement Clubs worked for paving of the road, sending vocal representatives to meetings and utilizing influential people on the points who had contacts with the right officials. The bridge connecting King County to Pierce County was built in about 1932 or 1933. The road was paved soon after the bridge was completed. The bridge at Caledonia which we cross today, hardly realizing it is a bridge, was rebuilt as a concrete structure in 1957. The original wooden bridge was so noisy that folks at the lighthouse could hear a car crossing it.

Mudslides had been a problem since the white man first settled at the points. Ed Olsen recalled one as far back as 1917 on the south bank of Browns Point. The Kapaskys, who lived on the Browns Point tide flats below the bluff, lost everything due to a slide. He had left for work early in the morning while she remained in bed a little longer. She heard a noise, realized it was a slide and quickly jumped out her bedroom window into the bay and swam for her life. The slide swept their home completely into the bay.

Another devastating mudslide occurred on the Dash Point west bank below Eastside Drive near Whittier. It is believed that the W.P.A. blocked a culvert with dirt causing water to backup behind the road. Since the area lay on a clay shelf, the water acted as a lubricant between the two strata causing Eastside Drive to drop 10 - 12 feet and taking three houses into the water.

With the road came bus service to Tacoma provided by Joe Lyon from 1925 - 1937. Roy Harrison took over the bus service from 1937 - 1942. He made four round trips to Tacoma every day plus a run just for the school children. His service was not guaranteed, however. If the bus broke down, passengers were out of luck. However, his favorite customers did get rides into Tacoma via his private limousine.