What and Where Is Puget Sound?

A little controversy has arisen in local diocesan circles over the name of the proposed new bishopric of the Episcopal church. Some of those interested are in favor of Western Washington and others of Puget Sound. To the latter objection was raised that Puget Sound is only that portion of the waters south of Commencement bay, and that north the waters belong to Admiralty Inlet.

Puget Sound, as discovered and named, was intended to include only the waters between Point Defiance, the southern point of Commencement bay, and Olympia. They there, by what was termed "the narrows," were made to connect with Admiralty Inlet, which, in turn, extended north to the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The maps of thirty years ago and prior thereto represented Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet as separate bodies of water, and so also represented Hood canal, Possession sound, Bellingham bay, Canal de Haro, Rosario strait, Gulf of Georgia and other water divisions. The "old settlers" were not so fine in their distinctions, and they soon began to call Puget Sound all the waters from Port Townsend to Olympia. They made other changes, among which were Duwamish lake to Lake Washington, and Battery point to Alki point. The map makers were disposed to disregard these innovations, and on many maps of comparatively recent years the discarded names yet appear, as well as Puget Sound in its more restricted application. Notwithstanding the map-makers, Puget Sound was soon understood to include all the waters south of Puget straits and Deception pass.

This was the understanding at the time of the incorporation by congress of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in July, 1864. The company was authorized to construct railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget's Sound, on the Pacific coast, by the northern route. To aid in this construction an immense land grant was made. Unlike the Central and Union Pacific company charters, no provision was made for bonds, it being erroneously supposed in the case of the Northern Pacific that one hundred million dollars could easily be raised by stock subscriptions in time. So strongly was the idea entertained, that it was proposed by some to call it the "People's Pacific Railway Company." After striving for several years in vain to raise money by sale of the stock, congress was again appealed to, and on the 1st of March, 1869, a joint resolution authorized the company to issue bonds and "to secure the same by mortgage upon its railroad and telegraph line between Lake Superior and Puget Sound."

To remove all doubt as to where and what Puget Sound was, and to give it the unquestioned right to build to Seattle, to Port Townsend, to Whidby Island, or to any other point hereabouts, the company secured in this resolution the addition of this clause: "The term Puget Sound, as used here and in the act incorporating said company, is hereby construed to mean all the waters connected with the Straits of Juan de Fuca within the territory of the United States." Since that time Hood canal, Admiralty inlet, Bellingham bay and the other bodies of water have been known as divisions or branches of Puget Sound. Maps on a small scale as a rule omit these divisions, and include all under the general term Puget Sound, as defined and intended by congress.

The tendency is yet to extend the application, so that it is common in this day to apply the name to Discovery, Sequim, Dungeness, Angeles and other bays near the arms of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, while it is not uncommon to hear it applied to the waters of the Gulf of Georgia, north of the international boundary line.

In the Eastern States Puget Sound has a broader significance, so that it is now used to cover generally all the territory, land and water, west of the Cascades, and the term Hudson's bay is applied to possessions thousands of miles from the bay itself.

It is characteristic and has acquired in the public mind a character it would be well to sustain by encouraging familiarity with it.